Dr. Clemens Ruthner

Born in Vienna, Austria, where he studied German philology, philosophy, history and communication studies at the local university (Alma Mater Rudolphina). Has been living & working abroad since 1991: in Budapest (Hungary), Antwerp (Belgium), Edmonton (Canada) and Birmingham (UK), before he came to Ireland in 2008. Visiting professorships in Leuven (Belgium), Vienna (Austria), Sarajevo (Bosnia-Hercegovina), Leipzig (Germany), Berkeley (USA) and Ljubljana (Slovenia). Literary and cultural scholar, book reviewer, author and translator.

  Alterity / Otherness   Area Studies (Central Europe)   Cultural Economy   Cultural Studies and Theory   GENDER   Literary theory   Modern German and Austrian literature   Sexuality Studies   Translation

As a co-founder of the international research network KAKANIEN REVISITED in 2000, I was among the first academics to adopt the novel paradigm of Postcolonialism in the field of Habsburg Studies, particularly with respect to the imperial period of Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1878-1918, and its processes of inequality and othering after the military occupation and annexation of the region. This new approach, creating a trans-disciplinary link between history, literary/cultural studies and the social sciences, is now widely accepted. This is evident in the fact that our network figures prominently in the new 'Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur' (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2017). The 'Habsburg postcolonial' group has also inspired various follow-up research projects, conferences and publications by other researchers, for example: two PG courses for research PhDs at the U of Vienna; a Special Research Group (SFB) at the U of Trier, Germany; the PhDs by Lejla Campara (Vienna, 2011), Robert Lemon (Harvard, 2010), Lejla Campara (Vienna, 2011), Ulrich Bach (Stanford, 2016), etc. In order to discuss and disseminate our approaches, we also founded an internationally respected web-journal (www.kakanien.ac.at) in 2001, to which I have been one of the most active and discussed contributors. The anthologies of essays that I co-edited and published with Francke have also had a remarkable international impact. For example, as a consequence of these publications, I became the initiator of the biggest European on-site conference on 'The Long Shots of Sarajevo, 1914' in 2014; this event was made possible by competitively awarded funding of the European foundation Sarajevo: Coeur de l'Europe and the EU (112,000€). And finally, in early 2018, my monograph entitled 'Habsburg's Dark Continent' came out. It brings together my research work of the last 15 years; in a review, Prof. Katie Arens (U of Texas) wrote it "is a must-read, not only for its insights into the final century of Austria-Hungary." (in: Journal of Austrian Studies, 2020). . Having built a solid reputation in the field of Austrian and Central European Studies, I was also invited to be have become a contributor to the 20C German literary history survey (Leuven: Peeters Publ., 2006), which is the only one of its kind in the Dutch-speaking countries. Other invitations arising from my research include seven visiting visiting professorships (for details, see above). Another important field of my research is identity and Otherness, and particularly the fantastic/Gothic in literature and culture. This was was already the focus of my PhD, 'Am Rande' (2001), and I was the primary editor of an anthology of essays entitled 'Nach Todorov' (2006), which proceeds from the theories of the renowned theorist to propose new conceptualizations of the literary genre. The first print runing of this book sold out quickly; it is often quoted and lauded, e.g. by Yvonne Ivory in the German Studies Review (USA) 31.1, 2008. In the last ten years, I have also moved into the field of Austrian gender and sexuality studies with three influential publications (2011, 2019, 2021) that are now in their 2nd print.