About

Katharina Gsöllpointner is a trained communication, media, and art theorist with a special focus on the crossover of media aesthetics, digital technologies, cybernetics of art, and with a long lasting passion for cross-disciplinary thinking and acting. From 1991 to 1995 Katharina was manager of the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. She has conceived, led, and carried out a series of inter- and transdisciplinary research projects on issues of media aesthetics and media art.

Since 2019 she is head of department and also main coordinator of the double degree master’s programme “Global Challenges and Sustainable Developments” which is carried out in collaboration with Tongji University Shanghai. In that programme she holds the project-oriented course Cross-Disciplinary Project Work as well as the seminar Reflection of Study Work and Progress. 

Mitra Kazerani is an information designer with a longstanding experience in exhibition and graphic design. As part of her professional experience she also worked for various production teams for independent theater companies in Vienna and Berlin. 

Since 2010 she has been working at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, first in the department of Graphic Design and the Institute of Design in matters of organisation, public relations, events and portfolio presentations, and since autumn 2019 in the new department "International Programmes in Sustainable Developments".

Ulrike Payerhofer studied art history and cultural management with a focus on participatory practices in Vienna. She has been heading a contemporary art gallery as curator for several years and joined the University of Applied Arts as Senior Artist in 2019 for the project UniNEtZ (Universities and Sustainable Development Goals). The focus of her curatorial practice and research is on multidisciplinary collaborations and artistic strategies at the intersection of arts, science and society. 

In 2022 Ulrike initiated together with Max Muhr the platform “Projektwerkstatt – creating collaborations for sustainability”. The platform works across institutions and initiates and designs and conducts transdisciplinary collaborations and projects on sustainability. Ulrike heads the Projektwerkstatt from a curatorial perspective. For IPSD she works as a Senior Artist with focus on bringing together teaching of artistic practices, issues of sustainability, and cross-disciplinary research.

Sabine Hinrichs studied Sinology at the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna and spent a year abroad at the University of Nanjing, China, in 2014/15. She is currently working on her dissertation which focuses on the portrayal of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in early modern Chinese historical writing in order to investigate the integration process of non-Han Chinese peoples into a modern nation-state through historiography. She is deputy chair at the independent online-magazine dasReispapier, which publishes articles related to East Asia.

Starting from 2017 she has been teaching courses related to Chinese history and culture as well as to academic writing at the Department of East Asian Studies and, starting from October 2022, she teaches the course Introduction to Chinese Language, History and Culture at the Angewandte.

Irene Jancsy is a communications expert who has been working with the international humanitarian organisation Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for over fifteen years. In her current job, she is responsible for the development and training of MSF’s field communications staff around the world. Intrigued by the dynamics of intercultural encounters, she became an intercultural trainer and coach. In this programme she facilitates the course Introduction into Intercultural and Transcultural Collaboration adopting a highly practical approach.

Irene holds a master’s degree in Roman languages from the University of Vienna and worked in journalism before entering the humanitarian sector.

Elisabeth Kopf is an environmental and human rights activist, designer, artist, curator, educator and teaches the course Experimental Project Work as well as part of Cross-disciplinary Project Work. Her autodidactic studies and projects led to the opening of the studio "Design Buero Baustelle" in 1999, where international clients as well as self-initiated projects keep her and her higly transdiciplinary network busy.

Elisabeth's work stands for cross-border thinking, for conceptual and progressive design, and she is relentlessly engaged with future-oriented initiatives. She is the founder of "Babylon Design School", and she has co-initiated the research and education project "Alphabet of Life – Nature’s Learning Lab". She is a member of "AGI – Alliance Graphique Internationale" and of "Design Austria".

Chris Newman looks back on over two decades of professional experience in Management Consulting, Executive Training and Higher Education. He worked for leading consultancies such as Ernst & Young and Cap Gemini, high-tech companies like Ericsson, and has a long track record of teaching at various universities and FHs in Austria. Today he works as an executive trainer, coach, and consultant based in Austria focusing on Leadership, Change Management and Organizational Development issues. Due to his degree in Economics he continues to teach some Economics courses but given his professional experience, he also covers a wide array of Management courses. 

Being Austrian-American and having lived, worked and studied in Europe, the US and Asia, he brings a multi-cultural perspective into his class- and seminar rooms. Chris teaches the course Communication & Presentation Skills for Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Teamwork.