Faculty 2013

Nikolaus Forgó

Professor of Law, Head of Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna; head of the LLM-program on information and media law at the University of Vienna; expert member of the Austrian Data Protection Board and the Austrian AI Advisory Board.

Selected Publications: together with Prainsack B.: Why paying individual people for their health data is a bad idea comment. in: Nature Medicine (2022 October); co-author of: White Paper: Data Solidarity. The Lancet & Financial Times Commission (2022); together with Hutter K. and Serentschy G.: Überlegungen zu einer Digital Policy und Regulierung aus einem Guss: Welche Governance braucht Österreich auf dem Weg zur Innovationsführerschaft? (2023); co-author of: Big Data, AI, and Health Data: between National, European, and International Legal Frameworks. in: Zwitter A., Gstrein O., Hrsg.: Handbook on the Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (2023); together with Prainsack B.: New AI regulation in the EU seeks to reduce risk without assessing public benefit. In: Nature Medicine (2024 May); co-author of: A national evaluation analysis and expert interview study of real-world data sources for research and healthcare decision-making. in: Nature (2024 April).

Ernest Gnan

Secretary General, SUERF – The European Money and Finance Forum; Honorary Economic Advisor to the Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank; head of the OeNB’s Economic Analysis Division between 1999–2022; member of the European Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee from 2000–2022, and for over a decade expert member of the Austrian Fiscal Council; between 2010–2018 alternate member of the Austrian Competition Commission; giving numerous lectures on macroeconomics, monetary policy, EMU, European integration, and the financial and sovereign debt crisis; for several years adjunct professor at Webster University Vienna and lecturer at the German Association for Financial Analysts; since 2005, lecturer at the University of Vienna, and since 2006 lecturer at the Austrian Academy of Accountants; in 2019, awarded the title Professor by the President of the Republic of Austria in recognition of his contributions to science and research.

His publications cover monetary policy; central banking; inflation and inflation expectations; macroeconomic imbalances; financial markets, banking and financial regulation; globalisation; economic growth; economic, institutional and legal aspects of EMU; exchange rate policy, the European and international monetary system, banking and finance. 

Eva Heinen

Mag.; studied Educational Science, Arts and Psychology at the University of Munich and the University of Barcelona, and German as a Foreign Language at the University of Vienna; work experience in lecturing at the University of Oulu, Finland, working as a trainer at the Teacher Education Center (CEP) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, and teaching German as a Foreign Language (DaF) for several private organizations; worked as an editorial journalist for Österreich Spiegel; currently teaches German as a Foreign Language and Yoga and works as an examiner for the ÖSD Austrian Language Diploma.

Christian Koller

Professor at the University of Vienna; former professor at the University of Innsbruck; held a position as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Erwin-Schrödinger-Fellow at the University of Zurich from 2009 to 2011; specializes in international commercial arbitration and litigation; main areas of interest include domestic and international civil procedure and its interfaces with private law, international insolvency law, conflict of laws and comparative law.

Ursula Kriebaum

Professor of Public International Law at the University of Vienna; staff member in the office of the legal adviser of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2000, 2001); legal expert in the team of the Austrian Special Envoy for Holocaust Restitution Issues (2000, 2001); delegate to the UN Preparatory Committee for an International Criminal Court; short term expert in an EU Twinning Project; nomination by the Austrian government for the election of the Austrian judge to the European Court of Human Rights election in 2007; legal expert in various investment arbitrations and human rights cases; member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (since 2014); member of the Panel of Arbitrators under the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union; member of the Panel of Conciliators maintained by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes; alternate member of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE (since 2013); member of the Arbitration panel for the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation to the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States and the Republic of Korea.

Selected Publications: Folterprävention in Europa. Die Europäische Konvention zur Verhütung von Folter und unmenschlicher oder erniedrigender Behandlung oder Bestrafung (2000); Eigentumsschutz im Völkerrecht. Eine vergleichende Untersuchung zum internationalen Investitionsrecht sowie zum Menschenrechtsschutz (2008); together with R. Dolzer and C. Schreuer: Principles of International Investment Law (2022) as well as several articles on International Human Rights Law and International Investment Law.

Sylvia Kritzinger

Professor for Methods in the Social Science at the Department of Government (University of Vienna); Director of the Research Centre Vienna Centre for Electoral Research (VieCER); Principal Investigator of the Austrian National Election Study (AUTNES - Demand Side); Project Director of Digitize! Computational Social Sciences in the Social and Digital Transformation and the Research Network Interdisciplinary Research into Values; former Assistant Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS-Vienna); former Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Trinity College, Dublin.

Selected Publications: together with W. Lutz and V. Skirbekk: The Demography of Growing European Identity (2006); together with M. Wagner and D. Johann: Voting at 16: Turnout and the Quality of Vote Choice (2012); together with J. Aichholzer, M. Wagner and E. Zeglovits: How has radical right support transformed established political conflicts? The case of Austria (2013); together with S.A. Banducci and H. Giebler: Knowing More from Less: How the Information Environment Increases Knowledge of Party Positions (2017); together with D. Johann, K. Kleinen-von Königslöw and K. Thomas: Intra-Campaign Changes in Voting Preferences: The Impact of Media and Party Communication (2018); together with C. Plescia, K. Raube, J. Wilhelm and J. Wouters: Assessing the 2019 European Parliament Elections (2020); together with J. Partheymüller and C. Plescia: Misinformedness About the European Union and the Preference to Vote to Leave or Remain (2022); together with T. Bernauer, D. Jahn, P.M. Kuhn and S. Walter: Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft (2022). 

Katharina Kurzmann

Mag., MSc; studied English, Development Studies and German as a Foreign Language at the University of Vienna and at the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy; completed a Master program in Social Work at the Danube University, Krems; German language training experience at several private language institutes and NGOs in Austria and Italy as well as at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Vienna University of Technology; currently works as a German language trainer, ÖSD (Austrian Language Diploma) examiner, and social counselor for migrant women in Vienna.

Claudia Kwapil

Studied economics in Vienna (Mag.a from the University of Vienna, 1997) and in London (MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, 2002) and finished her PhD at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna in 2011; currently she holds the position of a Senior Principal Economist at the Monetary Policy Section of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Central Bank of Austria); her fields of interest include monetary policy transmission, monetary policy implementation and nominal rigidities (rigid interest rates, rigid wages, rigid prices).

Selected Publications: together with S. Fabiani et al.: Wage Rigidities and Labor Market Adjustment in Europe, In: Journal of the European Economic Association, 8 (2010); together with J. Scharler: Expected Monetary Policy and the Dynamics of Bank Lending Rates, In: International Review of Economics and Finance, 27 (2013); together with K. Rieder: The effects of the monetary policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic: preliminary evidence from a pilot study using Austrian bank-level data, In: Monetary Policy & the Economy Q4/20–Q1/21 (2021); together with R. Ferstl and B. Graf: The pass-through of policy interest rates to bank retail rates in Austria, In: Monetary Policy & the Economy Q4/23 (2023).

Andrea Lenschow

Professor of political science at Osnabrück University; received her PhD from New York University; worked in postdoctoral positions at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the European University Institute in Florence and at Paris Lodron University in Salzburg; joined the faculty at Osnabrück University in 2003 and works on environmental policy and governance issues in the European Union and with regard to global commodity flows; published in major University Presses and in high-ranking journals.

Selected Publications: Environmental Policy Contending Dynamics of Policy Change, in: H. Wallace, M. A. Pollack and A. R. Young eds.: Policy Making in the European Union (2014); together with J. Pollex: Surrendering to growth? The European Union's goals for research and technology in the Horizon 2020 framework, in: Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 197 (2018); together with J. Pollex: Many faces of Dismantling: Hiding policy change in non-legislative acts in EU environmental policy, in: Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 27/No. 1 (2019); together with A. R. Zito and C. Burns: The future of European Union Environmental Politics and Policy (2020); together with A. R. Zito and C. Burns: Symposium Introduction: Dismantling, disintegration or continuing stealthy integration in European Union environmental policy? in: Public Administration, Vol. 98/Issue 2 (2020).

Franz-Stefan Meissel

Professor of Roman Law and History of European Private Law, University of Vienna; Visiting Professor at the Université Paris Cité and Professorial Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna; Director of the Sommerhochschule; Vice Dean of the University of Vienna School of Law; Speaker of the University of Vienna Advanced Research School in Law and Jursiprudence (Ars Iuris Vienna); chief editor of the Online Journal University of Vienna Law Review; since 2023 elected member of the Academia Europaea.

Selected Publications: Societas (2004, Premio Boulvert 2004); together with N. Benke: Textbooks on the Roman Law of Obligations (2021) and the Roman Law of Property (2024); co-author of: Nationalsozialistisches Steuerrecht und Restitution (2006); Le Code civil autrichien. Un autre bicentenaire (2015); Privatrecht in unsicheren Zeiten. Zivilgerichtsbarkeit im Nationalsozialismus (2017); Grundbegriffe der Rechtswissenschaften (5th ed. 2023).

Sabine Melnicki

Studied German Literature and Linguistics (with a special focus on German as a Foreign Language), English and Swedish Language at the University of Vienna and at the University College London; German language training experience at several private and public institutes, including Österreich Institut Warsaw and Dokkyo University in Tokyo. 

Werner Neudeck

Studied at the University of Vienna (Mag. and Dr. rer.soc.oec.) and the University of Oxford; Professor Emeritus of International Economics and Chairman of the Academic Board at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; 1997-2020 Academic Dean of the Master of Advanced International Studies Program (University of Vienna/Diplomatic Academy of Vienna); former AGIP Professor of International Economics at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University SAIS (1994-1997) and Senior Economist of the International Monetary Fund at the Joint Vienna Institute.

Selected Publications: Fee-for-Service and Quantity Rationing in the Physician Services Market (1991); together with E. Streissler: Wachstums- und Umweltpolitik (1994); together with K. Podczeck: Adverse Selection and Regulation in Health Insurance Markets: An Analysis of Recent Policy Proposals (1996); Das österreichische Gesundheitssystem: Eine ökonomische Analyse (2002); The Global Impact of the EU as an Economic and Monetary Actor (2004).

Helmut Ortner

Founding Partner at PARAGON Advocacy; focuses on complex multi-jurisdictional disputes both as counsel and arbitrator; admitted to the New York and the Austrian bar; studied economics and law in Innsbruck, Vienna, Harvard, and Yale; honorary professor of international business law and international dispute resolution at the Europainstitute (Saarbrücken, Germany); lecturer on private law, comparative law, and alternative dispute resolution at various universities, including the Universities of Vienna, Linz, and Innsbruck.

Selected Publications: together with T. Tiede and B. Koch: Conflict of Law – Text and Materials, (5th ed. 2018); together with F. T. Schwarz and J. A. Trenor (eds.): Contractual Performance and COVID-19 (2020); together with M. Kern and K. Plavec: Applicable Law in International Arbitration (2020); together with F. Schwarz: Does a Right to a Physical Hearing Exist in International Arbitration? (2021); together with C. Fischer-Czermak and C. Nigsch: Private Law in Graphs (5th ed. 2021).

Christopher Peroutka

Mag. phil.; High school teacher, tennis and swimming instructor, windsurfing coach, mountain guide, basketball and volleyball trainer, certified skiing and snowboarding instructor, former player in the Austrian National Team Ultimate Frisbee; lecturer at the University of Vienna and the Pedagogic Academy in Vienna; teaching experience in Austria, the Netherlands and Indonesia.

Alexandra Pölzlbauer

Dr., MA (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA), Mag. phil. (University of Vienna, Austria); studied German, German as a Foreign Language, English and History; research areas: Globalization, Migration & Transcultural Exchange, Newer Austrian and German Literature/Film; currently she is teaching in the Austria-Illinois Exchange Program of the Vienna University of Economic and Business Administration, at Webster Vienna Private University and in the Centre for International Education & Mobility (CIEM) at the Fachhochschule Wien.

Selected Publications: Im Deutschunterricht hamma Deutsch? Vom Chancenreichtum im mehrsprachigen Klassenzimmer. In: Becker, S. H. and Schöneberger, S. (Hrsg.) Deutsch 5-10, Heft 23 (2010); Public Attitudes towards the EU: Anti-, Pro-, or No-? In: EUC Blog, European Union Center at the University of Illinois (2011) http://eucenterillinois.blogspot.de/2011/11/public-attitudestowards-eu-anti-pro-or.html; Fünf Beispiele zur Diskussion der ‚Andersartigkeitʻ im DaF/DaZ-Unterricht. In: ÖDaF-Mitteilungen, Heft 1 (2013).

Andreas Schloenhardt

PhD (University of Adelaide); Professor of Criminal Law, School of Law, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Honorary Professor of Foreign and International Criminal Law, University of Vienna, Austria; consultant to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna; Visiting Professor, University of Zurich, University of St Gallen, Switzerland, and University of Ferrara, Italy; principal areas of research: criminal law, organized crime, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons, wildlife and forest crime, irregular migration and immigration and refugee law; adjunct appointments and visiting professorships at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg (2016 and 2013); National University of Singapore Faculty of Law (2011), University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2007–2009); Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA (2006–2009); recipient of a Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (2011-2012).

Monika Schwärzler-Brodesser

Retired Professor and former Head of the Art Department at Webster Vienna Private University; doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Vienna; graduate training at the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna; taught at Webster University in St. Louis (USA), the study abroad program of the University of Oregon and Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences; lectured in postgraduate museology programs at the University of Basle (Switzerland) and the Federal Academy in Wolfenbüttel (Germany); lecturer at the univie: winter school and the univie: summer school of the Sommerhochschule (University of Vienna), as well as at the Danube University Krems; founder and chair of the T.K. Lang Gallery at Webster University; work as free-lance writer; current fields of research: art and media theory, visual culture, creative writing.

Selected Publications: Digital Worlds and the Sound of Violence, in: N. Billias, L. Praeg eds.: Creating Destruction. Constructing Images of Violence and Genocid (2011); The Beast – On the Photographic Staging of the Large Hadron Collider at the Nuclear Research Center in Geneva, in: U. Fischer-Westhauser, U. Schögl eds.: PhotoResearcher 19 (2013); Psychisches Ding-fest machen. Franz West und Markus Schinwald – Herr(n) des Signifikanten. in: texte. psychoanalyse. ästhetik. kulturkritik, Heft 3 (2014); At Face Value and Beyond. Photographic Constructions of Reality (2016); Good Girls Grimacing. Grimacing and the Economy of Excess, in: Grimace. Membrana no. 2 (2017); Fotografie ohne Fotograf*innen, in: Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie, Heft 157 (2020); Talkative Skin / Skin Talking Back: On Iris Andraschek's Where to Draw the Line. in: Skin. Membrana – Journal of Photography, Theory and Visual Culture Vol.6 no.2 (2021).

Verica Trstenjak

Professor of European Law at the University of Ljubljana and at the LLM program at the University of Vienna; external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute Luxemburg; member of the management board and the executive board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights; judge at the General Court of the European Union (2004-2006); Advocate General of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (2006-2012); lectured at different international and European conferences (e.g. general reporter at the International Conference of Comparative Law 2014 and keynote speaker at the International Conference of Consumer Law 2015); member of the editorial board of several important legal journals (European Law Review, European Journal of Consumer Law, Italian Law Journal and others); member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and of Academia Europaea as well as founding member (and from 2013 also council member) of the European Law Institute (ELI); member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague; published several books and more than 280 articles (also with SSCI).

Selected Publications: together with P. Weingerl: The Influence of Human Rights and Basic Rights in Private Law (2016); Procedural Aspects of European Consumer Protection Law and the Case Law of the CJEU, in: European Review of Private Law. No. 2 (2013).

Karl Vocelka

Retired Professor of History, former Head of the Department of History of the University of Vienna; former Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford University; elected President of the Institut für die Erforschung der frühen Neuzeit; guest lecturer in numerous American programs in Vienna (University of Oregon, Duke University, Sweet Briar, IES etc.).

Selected Publications: Trümmerjahre. Wien 1945 – 1949 (1985); Die Habsburger. Eine europäische Familiengeschichte (1992); Geschichte Österreichs. Kultur – Gesellschaft – Politik (2000); Österreichische Geschichte (2005); Geschichte der Neuzeit 1500-1918 (2009); together with M. Vocelka: Franz Joseph I. Kaiser von Österreich und König von Ungarn 1830-1916. Eine Biographie (2015); together with W. Klinger: Wine in Austria. The History (2019), and more than 150 articles.