From 27 to 30 October 2025, the Department of Romance Studies received a visit from Dr Tomasz Wysłobocki from the University of Wrocław (Poland). The exchange was organised by Dr Stefan Koch and Dr Katharina Gerhalter and took place as part of the ARQUS University Alliance. The stay was supported by ARQUS Graz and the Office for International Relations. The purpose of the cooperation meeting was to strengthen the collaboration between the Departments of Romance Studies in Graz and Wroclaw. With this aim in mind, members of the institutes held strategic discussions with Tomasz Wysłobocki and developed ideas for future joint projects in teaching and research. In addition, Tomasz Wysłobocki - a French literary scholar specialising in the history, literature and theatre of the Enlightenment and Revolution - not only presented the organisational structure of his institute and the focal points of the individual departments, but also took part as a guest in a seminar on Albert Camus held by Prof. Dr Steffen Schneider, in which an intensive professional exchange took place.
In addition to the universities of Graz and Wroclaw, the European university alliance ARQUS also includes the universities of Granada, Padova, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Minho, Vilius and Maynooth. The aim of the university alliance is to strengthen the individual university locations through cooperation between these universities, to network them internationally and to pursue common goals in research and teaching. To this end, there are several initiatives in which members of the Institute of Romance Studies as well as Tomasz Wysłobocki and other colleagues from ARQUS universities are involved, such as the ARQUS International Forum on Romance Studies. Tomasz Wysłobocki also presented initiatives such as the ARQUS project "AI and language teaching and learning" and the ARQUS Working Group on Plurilingualism. Further information and current calls for proposals for various ARQUS funding programmes and initiatives can be found here.
The intensive exchange in Graz will be immediately followed by a return visit: Dr Stefan Koch will be travelling to Wroclaw at the beginning of November to further intensify the collaboration with his colleagues there. In view of the many shared ideas and points of overlap between the institutes in research and teaching, we look forward to further cooperation in the future.