On October 14, the Center for Inter-American Studies (C.IAS) hosted a celebration in honor of Roberta Maierhofer and her work as former Vice-Rector, director of C.IAS, and professor of American Studies at the University of Graz.
After Nicole Haring's (Director of the Center for Inter-American Studies) welcoming words, other officals and representatives of the University of Graz reflected on Roberta's dedicted work for and at the university: Peter Riedler (Rector of the University of Graz), Claudia Unger (City Graz), Alfred Gutschelhofer (former Rector of the University of Graz), Şebnem Bahadır-Berzig (Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Equal Opportunities of the University of Graz), and Florian Bieber (Director of the Graz School of Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies at the University of Graz).
Similarly, Michael Kuhn (Graz International Summer School Seggau), Ingrid Gessner (European Association for American Studies, and Martina Pfeiler (Austrian Association for American Studies) thanked Roberta for her tireless engagement both regionally and internationally.
Representatives of Fulbright Austria Hibat-Ullah Khelifi and Lonnie Johnson offered congratulations and memories of Roberta as Fulbright receipient and advocate.
On a more personal note, Heinz Anderwald (Jewish Community Graz), Johannes Mindler-Steiner (Afro-Asian Institute Graz), and Mirko Petrić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences Split, Croatia) shared words of appreciation for Roberta.
After the words of gratulations, Roberta was presented with her own Festschrift, titled Bridging Worlds and Curating Knowledge: Selected Papers from the Inter-American CEEPUS Community (editors: Réka Cristian, Mónika Fodor, Nicole Haring).
Finally, the celebration concluded with a keynote lecture given by Michelle Gay Gadpaille (University of Maribor), titled “Eavesdropping at the Door of Slavery: From Mary Prince to Miss Pauline” in which she reflected on language and the editing of language in the context of slave narratives.
The event was followed by a reception and celebration over drinks and food. We wish Roberta all the best in her retirement - may you never (re)tire of your friends and colleagues at C.IAS!
