20 Oct
2026

"250 Years of Transatlantic Educational Connections: Past, Present, and Future"

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Time
11:30
Location
Lecture Hall C2, Hof 2, Campus University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien, Austria
Category
Alums, Program Participants, Public
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From Fulbright to today's partnerships, the lecture shows that transatlantic ties are not self-sustaining. They must be built, and rebuilt, working in concert to keep the connections alive.

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was printed in German within days of its signing. In the same year, Vienna's Burgtheater became a German-language national theater. Language, learning, and ideas crossed the Atlantic from the start. This lecture traces 250 years of educational connections between the United States and Europe's German-speaking lands, most of which were not yet the countries we know today.

The lecture follows the educators, exiles, editors, and émigrés who built bridges between cultures, often without recognition. They include an American scientist who reshaped Bavaria, mass-produced American textbooks, and the invention of cooperative education. It also asks what happens when the bridges collapse, as they did in two world wars. The answer lies with those who rebuilt them, among them refugee scholars who insisted that language connects our nations without malice.

No registration is required for this free event.

Michael R. Shaughnessy, PhD, is a 2026—27 US Fulbright Specialist and the executive director of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), where he leads national efforts to expand and innovate multilingual and intercultural education across the United States. Combining more than two decades of higher education leadership, previously serving as professor of German, department chair, associate dean, and senior international officer, Michael has built an extensive track record in faculty-led international education, institutional strategy, and public scholarship. A two-time Fulbright fellow in Austria and France, he directs a digital humanities initiative documenting memorials to the victims of National Socialism through geospatial mapping and open-access data. He completed his doctorate in Germanic languages and literatures at the University of Cincinnati and executive leadership training at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, serving on numerous international boards dedicated to educational exchange, language policy, and transatlantic collaboration.