Conference and presentation of the first Hammer-Purgstall Prize

Thursday, 6 June 2024

Conference. To mark the 250th birthday of the Graz-born diplomat, court interpreter and researcher Josef von Hammer-Purgstall, the Cluster Times of Multilingualism, Migration and Cultural Transformation organised an international conference together with the Austrian Research Foundation, the Rectorate of the University of Graz and the Institutes of Ancient Studies and Translation Studies. The unveiling of a Hammer-Purgstall medallion by the Rectorate was followed by an academic exchange between the international experts. In addition, students from the Department of Turkish (ITAT) presented the exhibition "The Role of Translators in the Ottoman Empire". (649 characters)

The cluster "Times of Multilingualism, Migration and Cultural Transformation" established the Hammer-Purgstall Prize to mark the 250th birthday of its namesake and awarded it for the first time in 2024 to Walter Höflechner for his services to research into Austrian academic history.

Award ceremony. In future, the prize will be awarded every two years for a lifetime achievement and to a young researcher. In their scientific and/or artistic work, the prizewinners deal with linguistic and cultural transfer processes and their influence on political and social developments in their temporal and spatial depth.