Alumni AudioLab is a monthly podcast series where alumni of the OeAD talk about themselves and their research. The OeAD brings together researchers from all over the world and from different fields of research who spent part of their research career in Austria – some of them have even stayed here. In the Alumni AudioLab they tell their stories, talk about their scientific ambitions, their motivations and their personal backgrounds. It is an open format for all those who are not only interested in science as such but also in the people behind it.
https://oead.at/en/to-austria/alumni/audiolab
AAL_28_Alumni AudioLab with Alys George
As a teenager, Alys George wanted to get away from the little American town where she grew up. It took her to Germany for an exchange year. This shaped her love for the German language and literature and brought her to study German studies. In the course of her dissertation research, she gave attention to Austria and especially Vienna for the first time. She has remained loyal to this city and its arts since then.
Her current work “The naked truth. Viennese Modernism and the body “ addresses the body at the turn of the century and beyond. Well-known authors such as Hermann Bahr called for a focus on mind, soul and body in arts. But Sigmund Freud with his research on mind and soul left little room for the body in cultural history. Alys George, who has already written her dissertation on Viennese Modernism, wants to fill this gap.
In addition to her research, she has been teaching for decades - currently at New York University. With a Franz Werfel scholarship from the OeAD, she is now in Vienna for her current research. In this work she deals with fictions about Austria-Hungary in the post-monarchist literature. She is studying literature by authors from the former Habsburg countries, who were located on the periphery of the former Empire. Alys George was also scholarship holder of the Richard Plaschka programme.