Christiane Wilke teaches course in Vienna
Curious to hear what our faculty have been up to this summer?
Professor Christiane Wilke recently returned from Vienna, Austria where she was was invited to be a visiting professor at the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Law for their summer term. The Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna is the oldest and largest Faculty of Law that operates largely in German, teaching law since 1365.
The visit included teaching a class and giving a research presentation to faculty, Postdocs, and PhD students.
Professor Wilke will be teaching a fourth year seminar this fall on International Law and Armed Conflict (LAWS 4606). The course she taught in Vienna was short and intense: five days with two two hour classes every day. This gave an opportunity to try out some of the materials she plans to use in her class this coming year. The short and intense course was also an opportunity to build trust and have complex conversations about law, armed conflict, memory, and responsibility.
It was clear that the students, most of whom grew up in Austria or Ireland, approached the course materials in part through the lens of their own (and their families’) experiences with armed conflict. I am thinking of these discussions and of the trust we built throughout the course when I am preparing to teach LAWS 4606 International Law and Armed Conflict.
Professor Wilke has been on sabbatical since July 2025, returning this summer, and has made progress on a new research project that investigates how the US military has rationalized civilian casualties during the war in Iraq and Syria 2014-2018. The visiting professor position also included an opportunity to present this new research. She was also awarded a 2025 FPGA Teaching Excellence Award.
“Teaching courses that address students’ interests and foster their engagement with peers and communities is one of my priorities. I’m really looking forward to teaching this new to me course.”
Registration for LAWS 4606 “International Law of Armed Conflict” will open to students in July. Check out the Carleton Public Class Schedule for more details.
If you have any further questions our courses, you can contact our undergraduate advisor at law@carleton.ca.