Undergraduate Research Projects at the Center for Austrian Studies
In spring 2020, undergraduate students Luke Dykowski and Jacob Smiley will conduct research under the guidance of Howard Louthan and Igor Tchoukarine, respectively. Their research is supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) at the University of Minnesota. Below is a brief description of their projects.
Luke Dykowski (majoring in History and Political Science, and minoring in French Studies and Applied Economics)
Dykowski’s project “Illustrating an Emperor: Understanding the Life and Reign of Maximilian I through Theuerdank” explores the personality, policies, and political maneuvers of Maximilian I (1459-1519) through his own mythologized biography, Theuerdank. By analyzing a selection of illustrations in Theuerdank and converting them into digitized, interactive images, his aim is to grasp how Maximilian understood himself, to tease his truth from his self-constructed legend, and to explain his roles as a Renaissance ruler, a modern monarch, a medieval idealist, and the ideological touchstone of House Habsburg.
Jacob Smiley (majoring in History)
Smiley’s project “American Expertise and Yugoslavia’s Tourism Industry during the Cold War” examines the impact of American expertise on Yugoslavia’s tourism industry from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. He will focus on American commercial missions in Yugoslavia, and determine how these missions helped Yugoslavia develop its tourism industry, contributed to the circulation of knowledge and to cultural understanding between East and West during the Cold War. As part of this project, Smiley will conduct archival research in Fred Wittner’s papers, held at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, WI.
