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Center for Austrian Studies Staff

Center for Austrian Studies Staff (2008-09).

Director: Gary B. Cohen

Gary B. Cohen was appointed director of the Center in 2001. He also serves as a full professor in the University of Minnesota's Department of History. Cohen was educated at the University of Southern California (B.A., 1970) and Princeton University (M.A., 1972; Ph.D., 1975). He was a member of the University of Oklahoma history faculty from 1976 to 2001, where he taught courses on modern European social and political history and East-Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  In 1995 the University of Oklahoma Regents recognized his service to that university with the Regents' Award for Outstanding University and Professional Service.

Cohen's research has focused on social development, ethnic group relations, and education in modern Austria and the Czech lands. His publications include two books, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861-1914 (Princeton University Press, 1981; rev. second ed., Purdue University Press, 2006) and Education and Middle-Class Society in Imperial Austria, 1848-1918 (Purdue University Press, 1996); articles in The Journal of Modern History, Central European History, The Austrian History Yearbook, The East European Quarterly, Jewish History, and The Social Science Quarterly; and numerous book chapters. Grants from the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the United States Department of Education, the University of Oklahoma Research Council, and the McKnight Faculty Research Fund at the University of Minnesota have supported his research.

Cohen is executive editor of the Austrian History Yearbook and co-editor of the Purdue University Press series, “Central European Studies.”

For a complete curriculum vitae, please go to Gary Cohen's university web page.

Administrative Manager: Linda Andrean

Ms. Andrean, holder of a B.A. in Anthropology and History and a B.S. in secondary education, comes to the CAS after twenty years of service in the Academic Health Center, including work for the Cancer Protocol Review Committee, the Medical School, and the School of Public Health, with financial and human resources responsibilities. At CAS, she oversees the administration and financial management of the Center, and is heavily involved in program planning, fundraising, and both student and community outreach.

Editor: Daniel Pinkerton

Mr. Pinkerton holds an M.F.A. in playwriting and an M.A. in European history. He was hired as a professional editor in fall 1994. Prior to that, he worked as a graduate research assistant at the Center. He has been the editor and art director of the Austrian Studies Newsletter since 1992 and the CAS Annual Report since 1991. Mr. Pinkerton is also the Center for Austrian Studies website coordinator, performs other design- and editorial-related duties, and assists the director in special projects.

Assistant Editor, Austrian History Yearbook: Joshua Kortbein

Joshua is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. His dissertation research is on the rhetorical and literary structure of Ludwig Wittgenstein's “Philosophical Investigations.” His other philosophical interests include aesthetics and the role of genre and self-knowledge in the history of philosophy. He holds bachelor's degrees in mathematics and philosophy from Iowa State University.

Graduate Research Assistant: Lisa Peschel

Lisa is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Theater Historiography at the University of Minnesota. She is writing her dissertation on theatrical performance in the World World II Jewish ghetto at Terezín/Theresienstadt and on survivor testimony about the ghetto's cultural life in four different post-war periods. Her annotated volume of plays and other theatrical texts written in the ghetto was published by Akropolis press in Prague in November 2008. She holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from the University of Texas.

2008-09 CAS/BMWF Research Fellow: Thomas Koenig

Thomas is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Vienna. His duties at the Center include coordinator for the CAS Lecture Series and the CAS Student Outreach Group, ASN editorial assistant, and assistant to the director for special projects. His dissertation research is on the Fulbright Program and its impact on the Austrian scientific field.