What does a Head of Department do?

17.11.2022

Martin Kusch who was Head of Department at the Institute Vienna Circle until the end of September 2022 talks about the tasks and his experience in this function. We cordially thank him for his time and effort these past four years and wish his successor, Georg Schiemer, all the best for his new responsibility.

What are the  most important/frequent tasks?

I can answer this question only for the Institute Vienna Circle: participating in the administration of the faculty (attending the faculty conferences and jours fixes with the dean); managing finances (their distribution over different tasks, projects, conferences); dealing with personnel issues (hiring, holidays, projects, office distribution); scientific work (organizing conferences, summer schools, weekly academic talks, editing book series, co-operations); managing the fellowship programme (selecting the fellows, welcoming them, dealing with their problems); there were additional tasks during the worst times of the Covid-19 pandemic (imposing restrictions on office use, etc.) Most of these tasks involve close cooperation with Ms. Sabine Koch and Ms. Zarah Weiss, the two wonderful administrators. There is also an on-going close operation with the Vienna Circle Society.

Please describe a typical day at work.

Most of the above functions are dealt with alongside my 'main' work as a professor of the philosophy department.

What did you like best about being Head of Department?

Organizing the weekly talks and the summer school; meeting the visiting fellows

What are you most happy about to leave behind?

The additional Covid-related tasks; I do no particularly enjoy having to impose restrictions on people.

Is there any advice you would like to give?

Georg Schiemer, my successor, is such an experienced scholar and administrator, he doesn't need my advice.

Which new tasks are you looking forward to?

I supervise or mentor a large number of Master students, PhD students and postdocs. I look forward to having more time for them.