The Center at 25.
A Celebration.
Center Austria is celebrating the 25th year of its existence. Founded in 1997, no one expected us to hang around this long. We re-invented ourselves over the years to stay relevant on the campus of the University of New Orleans (UNO). Probably no other Center on campus has our kind of international presence in the world. Due to Center Austria, UNO is probably known better in Austria than many of the Ivy League colleges.
We started out in 1997 as “The Austrian Center for Culture and Commerce” (in short “Center Austria”). With our move into the new International Center in 2016, we renamed ourselves “Center Austria: The Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies,” reflecting the support of our main sponsor, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, and putting our focus on all of Europe rather than just Austria. With President Obama’s “pivot to Asia”, Europe has a hard time staying relevant in the U.S.
Our principal focus have been our partnerships with institutions such as the University of Innsbruck, The Austrian Academic Exchange Service ÖAD, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation and the Botstiber Foundation. More recently our cooperation with Austrian Centers in North America and around the world have entered our purview.
Being around for 25 years, we want to reinforce our position at UNO and stay relevant.
Günter Bischof, Ph.D.
Director
Photo: Elizabeth Leitzell