Three questions for ...
Researchers and students at the Center for Jewish Studies
Dr. Susanne Korbel (project manager)
What topic are you currently researching at the Centrum?
I am investigating personal encounters between Jews and non-Jews in Budapest and Vienna around 1900. I am researching a variety of contact scenes in "private" spaces of everyday life: in living rooms and bedrooms (e.g. shared flats with bedmates and subtenants). shared flats with bedmates and subtenants, domestic servants who also lived in the households they worked for), during homework (production of factory goods in private homes in production communities) or in forced accommodation (rooms of forced housing to which the state had access, such as prisons and educational institutions, as well as facilities for people with disabilities). The aim is to examine living and working places in Budapest and Vienna as spaces that connected Jews and non-Jews in their historical past. Where and how did people come into contact with each other in "private" spaces in Budapest and Vienna around 1900? What contacts were there between Jews and non-Jews outside of public spaces? Which areas of daily life can be defined as spaces for Jewish-non-Jewish interactions and interethnic exchange? What effects did such daily encounters have on prejudices?
I am researching all of this in the FWF project Entanglements of Jews and non-Jews in Private Spaces in Central Europe: Budapest and Vienna, 1900-1930 (FWF Esprit 120).
You have been working at the Center for Jewish Studies for some time now. What do you think makes this academic institution so special?
The Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Graz offers a great infrastructure for connecting your own research and a lively environment for exchange with colleagues from all disciplines and interested students. The productive atmosphere helps me to develop new ideas. I particularly appreciate the opportunity to contribute my ideas to the development of the Center and my areas of focus to the courses on offer.
What is the significance of Jewish Studies today?
In my opinion, Jewish Studies offers an excellent basis for understanding and better understanding our current social conditions. We live in a global exchange. Pluricultural societies, migrations and multi-layered coexistence are omnipresent today, as they were in the historical past. The lens of Jewish Studies on Jewish cultures and history opens up countless exciting and eye-opening comparisons. I find this of particular political importance, especially with regard to the radicalization of global politics and acts of war in Europe, the Middle East and other regions.