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ARTS & LIFE
The Clarion — November 18,2005
The Salzburg Seminar welcomes
innovative ideas to global change
by Adam Beeson
Managing Editor
“The Salzburg Seminar” is
the first of a four-part series on
the themes and ideas presented
at the Salzburg Seminar’s Inter
national Study Program, held
Jan. 1-8 at the Schloss
Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Aus
tria.
I he Schloss Leopoldskron
sits in a large snow-covered val
ley, surrounded by the towering
Alps of western Austria. Once a
summer home for the illustrious
theatrical pro
ducer Max
Reinhardt, the
18th century
baroque pal
ace is now
owned by the
Salzburg
Seminar, a glo
bal institution
dedicated to
innovative
thinking and the search for so
lutions to matters of global con
cern.
Established by three
Harvard students in 1947, the
“Salzburg Seminar in American
Civilization,” as it was then
known, was described as an “in
tellectual Marshall Plan.”
Salzburg, the city best known
for its scenic location in the film
The Sound of Music and the
birthplace of legendary musician
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
played host to 127 participants,
or “fellows” as they are known
at the Seminar, from 18 different
European countries that first
year. These fellows, whose edu
cation had been incredibly dam
aged by the second World War,
were exposed to all components
of American culture.
After its initial success, the
Salzburg Seminar has grown tre
mendously. Nearly 60 years later,
the Seminar is dedicated to not
only American civilization, but
ideas of globalization and glo
bal change. Its mission, “to in
fluence the next generation of
leaders with programs that build
bridges, foster understanding,
and that demonstrate practical
impact on institutions and com
munities,” has proven success
through its long list of alumni,
including seven U.S. Supreme
Court Justices, twelve university
presidents, three Nobel laure
ates, and prime ministers of four
different countries.
After moving away from
student participants for some
time and hosting programs pri
marily for
profes
sionals,
t h e
Salzburg
Seminar
initiated its
Interna
tional
Study Pro
gram (ISP)
in 2003, a
week-long session for students
and faculty of exclusive United
States college and universities.
The purpose of ISP, according
to the Salzburg Seminar staff, is
to “provide an intensive seven-
day international experience for
participants to explore pressing
issues of global concern and to
view such issues from a per
spective both literally and figu
ratively outside the borders of
the United States.”
On Jan. 1, ISP marked its
third anniversary by hosting the
tenth session in its short history,
titled “Global Citizenship:
America and the World.” For the
first time in the program’s three-
year history, Brevard College
had the opportunity to send four
student representatives and one
faculty advisor to the Seminar.
Brevard, joined by representa
tives from Davis & Elkins Col
lege, Iowa State University,
Lindsey Wilson College, Mars
Hill College, Pikeville College,
San Diego Community College
District, and the University of
San Francisco, contributed to
the total of 49 students and nine
faculty advisors present at the
ISP seminar.
Blistering the cold winds
and falling snow, 1 joined seniors
Kody Kinsley, Danielle Raduly,
and Rebekah Watts-Mandelli, as
well as faculty advisor Dr.
Laura McDowell, in embark
ing on this academic quest
for global solutions. Upon
introduction to the session
director Jochen Fried, a Ger
man professor who received
his doctorate in German lit
erature from Dusseldorf
University in 1984, and pro
gram associate David
Goldman, we spent an en
lightening week working
with faculty scholars from all
over Europe.
Among these faculty mem
bers were Dr. Bernd Baumgartl,
the executive of Navreme
Knowledge Development, a
policy and strategic planning
consultant group in Vienna,
Austria; Dr. Michael Daxner, a
professor of sociology and
president of the University of
Oldenburg, Germany; Tom
Koenigs, the commissioner of
human rights policy and humani
tarian aid at the German Federal
Government’s Foreign Office; Dr.
Reinhold Wagnleitner, associate
p»hoto by Adam Beeson
professor of modern history at
the University of Salzburg and
author of Coca-Colanization and
the Cold War: The Cultural Mis
sion of the United States in Aus
tria After the Second World War;
and Dr. Timothy Ryback, the
vice president and director of the
Salzburg Seminar.
The program’s format incor
porated plenary lectures and dis
cussions every morning on top
ics ranging from ethnocentrism,
European history, and European
views of the United States, to
human rights and the meaning
behind “global citizenship.”
These lectures were
strengthened with cultural expe
riences in Europe, including a
concert series that put on pieces
from Mozart, Grieg, and Albeniz,
a walking tour of Salzburg, and a
visit to the former concentration
camp in Dachau, Germany.
Finally, fellows were sepa
rated into seven small groups
where we partook in the ISP
Kosovo Crisis Scenario, a dra
matic exercise that, according to
the Seminar’s staff, is “designed
to allow students to better un
derstand the challenges that
face groups and organizations as
they engage in humanitarian in
terventions and nation-build-
ing.”
From these structural exer
cises, it was quite evident that
we had the ability to face other
cultures and contribute to glo
bal change. But before this con
tribution could be made, we had
to understand our own culture
and, to the surprise of many, how
it is viewed around the world.
The Brevard College group In Austria
photo by Kody Kinsley