Olga Shparaga, philosopher, activist, and author (The Face of the Revolution is Female: The Case of Belarus) speaking at the mdw on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 Dec. 2021.

It was at the Vienna Central Cemetery that Franz (Albert) Doppler, born in Lemberg (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) on 16 October 1821 as the son of a military musician, was laid to rest following a long and active career. Not long ago, on 16 October 2021, Doppler’s gravesite witnessed a small celebration with prominent participants to mark his 200th birthday.

The first table in the following shows reported COVID-19 cases at the mdw between September 2020 and September 2021. These case figures correspond to the prevailing trends observed in Austria over the same period. Also included is an overview of the Austria-wide lockdowns and the lockdown in Eastern Austria as well as the numerous measures additionally imposed by the mdw.

The mdw’s Department of Early Music can now look back on an entire year’s worth of activity since its establishment in the autumn of 2020, but it was only just recently that its official opening celebration was able to take place. The broad musical programming of its inaugural concert was selected to reflect the Department’s main emphases.

On 20 September 2021, the mdw conferred an honorary doctoral degree on Evelyn Torton Beck, a pioneer in the fields of women’s and gender studies. With this act of recognition, the University honoured the outstanding dedication of this Vienna-born scholar, whose years of research have shed light on a rich spectrum of science- and scholarship-critical as well as socially critical themes in close association with the arts.

The final round of the competition “mdw Great Talent Award powered by Christian Zeller” was held on 20 May 2021 following a delay due to COVID-19.

These days, whoever stresses the importance of writing in the university context—as did Otto Kruse, one of the pioneers of the discipline of composition studies—is kicking at an open door. For the discipline of writing has long since become a fixture in everyday student life—even at arts universities.