Prof. Winfried Löffler from the Department of Christian Philosophy at the University of Innsbruck visited the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford in November 2019.
At the University of Oxford Prof. Löffler was working on a project which was based on the working hypothesis that the historical conditions for the emergence of analytic philosophy in Great Britain around 1900 were much broader than the usual view permits, i.e. that the analytic style of philosophizing was foreshadowed by a broader range of figures and that a sort of “para-analytic” philosophy flourished, in relative detachment from the mainstream Moore/Russell/Wittgenstein traditions, well into the 20th century (William R. Sorley and John Cook Wilson might provide initial examples). Beyond catalogue and literature studies, his research consisted in its first stage in large-scale inspections of the relevant shelves of some relatively untouched older philosophy libraries at Oxford.
Beyond conducting his research, Prof. Löffler presented a paper on “Empirical Evidence Against Free Will? A Case Study in Neuro-Mythology” at the Ian Ramsey Center on 4 November 2019.

Read the report of his stay in Oxford here:

BritInn Fellow Report

On November 18 and 19, 2019, the OEAD Hochschultagung took place at the University of Vienna. 
One of the main topics this year was Brexit and future cooperations with UK universities.

Andy Mackay (Director Europe, British Council) talked about "The UK's role in the world, soft power and international relationships Post-Brexit". After his talk, a panel discussion has held where Martin Gilbert (Director British Council Österreich, British Council), Wolfgang Bogensberger (European Commission), Sabine Seidler (Rector TU Vienna) and Barbara Weitgruber (Sektionschefin BMBWF) participated.
Vice Rector Bernhard Fügenschuh, Dr. Barbara Tasser and BritInn from the University of Innsbruck took part at the OEAD Hochschultagung 2019 as well.

From 3 - 6 November 2019, Dr. Natasha Kersh from the Institute of Education at the University College London (UCL) visited the Department of Organisation and Learning at the University of Innsbruck.
Prof. Annette Ostendorf welcomed Dr. Kersh to Innsbruck and together they were working on the project "Developing research cooperation between UCL and the University of Innsbruck through networking and research meeting".
Read the report of Dr. Kersh's stay in Innsbruck here:

BritInn Fellow Report

The third iqClock consortium meeting took place in Innsbruck on 22 and 23 October 2019, hosted by the University of Innsbruck. Two days of interesting talks, updates and plans for the future were discussed in the Claudiasaal, which was provided by the BritInn Academic Network of the University of Innsbruck.
As the University of Birmingham and several British companies are partners within the consortium, the iqClock consortium meeting helped to further establish the good connection between the University of Innsbruck and some of the partners in the UK.

On 18 October 2019, the British Ambassador to Austria Mr. Leigh Turner visited the University of Innsbruck and BritInn.
Together with Dr. Barbara Tasser, head of the International Services and the team of BritInn, the Ambassador discussed the current developments of Brexit and future academic relations between Austria and the UK.
Mr. Turner stated that the embassy puts particular emphasis on further developing academic ties between the two countries and he will do his best to support the academic network BritInn.

In 2019, the University of Innsbruck is celebrating its 350th anniversary. October 15 marks the historic founding day of the University of Innsbruck in 1669 and this year, it was celebrated during a full week of events.
Together with the city of Innsbruck and the state of Tyrol, the university celebrated its birthday with multiple festivities including a rector’s reception, a ceremony in the Tiroler Landestheater, a special university ball, a presentation of the newly written history of the university, exhibitions, etc.

Read more about the 350-Year-Anniversary of the University of Innsbruck here

On 10 and 11 October 2019, the University of Innsbruck hosted the international conference "Translating Cultural Memory in Fiction and Testimony – Memory Studies and Translation Studies in Dialogue", organised by Prof. Claudia Jünke from the Institute of Romance Studies at the University of Innsbruck and Prof. Désirée Schyns from the Ghent University.
Scholars from universities in nine different counties (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom) met in order to scrutinise the points of contact and cross-fertilizations between cultural memory studies on the one hand and translation studies on the other.
Conference speakers from the following British universities took part: University of Warwick, University of Westminster, University of East Anglia, Durham University, University of Strathclyde and University of Edinburgh.
BritInn supported the participation of Prof. Susan Bassnett from the University of Warwick and Prof. Lucy Bond from the University of Westminster, who were both Keynote speakers at the conference.
Read the final report here:

BritInn Fund Report

From 23 - 27 September 2019, the EAIE Conference for International Higher Education took place in Helsinki. BritInn participated at this event, where 6200 higher education professionals from 95 countries met. It was the largest annual EAIE conference to date.
Universities from the UK, Wales, Scotland etc. were present as well and many fruitful meetings and discussions about future cooperations were held.

Professor Alexandra Braun from the University of Edinburgh spent two weeks as a BritInn fellow at the University of Innsbruck in June 2019. The visit was hosted by the Director of the Institute for Italian Law, Professor Gregor Christandl.

During her stay Professor Braun worked, among other things, on a joint research project on the purposes, policies and justifications underpinning the provisions dealing with the distribution of wealth on intestacy in Austrian, English and Scots law. She also presented a paper at the conference “The recent reform of Austrian’s succession law: a comparative and practical perspective” which was organized by Professor Gregor Christandl and Professor Kristin Nemeth on 24 July 2019.
At this conference, Professor Braun spoke about “Testamentary promises and legacies for care services from a comparative perspective”. The paper highlighted the benefits of the statutory care legacy introduced in Austrian law, but also its drawbacks especially from the viewpoint of promises of a future inheritance.

Moreover, Professor Braun took the opportunity to meet with PhD students working in the area of succession law. She also had many stimulating conversations with colleagues at the Institute for Italian Law.  Professor Braun said she is particularly grateful to Professor Christandl and the Institute for the warm hospitality.

BritInn and the Institute for Italian Law were delighted to have Professor Braun as a guest here in Innsbruck!

Professor Raphael Lyne from the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge visited the University of Innsbruck in June 2019 as a BritInn fellow. His visit was hosted by Prof. Sibylle Baumbach and Mag. Christof Diem from the Department of English at the University of Innsbruck.

Prof. Lyne is one of the leading scholars working on cognition and Shakespeare. He has published widely on the topic and is currently pursuing a project on mind-wandering in Shakespeare – a research interest that is shared by Prof. Sibylle Baumbach, who has been working on cognitive (in)attention in Shakespeare’s plays and by PhD-student Christof Diem, who is writing his doctoral thesis on ‘grotesque minds’ in Shakespeare’s drama. Moreover, this research interest is shared by Ass.-Prof. Ulla Ratheiser from the Department of English, who is working on a postdoctoral project on performances of monarchy, including a focus on the early modern period.

The BritInn fellowship enabled Prof. Lyne, Prof. Baumbach, Mag. Diem, and Prof. Ratheiser to discuss their different approaches and launch an informal research network on "Mind-wandering and Attention in Early Modern Drama".
During his visit, Prof. Lyne presented his research in a public guest lecture and a workshop which was open to advanced master and doctoral students. The workshop and lecture were not only of interest to colleagues from the Faculty of Languages and Literatures, but also from the Faculty of History, (Cognitive) Psychology, and Sociology. The workshop served to identify shared research interests across different disciplines and was the foundation for preparing a joint project proposal for an informal research network on the topic, which will strengthen the connection between the universities of Innsbruck and Cambridge.

BritInn and the Department of English at the University of Innsbruck were delighted to have Prof. Lyne here in Innsbruck and are looking forward to future collaborations.