CGES Announces a New Partnership with Graz International Summer School
The Center for German and European Studies with support from the Center for Austrian Studies are pleased to announce a new partnership and opportunity for aadvanced undergraduates and graduate students in all fields of the humanities and social sciences with the Graz International Summer School Seggau 2026 (GUSEGG 2026).
The Graz International Summer School Seggau, now in its 21st year, is a 2-week international academic program aimed at motivated, internationally advanced undergraduates and graduate students in all fields of the humanities and social sciences who wish to deepen their understanding of current global trends and challenges. This summer school’s unique setting, with 80 students and 20 professors from all over the world living together on the castle campus, enables in-depth conversations between lessons, and fosters intercultural and interdisciplinary discourse and a sustainable knowledge transfer. CGES and CAS are funding up to five Minnesota-based students to participate in the 2026 program.
How to Apply: Applications will be accepted from students at the University of Minnesota campuses and other Minnesota colleges and universities. Advanced undergraduates (juniors and seniors) and graduate students from across the disciplines are eligible to apply. Applications should include a motivation letter and updated resume or CV. The letter should address how the applicant will contribute to and benefit from the academic focus (read below) of the 2026 summer school. Applications can be sent as one PDF to [email protected] by December 1, 2025.
Details:
GUSEGG 2026 will take place from July 5 –July 18, 2026 at Seggau Castle, Austria. Students will engage in morning lectures, afternoon seminars, and will have opportunities to present their own research and publish in the Center for Inter-American Studies' Off Campus series. All academic and social programing at the summer school is conducted in English. Participants will have the option to receive 6 ECTS Credits (Official transcript of the University of Graz an enrolled student).
In addition to the academic program, GUSEGG offers a robust social program for participants including excursions to Graz (and Maribor), a castle tour, and visit of historic wine cellar.
Selected Minnesota students will receive a scholarship which covers the cost of tuition, room, and board for the duration of the program (€2,500) and up to $1,000 towards transportation costs.
Summer School Focus: Curiosity, Concern, and Commitment in Europe and the Americas: State – Society – Religion
Faced with a multitude of concrete challenges and crises posing existential threats to our lives and the stability of our societies, we can ask ourselves how we have become less curious to know details, learn facts, and explore different explanations for the complexities of our world. We might be surprised by how quickly we are expected to have an opinion and how quickly we confirm these expectations with declarations of firm beliefs, strong convictions, and fixed positions. Sometimes we might even feel compelled to pretend to know more than we do concerning an understanding of the world. Artificial Intelligence contributes to this world of quick-fix solutions by the convenience of fast answers to possible questions seemingly addressing gaps in our knowledge. Less and less time is allowed for carefully looking into matters, little motivation is provided for us to investigate issues more thoroughly through reading, thinking, and writing in order to explore contradictory concerns behind conflicts, researching how the political, economic, cultural, and social aspects have shaped and defined these challenges and crises. Despite some philosophers discarding curiosity as a “kind of knowing, but just in order to have known” (Heidegger), the summer school intends to understand curiosity, concern, and commitment as an academic engagement with the world countering tendencies of impatience, arrogance, and fear. The more abstract approach of concern will be discussed in relation to the more concrete of commitment as a future projection. Thus, the topic of GUSEGG 2026 is an invitation to create an academic community that allows for controversial academic discussion and debate to address the challenges and crises of our times in a meaningful way.
