Prof. Dr. Alexander Burka
Political and Cultural Scientist
CIVIC GmbH –Institute for International Education
Location: Vienna
burka@civic-institute.eu
- PhD in Political Science, Otto-Suhr-Institute, Free University of Berlin „Austrian Foreign Cultural Policy in Poland and Czechoslovakia since 1945“
- Eastern European Studies - Sociology and Culture of Eastern Europe, Political Science, Russian, French and Czech languages at the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, Aleksanterii Instituti Helsinki in Finland and Université Charles de Gaulle III Lille in France
- Political Science, Modern History and Russian Philology at the University of Vienna and University of Economics Vienna - History of Society, Eastern Europe, Gender and Theory of Colonialism
He has taught as a lecturer at the University of Latvia in Riga (1999–2000), at the Otto Suhr Institute of Freie Universität Berlin (2000–2001), at the Institute for East European Studies of Freie Universität Berlin (2001–2003), at the University of Bonn (2010), and at the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine (2009–2013).
Since 2014, he has taught “Intercultural Management” at FH Wiener Neustadt (University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt); since 2019 also at the University of Graz; and from 2020 to 2022 at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow. Since 2015, he has been a Senior Lecturer, and since 2021 Professor (University of Applied Sciences) for International and CEE Business Communication at FH Burgenland (University of Applied Sciences Burgenland).
He served as Director of the German-Latvian Social Science Center at the University of Latvia in Riga (1999–2000) and as Director of the Austrian Institute in Kraków, Poland (2005–2008).
Since 2001, he has been responsible for the design and delivery of advanced training seminars on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture and the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs in, among others, Algeria, Armenia, Egypt, Belarus, Brazil, China, Estonia, Georgia, India, Iran, Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Mexico, Mongolia, Austria, Poland, Russia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United States, and Cyprus.
He has served as a seminar leader and lecturer for Goethe-Institutes in Egypt, Belarus, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Cyprus, and has provided initial and advanced training for teachers in the field of foreign-language education at the international level.
He has delivered advanced training for European civil servants, including for the Academy of Public Administration at the Austrian Federal Chancellery in Vienna, the Federal Academy of Public Administration in Brühl/Berlin, the Hessian Ministry of the Interior, the Saarland Ministry of the Interior, and Goethe-Institutes.
He has also lectured in intercultural competence, including for the Academy of Public Administration at the Austrian Federal Chancellery in Vienna, the German Judicial Academy in Trier, the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice in Munich, and the Hessian Police Academy in Wiesbaden.
He is Managing Director of the CIVIC Institute for International Education in Düsseldorf and Head of the Vienna Office.
Working languages: German, English, Russian, Polish, and French
Areas of expertise
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Intercultural communication and competence: Russia, Poland, Slavic-speaking countries, Balkan countries, the Baltic states, Austria, and Germany
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Transnational administrative cooperation: Germany – Austria – Poland
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European integration and the European Union
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Advanced training for executive staff in the international public sector
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Methodology and didactics of knowledge transfer
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Design of simulation games
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New media, online teaching, and foreign-language instruction
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Methodology and didactics of regional/cultural studies in foreign-language teaching
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Foreign cultural policy and cultural transfer East–West / West–East
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Language training: German – Russian – Polish