Open Lecture: Eric Jarosinski (@NeinQuarterly)

Writing as @NeinQuarterly the American Germanist and author Eric Jarosinski is currently considered one of the most surprising and amazing Twitter phenomena. Therefore, the Vienna Ball of Sciences has decided to invite Eric as a Twitter chronicler. Eric will comment on the run-up and the ball itself. One particular event will be his talk at the University of Vienna upon invitation of Prof. Ulrike Felt, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, on January 28 at 6.30 pm (for details see below). Please register at ball@wissenschaftsball.at

@NeinQuarterly’s brief and laconic, if not stoic postings range from the complexity of the German language to the comprehension (of sorts) of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Although this might not sound like appropriate subjects for 140-character-tweets Jarosinski has helped to demonstrate the usefulness of social media for the humanities which have long left this mode of comunication to the sciences. This astounding success resulting in an ever-growing follower community (now standing at 125k) went not unnoticed by the classic media. The tweets of the “#failedintellectual” (Jarosinski) are now printed also in the German weekly Die Zeit and the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. In the fall of 2015 his book “Nein. A Manifesto” was published simultaniously in the US, Germany and other countries.