The Klagenfurt Centre for Canadian Studies (KCCS) at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, serves as a coordinating, organizing, and supporting platform for internal as well as external interdisciplinary cooperations in acedemic research, teaching, and learning in Canadian Studies and otherwise related to Canada.
We design and offer university courses on both the undergraduate and graduate level and organize guest lectures, conferences, scholarly publications, exchange opportunities for students and members of staff, as well as regular thematic excursions to Canada from sea to sea to sea, bringing together numerous departments across the various Schools of the University of Klagenfurt, the Humanities and Educational Sciences, the Social Sciences, and Technical Sciences, such as (in alphabetical order):
- The Department of Cultural Analysis
- The Department of English and American Studies
- The Department of Information Technology
- The Department of Media and Communication Studies
- The Department of Networked and Embedded Systems
- The Department of Philosophy
- The Department of Romance Languages and Cultures
- The Department of Slavonic Languages and Cultures
Beyond our home university, the KCCS maintains and facilitates relations with colleagues, relevant study- and funding programmes at other universities, with academic associations in the field, as well as non-academic institutions connected to Canada in Europe and North America. Our core partners are the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta, the Canadian Embassy in Vienna, as well as the Austrian Embassy in Ottawa, the General Delegation of Québec in Munich, the Gesellschaft für Kanadastudien (Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries), and the Austrian Canadian Council. The academic network of the Centre and its Board extends across Canada, from Université de Montréal and Concordia University in Québec, as well as Trent University in Ontario, to the University of Alberta and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
Our core focus is on the active creation of interest in and exchange of a multitude of perspectives on Canadian cultures, the initiation, facilitation, and support of interdisciplinary academic research, teaching, and learning in Canadian Studies and otherwise related to Canada across all career levels at the University of Klagenfurt and in our partner institutions regionally, nationally, and worldwide. Mutual exchange and cooperation on an academic level, but also on a social, cultural, economic, technological, and political level between Austria and Canada are core values of the KCCS. Reaching beyond the ivory tower, we therefore also foster inspiring, mutual relationships through events bringing together artists, authors, researchers, innovators, performers, critics, business leaders, designers, and other persons of cultural, economic, and political interest.
Advisory Board of the KCCS:
Speaker of the KCCS: René Reinhold Schallegger (Canadian Studies, Game Studies)
Further Board Members (in alphabetical order):
Cristina Beretta (Slavonic Languages and Cultures)
Luc Bousseau (Romance Languages and Cultures)
Eva-Maria Graf (English Linguistics)
Felix Schniz (North American Studies, Game Studies and Engineering)
Alexandra Schwell (Cultural Studies, Cultural Anthropology)
Alexa Weik von Mossner (North American Studies, Ecocriticism)
Martin Weiß (Philosophy)
Matthias Wieser (Media and Communication Studies)
Honorary Board Member: Susanne Bach (English and America Studies, co-founder of the GKS Emerging Scholars Forum)
