Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Stefan Michael Newerkla

Prof. Newerkla is Head of the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of Vienna. He studied Slavic, English and American Studies mainly in Vienna from 1992 to 1998. He wrote his dissertation on diglossia in the educational system of the Czech lands using the example of the West Bohemian city of Pilsen in the years 1740–1918. He habilitated in 2003 with a thesis on language contact between Czech, Slovak and German, and in the same year he won the competition for the post of Professor of West Slavic Linguistics at the Viennese Department of Slavonic Studies. Since then he has been providing linguistic training in the field of West Slavic linguistics. His academic work focuses on Czech studies in a wider context, contact and historical sociolinguistics.

He is the author of a number of monographs and more than 150 scientific articles, has collaborated on Czech language textbooks, is the principal investigator of several research grants and currently manages approximately EUR 700,000 in project funds. He is a fellow (full member) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a member of the Board of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), the Steering Committee of AKTION Austria – Czech Republic, the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University and the International Council of Palacký University. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Conference of Austrian and Czech Historians on the Common Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the Austrian BMEIA. Furthermore, he is a member of the editorial boards of several specialist journals, including Czech Literature, Journal for Modern Philology, Linguistica Brunensia, Slovo a smysl, Studie z aplikované lingvistiky (SALi), Listy filologické and Slovo a slovesnost. He is a reviewer for several funding agencies (GAČR, DFG, SNF, VEGA, SRDA, NAWA, ...) and the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2017 he was awarded the J. Dobrovsky Honorary Medal for Merit in Philological and Philosophical Sciences of the CAS, in 2023 the Premia Bohemica, in 2024 the Medal for Merit in Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.