On the path to Doctorates in 2012

The entire staff and faculty are looking forward to a prosperous and productive 2012, and none more so than four of our faculty who are working towards the academic right to place ‘Dr’ in front of their names before the year is out.

Alongside the task of researching and writing their doctoral dissertations, they have actively participated in various research projects and committees throughout their time at MU, and taught courses in the bachelor program from e-marketing to mathematics and statistics to academic writing.

Working under supervision of MU's PD Dr. Astrid Dickinger in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management (THM), Clemens Költringer is near completion of ‘’Evaluating Destination Online Representation Measurement: Leveraging Online Media for Market Research’’, investigating how conventional destination images are affected and represented in today’s online media sphere and aims to transfer conventional destination image measurement techniques to an online setting.

Fellow Tourism lecturer Florian Aubke is putting the finishing touches on his research entitled ‘’A Model of Effective Communication Structures in Expert-led Teams - An Application to Hotel Revenue Management Teams’’ under the guiding hand of MU president Prof. Dr. Karl Wöber. Through the application of social network analysis, Florian has contrasted the communication structures and performance measurements from 38 international hotel revenue management teams.

MRes Florian Aubke, Mag. (FH) Clemens Költringer

Down the THM hallway, Xavier Matteucci’s thesis is primarily concerned with how foreign visitors experience intangible heritage, in the form of flamenco music and dance courses, and attempts to discern the role that the body and senses play in that experience. Under working title ‘’The tourist experience of intangible heritage - the role of the body and senses’’ his magnum opus (to date) will soon be finished with the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ronald Kurt of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Essen, and MU’s own Prof. Dr. Andreas Zins.

In the Department of Public Governance, Karin Glaser is in the final stages before dissertation defense on (working title) ‘’ Why terrorism emerges. An empirical investigation’’, which deals with the causes and consequences of terrorism, and seeking out effective policy measures and reforms for countering terrorism threats. 

Xavier Matteucci, Msc, and Mag. Karin Glaser

Clemens, Florian, and Karin have been with MU since opening our doors in 2007, with Xavier following shortly after. As they began their theses concurrently with taking up position on Kahlenberg, it is a major achievement for both our scholars and the university to have four faculty members close to finishing the research they have been undertaking during their MODUL years.

In-depth dissertation abstracts from all our doctoral candidates can be found at www.modul.ac.at/doctoral-dissertations-mu-faculty

We wish them all the greatest success on their doctorate path!