Ambassador Bernhard Zimburg will hold a special lecture on "The EU's involvement in the emerging East Asian Regional Architecture". He is currently Head of the Asia Department of the Austrian Foreign Ministry. He previously served as Austrian Ambassador to Algeria, Indonesia, Singapore and Timor Leste. Prior to joining the foreign service of Austria (1981) he worked for the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce, Department of Foreign Trade, in Vienna. Zimburg is a graduate of the University of Innsbruck (PhD, Law) and holds a diploma of the College of Europe in Bruges/Belgium. He has practised law in the State Court of Innsbruck and has made an internship in a law firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Ambassador Zimburg is married with two daughters. Click here for the announcement.

WHEN: Tuesday, 08 May 2012, 16:15
WHERE: Seminar room OAW
Language: English

Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Đọ (Cao Đài) is one of the six officially recognized religions in today’s Vietnam. Since its inception in 1926, Cao Đài has played a decisive role in Vietnamese society. The doctrine is based on the idea of unifying major religious traditions including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam and others under the banner of a new monotheistic belief.
For the first time, a delegation of Cao Đài dignitaries visited Austria and introduced the history and the main doctrinal tenets of this remarkable movement.
The seminar was jointly organized by the Department of Religious Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna. Click here for the announcement in English and German. Click here for the photos.

In this online article religious studies scholar Dr. Lukas Pokorny explains some basic features of Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Đọ (Cao Đài) - one of the six officially recognized religions in today’s Vietnam. more

For the first time, a delegation of Cao Đài dignitaries visited Austria and introduced the history and the main doctrinal tenets of this remarkable movement.
The seminar has been jointly organized by the Department of Religious Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna. Click here for the announcement in English and German.

WHEN: 26 Mar 2012
MODERATION: Dr. Lukas Pokorny, University of Aberdeen

Workshop Timor-Leste. Youth's Future, Local Politics & Foreign Relations: Challenges and Opportunities in Timor-Leste in the Light of the Upcoming 2012 Elections. Click here for the flyer and program.

North Korea after Kim Jong Il: The Risks of Improvisation

Kim Jong Il’s death was announced less than three weeks ago. But the world is surprisingly quickly getting used to the new leadership in North Korea, as if there were no concerns left at all. To provide a counterweight to this amazingly complacent mood, and the many speculations about a stable North Korean future (including my own), I’d like to play devil’s advocate and ponder a relatively pessimistic scenario based on my reading of some developments that should be watched carefully.Click here to read the full article.

North Korea after Kim Jong Il: The Kim Jong Un era and its challenges

Austria is a great country for many reasons, but with just 8.4 million citizens and locked in the center of the European continent, it is hardly a global player. However, even here the death of Kim Jong Il, the details of the mourning procedure, and the assignment of titles and functions to his son Kim Jong Un, were reported by almost all media as top news. Click here for the full article.

Prof. Adam Fforde, renowned expert on Vietnam and development issues held a  special lecture on “Q&A on Vietnam and some related issues: Prof. Adam Fforde”. He prepared his talk on the basis of our students' questions that have been sent beforehand. Click here for the announcement.

The Vienna Graduate Journal of East Asian Studies is a joint project of the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna aiming to give our graduates the opportunity to show their results to a wider audience. Even more importantly, we want to provide their peers and the international academic community with access to the work of our young and hopeful researchers. The Journal also shows the diversity of research topics covered in East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna. Literature, society, culture, economy – all these fields are represented in our multidisciplinary approach to East Asia. more

On November 30th, I GUSTI AGUNG WESAKA PUJA, Ambassador of Indonesia to Austria held a guest lecture on "Indonesia - an emerging profile in global affairs" at Dr. Alfred Gerstl's course Political and Economic Systems in Souteast Asia. Click here for the PPT.

Over 100 people came to watch 8 young East Asianists presenting their final theses at the Department of East Asian Studies. Click here for the program. Special thanks go to our 12 students who made the Ostasientag 2011 a complete success.  

Prof. Frank gives a brief overview on the range of issues that are discussed at the World Economic Forum and Global Agenda Council on Korea. In addition to regular consultations by video-conference this includes participation in the annual Summits on the Global Agenda in Abu Dhabi and the Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian (China).

YouTube

October 17, 2011, 18:15 at Seminarraum "Koreanologie"

In this meeting the vision, targets and structure of the MA program "East Asian Economy and Society" will be presented to our new students. After the meeting, the students representatives invites everybody to the EcoS Round Table, starting around 19:30 at Gangl. In order to reserve enough seats for the round table at Gangl, please register online via Facebook (EcoS round table) or email to julia.peitl@oeh.univie.ac.at

Korea 2011: Politics, Economy and Society, edited by Rudiger Frank, James E. Hoare, Patrick Köllner and Susan Pares, contains concise overview articles covering domestic developments and the economy in both South and North Korea as well as inter-Korean relations and foreign relations of the two Koreas in 2010. A detailed chronology complements these articles. South Korea-related refereed articles in the 2011 volume deal with concerted efforts at ‘nation branding’, political relations with India, overseas resource acquisition, labour migration policies and problems, the US Armed Forces and entertainment districts in and near Seoul, return migration, and the impact of Korean popular culture on East Asian identity in Europe. Additional refereed articles provide analyses of North Korea’s cultural discourse on Russia and Russians, economic relations between China and North Korea, and international attempts at dealing with North Korea’s nuclear weapons programmes. 

For more information, see the flyer and order form and the publisher's website.

In an attempt to investigate contemporary North Korean society through art, twelve academic experts from eight countries came together in Vienna in September 2010 for the international symposium “Exploring North Korean Arts”, designed and organized by Prof. Frank of the Chair of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna in close cooperation with the MAK (Museum für Angewandte Kunst, museum of applied arts). The results of this symposium are now available as an edited book. Three core themes are addressed: (1) an introduction to North Korean art, including its function, its reception, and its connection to other spheres of society; (2) the question of exhibiting North Korean art; and (3)  examples of North Korean art ranging from traditional brush painting to music, stamps, mosaics and illustrations in children’s books. For the table of contents, the introductory chapter and ordering information, click here. For more information on previous publications click here.  

Prof. Frank in April 2011, upon invitation by the secretariat of The Elders (http://www.theelders.org/), wrote a background policy paper and provided briefings to staff in preparation for the visit by President Martti Ahtisaari, Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, President Jimmy Carter and President Mary Robinson to China, North and South Korea.” Click here to find out more.

Starting from October 2011, the graduate program on East Asian Economy and Society (EcoS) will be fully converted to English. Click here to read more about the essence of the program (German). 

Prospective students for the winter term 2011/2012 who plan to enroll for the MA program "East Asian Economy and Society" need to apply online until August 31, 2011. For more detailled information  on the application process (in German), please click here. For the English translation (unofficial and not legally binding) please click here.

New students coming from outside the University of Vienna must apply here.

Current University of Vienna students apply via univis.

On May 5th, 2011 Prof. Dr. Han S. Park held a special lecture on North Korea's Policy Shift and its Foreign Policy Orientations. Click here for more information.

On Monday, May 2nd 2011 Isabelle Milbert held a special lecture on International Relations in East Asia: The Indian diaspora in East Asia as spearhead of 'Shining India'. Click here for more information.

On Tuesday, May 3rd 2011 Isabelle Milbert held a special lecture on Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer: the Indian Urban Sector in a Comparative Perspective. Click here for more information. 

Birgit Tremml held a special lecture on "Interkultureller Informations- und Technologietransfer zwischen den Philippinen, Japan und China 1565-1898". Click here for more information. 

Prof. Christopher M. Dent held a special lecture on "Economic Regionalism in East Asia". Click here for more information.

Frank, Rüdiger et al. (2010), Korea 2010: Politics, Economy and Society, Leiden: Brill; Korea 2010: Politics, Economy and Society contains concise overview articles covering domestic developments and the economy in both South and North Korea as well as inter-Korean relations and foreign relations of the two Koreas in 2009. A detailed chronology complements these articles. Click here for more information. Purchase @amazon or @brill.

Prof. Rüdiger Frank comments on the current security situation in East Asia after artillery shelling in Korea on November 23rd.  Click here to read (in German) @derStandard.at

We are proud to present our first contribution to our new main area of research 'Climate Change, Environment and Energy in East Asia'. Our graduate Josef Falko Loher has written a master thesis on Domestic Climate Change Governance in Japan, China and South Korea. You can find his thesis online within the University of Vienna database of theses. Click here for the full thesis (German).

Since October 2010, the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Vienna is a member of EastAsiaNet, a network of leading European research schools with a well-developed social-science focus on East Asia. It takes up issues that surpass the capacity of single institutions in training and in research. Ultimately, it contributes high-level expertise to a European perspective on Euro-Asia relations. Prof. Rüdiger Frank has been elected as Executive Board Member of the network. To learn more, see http://www.eastasianet.eu.

From today highly motivated students can apply for internships at renowned companies and organizations from various fields. Depending on the project, students are also given the opportunity to write their MA or PhD thesis in the course of their working experience. To find out more about the initiative click here.

Due to the delegates meeting of the North Korean party on tuesday September 28th, Prof. Rüdiger Frank answered questions about North Korea @derstandard.at Chat. Click here to read the chat protocol.

September 3-4, 2010

The symposium is organized around three core themes. The first is an introduction to North Korean art, including its function, its reception, and its connection to other spheres of society. We will next briefly discuss the question of exhibiting North Korean art, before moving to a few examples of North Korean art ranging from traditional brush painting to music, stamps, mosaics and illustrations in children’s books. This is an academic event; we will focus on facts and their scientific analysis. Even so, there are no taboo topics. click here for the detailed program.