Being a master’s student of History, my experience as an Erasmus student at the University of Vienna would not have been as complete without participating in the univie: winter school for Cultural Historical Studies. The spirit of the program, which includes interdisciplinarity and connections with people from other fields of studies, perfectly suits the spirit of my university path: I am also a student of the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Udine, where we are encouraged to participate in such academic programs. With the great opportunity to be supported by a scholarship from the City of Vienna, I applied for the Winter School, full of curiosity and expectations. 

The experience of the Winter School not only enriched my knowledge about Vienna, but I also learned a lot about other cultures and countries through my colleagues who participated in the program. For me, as a history student, the courses “Society and Daily Life” and “Art and Visual Culture” were perfect to grasp some details and new perspectives about the Fin de Siècle. This visual perspective was an enrichment for my studies and now I am more familiar with images and their significance in the interpretation of history thanks to Professor Schwärzler-Brodesser. The Social History approach explained by Professor Vocelka gave me the chance to connect social life to the big events in history, and to understand changes and traditions. The Fin de Siècle, as explained in the Winter School, was a great example of interdisciplinarity that helped me to improve my skills as a historian. To study history means to approach events and personalities with a critical eye, this was achieved through the lessons at the Winter School: through a visual understanding, society and culture became clearer, and through social history, major events took on a broader meaning in the context of everyday life.