Prof. Liliane Weissberg visited the University of Innsbruck in November 2016. The Professor of German and Comparative Literature (Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in Arts and Science) from the University of Pennsylvania is an expert on German-Jewish Literature and focused extensively also on the Holocaust. Liliane Weissberg has taught courses on the relationship between trauma and memory, and thinkers who have written on the Holocaust such as Hannah Arendt and Karl Löwith.
She wrote on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust memorial sites in Germany and elsewhere, and individual figures such as Charlotte Salomon, just to give one example.
In Innsbruck she gave different guest lectures on topic ranging from “Interviewing the Victim: Changing Media and the Documentation of the Holocaust from the American Liberator´s Accounts to Wire and Video Tapes, TV Series, and Beyond”, to “Postcards from the Avant-garde: Else Laser Schüler in Exchange with Franz Marc”, “Writing Before the Shoah, and Reading After: Charlotte Salomon’s ‘Life or Theater’ and its Reception” to “Sigmund Freud liest Lessing: Die Parabel von den drei Ringen”.
Prof. Weissberg came as AIANI-Fellow to Innsbruck and was hosted by the Brenner Archiv. Her stay was supported by the City of Innsbruck.

In January 2016, AIANI applied for an Erasmus+ grant to engage in a staff mobility project with the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT). HIT is a technical college founded in the 1960s as part of the Tel Aviv University (TAU) and became an independent college in 2000. Still, the college has close ties to the TAU, the Weizmann Institute of Science and many other institutions and medical centers in Israel. It´s 4.000 students focus in the areas of Engineering, Design, Technology Management, Instructional Technologies and the Sciences. All research projects are tackled in a multidisciplinary way and in close ties to the high-tech industry. As such, the HIT is an interesting partner to the University of Innsbruck in establishing joint projects and complementing each other in different areas of research and teaching. The delegation from HIT included Dr. Refael Barkan, M.D., Head of Research, Development and External Relations Authority and CEO of A.Y.Y.T. (HIT´s Technology Transfer Office) and Dr. Guy Yoskovitz, deputy director, Development and External Relations Authority. AIANI organized a visiting program that included meetings with colleagues of several departments at the University of Innsbruck as well as exchanges and learning opportunities between the administrative offices involved. Many areas of possible cooperation could be identified and future joint projects were discussed. Both sides learned a lot from each other and are looking forward to the next steps in student and faculty exchange as well as scientific collaboration. The delegation was also invited by Rektor Märk to a reception.

More about the visit of HIT at the University of Innsbruck here: Website of HIT