This year's Graduate Seminar has been a great success both in terms of academic quality and of its organisation. At its forth edition, the seminar has become a tradition within Canadian studies in the German-speaking countries, attracting increasingly more attention on part of both young and established scholars.
The seminar was opened by Her Excellency Marie Gervais-Vidricaire, the Ambassador of Canada in Austria, who underlined the significance of encouraging young, non-Canadian scholars to pursue their research in the field of Canadian studies in order to promote international exchange and transatlantic relationships. Representatives of the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna also addressed their words of welcome to the participants. The directing librarian of the Department invited the participants to visit the Canadian book exhibition hosted by the English library at the initiative and with the support of Mrs Roswitha Fritscher, public relations officer at the Canadian Embassy in Vienna.
The inaugural lecture by Prof. Steven Burns (Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University, Halifax) dealt with Alistair MacLeod's novel “No Great Mischief”. Burns adopted a philosophical approach in his investigation of unity and multiplicity in the novel, stating that a unitary principle of the text must be discovered in order for multiplicity to be able to emerge in the form of deviations from it. The speaker referred to aspects of cultural theory and Canadian history to frame his talk and justify his arguments.
The evening ended with a reception sponsored by the Canadian Embassy in Vienna and hosted by Her Excellency Marie Gervais-Vidricaire.
The next two days of the seminar were dedicated to the presentation and discussion of academic papers. These came from a variety of fields, including Anglo-Canadian and French-Canadian literature, environmental studies, cultural studies, inter-medial studies, and linguistics. The papers provided many incentives for productive and inspiring discussions which often had to be interrupted by the panel chairs due to time restraints. The speakers were pleased with the qualified responses they received from an obviously interested and knowledgeable audience. The intense working atmosphere and the engaging discussions were a match to any conference attended by established scholars.
One of the highlights of the seminar was the plenary session scheduled for 25th May. The panel was chaired by Lutz Schowalter (University of Trier; Germany) and was composed of guests from different fields of activity and research, Steven Burns, Doris Eibl (University of Innsbruck), Roswitha Fritscher (Canadian Embassy in Vienna), and Anne Drover (Canadian Studies). The participants in the panel presented their personal and career-shaping experiences in Canadian Studies and encouraged the young listeners to persevere in their pursuits in this field. The discussion was opened to the audience who asked questions and expressed their concerns with regard to their career chances, especially within academia. All in all, the plenary discussion provided the attendees with a broader and more concrete view of the job opportunities available to young scholars in the field of Canadian Studies.
The academic program was framed by inspired and well-organized evening activities which gave the participants the opportunity to get to know each other better, exchange ideas and make new academic and personal contacts. The seminar was a success in both academic and social terms, demonstrating not only the participants' academic acumen, but also their willingness and ability to participate in international networking, an indispensable skill in the globalized contemporary society. The participants expressed their satisfaction and gratitude to the organizers as well as their interest in the next graduate seminar to be held at the University of Marburg, Germany, in May 2008.
The organizers would like to thank the Embassies of Canada in Vienna and Berlin, the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries, the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna, the Austrian Ministry of Education, and the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Vienna for their generous support, and the Department of Romance Studies at the University of Vienna for hosting the seminar sessions.