The former Franz Werfel scholarship holder Vahidin Preljević was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art on the Austrian National Holiday. The ceremony took place on October 26th, 2017 in the town hall in Sarajevo; the cross of honour was presented to him by Mag. Martin Pammer, Austrian ambassador in Sarajevo, on behalf of the federal president.
It was pointed out that Vahidin Preljević is continuously contributing to the cultural approach between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Austria with his scientific projects and publications and that he is always endeavouring to make the Austrian literature known in the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language area. Especially his contribution to the development of a critical commemorative culture and his merits in the organisation of a big, EU-supported conference in 2014 to commemorate the assassination of the successor to the throne Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 were recognised.
Vahidin Preljević was a Franz Werfel scholarship holder in Vienna from 2006 to 2008. He holds a chair for German-speaking literature and cultural theory at the University of Sarajevo and is the head of the doctoral programme in German language and German-speaking literature within the context of media culture at that same university. Since 2013 he has also been the scientific advisor of the Austrian library in Sarajevo. Moreover, Prof Preljević works as a translator of literature and as an essayist. So far he has written or published several books and approximately one hundred essays, treatises and shorter contributions on the German-speaking literature and cultural theory.
We wish to congratulate Mr Vahidin Preljević on this special distinction!