Since 1997 Maria-Regina Kecht has been a faculty member in German Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas. In addition to her teaching and research activities, she has been editor of the journal "Modern Austrian Literature" since 2005. Due to the great success of two NEH Summer Institutes (2001 and 2006) she submitted another proposal for a NEH Institute, which is - if funded - also going to take place in Vienna.

Prior to her arrival at Rice, she taught at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Her research activities focus on 20th century Austrian literature, particularly post-1945 authors. She is completing a monograph that discusses gender aspects of memory work as represented in Austrian literature on National Socialism, and (together with Prof. Schreckenberger at the University of Vermont) she is working on a book on Vienna and the teaching of cultural literacy.

Kecht holds a Dr. phil. summa cum laude from the University of Innsbruck, a M.A. in comparative literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Teacher's Diploma in Russian from Moscow State University.

• Why Austria does not need an "Exzellenz Universitaet" (April 19, 2006)