Center for Inter-American Studies
Interdisciplinary and international - the Center of Inter-American Studies as a platform for academic exchange
What is the Center for Inter-American Studies?
The Center for Inter-American Studies (C.IAS) focuses on the cultural regions of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean, providing a platform for academic and public discourse on European-American relations. Building on the research and teaching profile of the University of Graz, it brings together transnational, transcultural, inter- and multidisciplinary approaches. Regional cultural representations are subjected to interdisciplinary and intercultural analysis. The historical, economic, and socio-cultural contexts of the regions are examined from a transregional European perspective, considering the evolving role of the Americas in a globalized world. Particularly in Europe, where the negotiation of a European identity (alongside national and regional identities) shapes numerous discourses, the resulting issues necessitate a reorientation of academic perspectives. For European researchers in the field of Inter-American Studies, the “Americanness” of the Americas and the evolving conceptions of self and other are therefore of particular interest.
A more detailed description of the Center's goals and objectives, can be read in the University Bulletin on the Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies.
New beginnings and structural changes
Graz School of Interdisciplinary Studies
In March 2025, the Center for Inter-American Studies together with the Centre for Southeast European Studies became part of the Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies. The Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies (GITS) examines transnational developments from interdisciplinary perspectives in the social sciences and humanities, paying particular attention to sustainable connections and relationships across national borders, as well as socio-political, historical, legal, economic, and cultural asymmetries. Current global, transnational, and regional events are analyzed from both theoretical-methodological and applied-analytical perspectives and subjected to political, cultural, legal, and historical contextualization, with interdisciplinary and transnational approaches playing a key role.
More information about the Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies can be found here.
15 years C.IAS
The Center for Inter-American Studies (C.IAS) celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2021/2022. Although Styria and the city of Graz have a long and intensive history with the Americas and the University of Graz has been researching and teaching about the culture, history and society of the Americas for over a century, it was only in 2006 that the Rectorate of the University of Graz established a center specifically for this region. The center was officially founded in 2007 as the "Center for the Study of the Americas". Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Roberta Maierhofer, it developed into an internationally and transregionally innovative platform for interdisciplinary research work on the Americas. In 2012, the importance of Inter-American Studies was underlined once again when the University of Graz established North, Central and South America as a second university-wide focus region alongside Southeast Europe.
Various events on the research and teaching of current and former members as well as on the history of the C.IAS and its achievements were planned for 2021. With a particular, focus on the C.IAS's efforts to "reconceptualize traditional approximations both in terms of transnational and transregional methods with the aim of analyzing" (Roberta Maierhofer) the Western Hemisphere, as well as its global relations. In addition to the traditional division into the "Americas" - i.e. the world regions of North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean - the term "Western Hemisphere" also includes the zones of influence of the Americas in the Atlantic, Pacific and on the continent of Antarctica.
2025-present
On March 1, 2025, the Center for Inter-American Studies together with the Centre for Southeast European Studies has been established as the cross-faculty organization Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies at the University of Graz.
The Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies is an interfaculty institution dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary academic research, teaching, and collaborations with a focus on transnational processes.
It thus sees itself as a university-based opportunity to address expertise in European topics both from a region-specific perspective – for example, through the Center for Southeast European Studies (CSEES) – and from a European perspective on other continents – for example, through the Center for Inter-American Studies (CIAS) – academically.
The founding declaration was published in the University of Graz Bulletin Special Issue 43, 2024/2025, 19.a of February 19, 2025 and can be viewed here.
2017-2025
On Januar 1, 2017, the Center for Inter-American Studies was reintegrated into the Faculty of Humanites.
The founding declaration was published in the University of Graz Bulletin Special Issue 9, 2016/2017, 10.a of December 7, 2016 and can be viewed here.
2011-2017
The Center for Inter-American Studies is integrated into the newly-founded Seventh Faculty: Center for Society, Knowledge and Communication, approved by the Rectorate of the University of Graz on August 18, 2011. The Center is considered a cross-faculty service area in the Seventh Faculty at the University of Graz.
The founding declaration was published in the University of Graz Bulletin No. 136, 2010/11, 47.a of August 24, 2011 and can be viewed here. Page 6 describes the objectives and areas of responsibility of the C.IAS.
2006-2011
The Center for Inter-American Studies - then under the name of Center for the Study of the Americas - was founded on December 5, 2006.
The Center for the Study of the Americas establishes itself as a research institution in the field of American Studies ("The Americas – Las Américas – Les Amériques"), which bundles and coordinates all agendas concerning the University of Graz in the field of North and Latin American culture and history within the Center for the Study of the Americas. It is part of the cross-faculty service area at the University of Graz.
The founding declaration was published in the University of Graz Bulletin No. 6, 2006/2007 of December 20, 2006 and can be viewed here.
The Center's report shows how the research field of Inter-American Studies has developed at the University of Graz and which methods and approaches have contributed significantly to the redefinition of Area Studies. In addition to a review of the past years, the report also offers an outlook for the future.
