Prof. Peter Strasser
University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria

Speech: The Common Heritage of Mankind and the World Heritage Paradox (Click for abstract)

Peter Strasser studied Austrian law, European ethnology, human rights as well as humanitarian law at the universities of Innsbruck/Austria and Nottingham/UK. (Mag.iur 1989, Mag.phil. 1992, Dr.iur 1994, LL.M. 1995, Dr.phil. 2018).
After practical legal training at different courts in Vienna, he joined the Ministry of Interior in Vienna as legal adviser (1993-1996) and worked as volunteer in an ethnological museum. Since 1997 he served in several international organizations in the field of (World) cultural heritage and cultural property protection. (UNESCO/Paris, IOM/Tirana, EU/Bucharest, OSCE/Kosovo) During these assignments he had the opportunity to join several working groups for the drafting of international legal instruments for the protection of cultural property. After 2008 he worked as adviser for World Heritage in the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture in Vienna.
In 2012 he joined University for Continuing Education Krems as scientist in the field of cultural heritage and in 2015 he became the head of the then newly created Center for Cultural Property Protection at that University. Between 2019 and 2022 he was seconded to the OSCE – Mission in Kosovo as Senior Adviser for cultural heritage protection.
In August 2022 he was appointed as Professor for World Heritage and Cultural Property Protection at the University for Continuing Education Krems. In his research he puts emphasis on the international dimension of cultural heritage protection with focus on sustainability and legal issues. He is author of some 200 publications in the field of cultural heritage protection, heritage legislation, and ethnology. Furthermore, he was member of several working groups for the nomination of World Heritage properties and of the working group on World Heritage of the Alpine Convention. He is member of the University’s Committee for Equality Issues.

Professor Emeritus Mladen Milicevic
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA

Speech: The Current A.I. Possibilities in Music Production (Click for abstract)

Mladen Milicevic received a B.A. (1982) and an M.A. (1986) in music composition and multimedia arts studying at The Music Academy of Sarajevo, in his native Bosnia- Herzegovina. In 1986 Mr. Milicevic came to the United States to study with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, from which he received his masters in experimental music composition (1988). From the University of Miami in Florida, Mr. Milicevic received his doctorate in music composition in 1991, studying with Dennis Kam. For several summers, he also studied with Michael Czajkowski at the Aspen Music School. He was awarded numerous music prizes for his compositions in the former Yugoslavia as well as in Europe. Working in his homeland as a freelance composer for ten years, he composed for theater, films, radio, and television, also receiving several prizes for this body of work. Since he moved to the United States in 1986, Mr. Milicevic has performed his live electronic music, composed for modern dances, made several experimental animated films and videos, set up installations and video sculptures, had exhibitions of his paintings, and scored for films. His academic interests are interdisciplinary, and he has made many presentations at various international conferences on a wide range of topics such as music, film, aesthetics, semiology, sociology, education, artificial intelligence, religion, and cultural studies. Bizarrely enough, in 2003 he has scored film The Room which has now become an international phenomenon as the “worst” film ever made. Since 2023 Mr. Milicevic is Professor Emeritus of the Recording Arts Department at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. There, he has been the Chair of the Recording Arts Department for 11 years, and in 2019 he stepped down from that position to become the first faculty member at Loyola Marymount University who teaches 100% online classes. Now Dr. Milicevic’s primary educational interest is focused on online teaching modalities.

Professor Tatiana Ivushkina
MGIMO University, Russia

Tatiana Ivushkina is a Professor at Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs (MGIMO-University), Russia. She got her Candidate degree (PhD) in Philology from Moscow State University for the thesis "Stylization in Modern English Literature Speech Portrayals"and Doctoral degree (advanced PhD) from Moscow State University for the thesis «Socio-linguistic Aspects of English Speech Development (in speech portrayals of the upper classes of Great Britain in the 19-20th c. English Literature)». Her research interests are social linguistics, stylistics, stylization in speech portrayals, upper-class speech, English & American literature and culture, innovative methods of teaching and intercultural communication. She is an executive secretary and editor of the journal "Philology at MGIMO" and author of articles in refereed journals and international conference proceedings.

THE STRATEGIC FEATURES OF SOCIETY CONVERSATION

Abstract: In the focus of linguistic research is the study of conversation among upper class characters in the 21st century British literature through the prism of the strategic features determined in the French salons of the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, which include politesse, esprit, gallantry, complaisance, enjouement and flattery. Being singled out as the main socially and strategically marked features of society talk, they were traced in modern literature in order to verify or refute their invariability and relevance today. The novels by Jeffrey Archer, Julian Fellowes, David Nicholls, Kazuo Ishiguro were the basis on which the research is done. The results have shown that despite all the changes taken place in society since the eighteenth century, the features established in French salons are valid today but find their reflection in a more simplified and implicit way.

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