Graz Summer School Seggau: Annual Module on Ageing

Every year in July, more than 80 students and 10 professors from over 30 countries meet at the Graz International Summer School Seggau (GUSEGG) in Southern Styria, Austria to discuss global developments in areas such as society, politics, economics, religion, and culture.

In order to develop strategies and methods to meet the immense challenges of our time, this summer school engages in academic contemplation and interdisciplinary exchange. In times of a constant devaluing of science and scholarship, taking the time for vigorous intellectual investigation is a radical act of resistance to quick-fix solutions.

Teaching and learning at Graz International Summer School Seggau is interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and international. An important feature of GUSEGG is that the learning experience happens throughout the full duration of the two-week summer school. Not only do students and professors spend intensive time working together in the classrooms, lunch breaks and recesses allow less formal but equally generative discussions to move outside the classroom. The basis for this comprehensive learning experience is the willingness of all participants – professors as well as students – to come together and share a space for a stretch of time, something which might sound very simple, but it is not a given in our fast-paced times.

The “Ageing, Communication, and Technologies” seminar at Graz International Summer School Seggau offers opportunities for students from the ACT consortium to study in a short-term program in an international environment in Central Europe. It enables students who are interested in questions of age and ageing across disciplines and (research) cultures to exchange with each other and it also helps build a sustainable network of emerging scholars in the field. In addition to introducing students from all disciplines to current research with regard to ageing and communication technologies, it encourages students to share their own ideas and to come up with relevant (research) questions on the topic of ageing.

July 2018: “Meditating and Mediating Change: State – Society – Religion”

Meditating and Mediating Change: State – Society – Religion will be the theme of the 13th edition of The Graz International Summer School.

As in previous years, ACT has awarded a number of ACT-affiliated students with scholarships to participate in the Ageing Studies Seminar – one of six thematic afternoon workshops at GUSEGG. 2018’s ACT-sponsored module on ageing entitled “Ageing, Communication, and Technologies” will be taught by ACT Director Kim Sawchuk and focus on Critical Aging Studies and concepts of aging in a networked society.

Graz International Summer School Seggau 2018 will take place from July 1 to July 14, 2018 at Seggau Castle, in Leibnitz, Austria. For program details, please refer to: https://international.uni-graz.at/de/stud/int-focus/summerschools/gusegg-summerschool/program/