Upcoming Events

Series: Panels and Discussions

The state of play in the Western Balkans shows signs of political deterioration. There is uncertainty over opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, whilst those already open with Serbia and Montenegro progress sluggishly. Implementation of the Prespa Agreement is slow and the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is at a standstill. Overall, it is not a very promising picture even without the growth of popular frustration. Is the European Union awakening to the need for a more robust engagement in the Western Balkans?

Series: Lecture

After the Cold War ended, liberal democracy was taken for granted. Now it is in crisis: citizens distrust parliamentary politics, the people’s parties are losing members and votes, and social media are crowding out public debates. Challenging the sense of despair that informs recent studies on how democracy dies, Till van Rahden argues that it might prove more useful to explore what keeps it alive. A fruitful point of departure is the insight that democracy is not only a matter of elections and political parties, constitutions and parliaments, but is grounded in democratic experiences. The attention is less on how democratic government works, but on what equality, freedom, and justice feel like. A focus on democratic forms and aesthetics allows us to revisit the cultural and social foundations of democracy. No matter how stable a democracy may seem, it will wither and perish without ways of life that allow for and encourage democratic experiences.

Series: Seminars and Colloquia

The international refugee regime and its national versions increasingly tend to offer a temporary protection mechanism that creates a “limboizing effect” on refugees’ lives. It also appears that these policies use temporariness as a political tool of governance. While these dominant international and national rulings ideally present the three choices of settlement (integration in the first country of asylum), onward movement (resettlement in the third country), and return (repatriation) as durable solutions to the refugee question, none of these choices easily become pertinent in the lives of refugees under their protracted situation and limitations of the international refugee regime. Consequently, refugees face with the challenges of living in an environment of uncertainties that is also labelled with the concept of permanent temporariness. In this presentation, Ahmet Içduygu will refer to the concept of permanent temporariness, and try to answer the question of what are the role of international refugee regime and that of Turkey’s refugee policies towards Syrian refugees in the context of refugees’ aspirations for planning their future. He will also question the polarized nature of the structure-agency debate, emphasizing the synthesis of these two influences on refugees’ aspirations in the context of settlement, onward movement and return choices.

Series: Festivals

Das tschechisch-österreichische Kulturfestival "Vienna meets Prague" widmet sich im Jahr 2021 dem großen Prager Erzähler Bohumil Hrabal mit einem Schwerpunkt, der verschiedene Formate verbindet.

Series: Conferences and Workshops

The Junior Visiting Fellows' Conference is a bi-annual event at the Institute for Human Sciences that gives the Junior Fellows to present their work and research in a day-long conference. A traditional, semester-closing, celebration of the talented young researchers that is as old as the Institute itself, is always organized by the Junior Fellows themselves and usually includes Senior Fellows, Staff members and Alumni among others as commentators and discussants.

Series: Lecture

The inaugural Yehuda Elkana Fellow, Helga Nowotny, will give a lecture at the Central European University, in cooperation with the IWM and the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.

Series: Conferences and Workshops

The inaugural Yehuda Elkana Fellow, Helga Nowotny, will conduct a non-public manuscript workshop with invited guests at the Central European University, in cooperation with the IWM and the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.

Series: Conferences and Workshops

The aim of this international conference, organized under the auspices of the “Eurasia in Global Dialogue” Programme, is to offer a better understanding of contemporary developments in Eurasia by looking at their origins in Byzantium. The focus will fall on the history of the reception of the Byzantine heritage in Russia and Eastern Europe. While addressing a wide range of topics in intellectual history, politics, aesthetics, religion, etc., all papers will engage with the contested nature of the concept of “Eurasia.”

Series: Lecture

Der renommierte britische Rechtswissenschaftler, Menschenrechtsanwalt und Schriftsteller Philippe Sands kommt für die Vorstellung seines jüngsten literarischen Werks „The Ratline“ am 5.Oktober auf Einladung des IWM nach Wien. In Anknüpfung an seine früheren Werke begibt sich Sands erneut auf Spurensuche und ergründet die Lebensgeschichte des österreichischen SS-Gruppenführers und angeklagten Massenmörders Otto Wächter und dessen Frau Charlotte.