The Institute was founded in April 2005 and comprises an international team of ten researchers. It is working on a methodological critique of modern biography and a theory of the genre of biography on the basis of insights from social theory, literary studies, philosophy, and gender theory. Alongside six academic biographies and a biographical handbook on exponents of Austrian modernism, several virtual biographies are in progress, in which digital forms of editing and presentation will be employed in the field of biography. The Institute is dedicated to dynamic and interdisciplinary research and is actively advancing the development of new, innovative forms of biographical practice.

Research strands

• History and Theory of Biography
• Hugo von Hofmannsthal
• Eugenie Schwarzwald
• Leopold von Andrian
• Thomas Bernhard
• Ernst Jandl
 

New research strands (from 2012)

• Biographical Handbook on ‘Young Vienna’
• Biography of Mira Lobe
• Virtual Biography
 

Symposia

• Mirror and Mask: Constructions of Biographical Truth
• Inside Stories: Film and Biography
• The Many Lives of Biography: Biography as Paradigm of Cultural Studies
• Biography and Religion
• International Auto/Biography Association Europe Conference (2013)
• Biographies in Times of Flux (2014)

Exhibitions

• Thomas Bernhard (2009, Austrian Theatre Museum)
• Ernst Jandl (2010, Wien Museum)
• Eugenie Schwarzwald (2013)
• Young Vienna (2014)