univie: winter school for Cultural Historical Studies 2018

by Jisung Her

Jisung Her is studying Business in Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea. He arrived in Austria on January 31st and the winter school program started on February 2nd. The class ended on February 16th, 2018.

Impressions of Vienna

Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna

Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (© Jisung Her)

I stayed about 20 days in Vienna and my impression of Vienna was great. Not only the environment of the University of Vienna, but also the city as a whole were perfect places to travel. I used the public transportation to move from one place to another very easily. There were many attractive places to visit! Beeing interested in history and arts, I visited many meaningful historical places and museums in Vienna.

Museums

The painting “Woman in a Yellow Dress” by Max Kurzweil

The painting “Woman in a Yellow Dress” by Max Kurzweil (© Jisung Her)

Leopold Museum: We visited the Leopold Museum as part of the course program. This museum exhibits a lot of modern arts pieces. For example, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka. Professors explained the meaning of the pictures and we students could understand the meaning. In my opinion it would be hard to appreciate the paintings if there were no extensive explanation.

Austrian Museum of Applied Arts: This museum was the most unique place I visited during this program. The floor ground design was very attractive. There were many different collections with different topics. The exhibited posters were unusual to me.

Wien Museum on Karlsplatz: This museum was the first museum I visited in Vienna. I learned the basic information about the history of Vienna itself and the Austrian people.

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna: I would recommend having enough time to enjoy the enormous art collections to anyone who wants to visit the Kunsthistorische Museum. The museum’s collections cover all the ages of history, so visitors should keep it mind that it will take quite a time.
(This museum was located near the underground station called ‘Museumsquartier’ (Line2) and the Museum of Natural History is located nearby.)

Studying Psychoanalysis and Society in Sigmund Freud’s Vienna

Statue of Maria Theresia at the Maria-Theresien-Platz in Vienna

Statue of Maria Theresia at the Maria-Theresien-Platz in Vienna (© Jisung Her)

This class was not simply about learning about psychology. First, the students were given an introduction to the social background of Sigmund Freud’s life. Then we learned about the meaning and theory of psychoanalysis. By listening to the professor’s lectures, we realized the depth of psychoanalysis. After that we discussed the subjects that we learned with other group members.

Finally, we concluded the meaning of psychoanalysis and we proposed our opinion about the subject and presented it in class.

 

Tips for visiting Vienna

As recommended, I bought the monthly ticket for public transportations.
It was very efficient to move around.

Many places have discounts for international students. So it would be good to organize an international studen ID before visiting the country.