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Wolfgang Zach, Mag. phil. , Dr. phil. , D.Litt. (Hon.)
Professor of English Language and Literature (Chair)
Head of Department
English Department
University of Innsbruck
Innrain 52
6020 Innsbruck
Austria
Tel. ++43-512-507-4196, 4152, 4155, 4151
Fax. ++43512-507-2882. 2969
Short CV
Taught at the English Department of Graz University (Austria). Founded and chaired the section 'New Literatures in English' there before his appointment to the Chair (Full Professorship) of English Language and Literature at the University of Innsbruck in 1994. Adjunct Honorary Professor at Fiji University. Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from ESUST/Enugu State University of Science and Technology in 2008.
Intensive activities also in the field of university organization and politics: Chair of ULV at Graz University, Chair of UPV Innsbruck and of the Austrian UPV, member of the Academic Senates at Graz Univ. and Innsbruck Univ. (25 years). Organization of several national and international conferences, projects, assessments, reports and papers in the press, press conferences, for many years cooperation with international organizations like OECD, DHV, VSHD etc.
Visiting Professor/Research Fellow at about fifteen universities in Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Malta, Canada, Egypt, Nigeria, Australia, Singapore, Japan. Numerous lectures at universitites and conferences in 30 countries. Hosted several international conferences in the field of English, Irish and Postcolonial Studies.
Received diverse fellowships as well as national and international awards for his scholarly work (e.g. Alexander-von-Humboldt-Fellowship, JSPS-Fellowship, Fellowship of the Japan Foundation, I.M. Meyer Award of NUS, Pro-Meritis-Award of Graz University, Honorary Award of the City of Graz, Order of Merit in Gold of the Austrian Republic).
Introduced the Study of 'Postcolonial Literatures in English' at Graz University. Director of the Centre for the International Study of Literatures in English, an international scholarly network (set up at Graz in 1987, transferred to Innsbruck in 1994).
Past Vice-President of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literature and of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Past President of the Austrian Association of University Professors.
Main areas of research: 'Literatures in English' (esp. transcultural aspects, national stereotypes, racism, slavery, globalization), Irish Literature, English Literature of the 18th Century, Literary Theory.
Current research projects: Indigenous Australian Literature and Culture (esp. drama), Slavery and Literature (Research Project, Grant of the Austrian Research Council 2004 and the Tyrolean Research Council 2006 and 2008), Racism, Ethnocentricity, and Literature, Language Policy and Global Role of English, 18th-Century English and Irish Literature (Swift, Goldsmith)
(Co)editor and Advisory Board member of five journals and two series of monographs.
16 books (author and editor), 75 scholarly articles in journals and collections of essays, also reviews, and newspaper articles. Supervised more than 200 MA theses and a considerable number of PhD dissertations.
Some of his books (author or editor): 'Poetic Justice' (Tübingen, 1986): standard work on this literary doctrine; Literary Interrelations. Ireland, England and the World, 3 vols., ed. with H. Kosok (Tuebingen: 1986); Literature(s) in English, ed. (Frankfurt and N.Y., 1990); English Literature and the University Curriculum, ed. (Frankfurt and N.Y., 1992); Nationalism vs. Internationalism. Inter)National Dimensions of Literatures in English, ed. with K. Goodwin (Tübingen, 1996); Swift: The Enigmatic Dean (ed. with R. Freiburg and A. Löffler, Tuebingen 1998); Rutherford Mayne. Selected Plays, ed., with Introd. (Gerrards Cross and Washington, 2000); English Studies: Past - Present - Future, ed. (Hamburg 2002). Literatures in English: Priorities of Research, ed. With M. Kenneally (Tuebingen 2008); Literatures in English: Ethnic, Colonial, and Cultural Encounters. Ed. with J. Hurtley and M. Kenneally (Tuebingen 2010, forthcoming); Racism, Slavery, and Literature, ed. with U. Pallua (Vienna 2010, forthcoming); Jack Davis: Aborginal Artist and Human Rights Activist (in preparation)