Hey, it’s Jacquelyn back with an update from Europe from the Margins, post-Vienna!
During our visit, we were able to conduct nine days' worth of fieldwork and compare the things that we were learning in the classroom with the experiences that we were having on the ground.
From our Jewish walking tour to our history of fascism tour, we were able to make connections between what we were learning in our History of Fascism class regarding how one of the core tenets of fascism was often to paint Jewish people as the “common enemy". We learned about the persecution that Jewish individuals in Vienna faced from the national socialists through visiting historical sites and monuments that commemorated the victims.
Exploring Vienna
Group photo in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a famous landmark in the Innere Stadt!
Paulina Espinosa de los Monteros ‘26 placing a sticky note on the wall of “what is worth fighting for” at the House of Austrian History Museum.
Our guided tour of the Austrian Parliament. This is us walking through the stunning Former House of Representatives Chamber.
In our visit to the Counseling Center for Migrants, we got a better grasp on what women’s counseling, specifically labor-market guidance and support for migrant women, looks like in Austria. This was really fascinating to compare to what we’ve been learning about in European Politics, as we just learned about the migrant crisis in Greece. During the 2010s, Greece received an influx of migrants, which it was not adequately prepared to handle; this led to a humanitarian crisis due to issues such as overcrowding. So, it was nice to be able to see examples of the support systems that are in place for migrants in Austria to ensure that immigrants have a strong foundation when they arrive.
It was so cool to be able to see monuments from the films that we watched in real life. Our German cinema course just watched the movie “Woman in Gold” post-trip, and we compared scenes to where we actually were during our trip! We actually visited the Belvedere Museum, where the “Woman in Gold” (“Painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer”) was housed for many years before the piece was returned to Adele’s family as restitution. Not to mention, we were all very excited to ride the Giant Viennese Ferris Wheel just like Harry Lime and Holly Martins did in the movie “The Third Man.”
From eating at the Vollpension cafe to visiting the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, we saw examples of marginality and diversity all throughout Vienna. We all left Vienna with a better understanding of what Europe looks like from the margins, which we will soon apply to our group presentations!
Thank you to all our tour guides and to Insight Cities for their organizational work. I also wanted to extend a special thank you to Barbara, who was our primary tour guide and provided immense support for our group throughout the week.
– Jacquelyn LeBlang '28
Learn more about the 360° Program
The 360° Program is an interdisciplinary experience that invites students to delve into a theme or question from multiple disciplinary perspectives by enrolling in a cluster of multiple courses taught by individual faculty in a single semester for the purposes of research and scholarship. Interdisciplinary and interactive, 360° builds on Bryn Mawr's strong institutional history of learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom, placed within a rigorous academic framework.