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"Prejudices are the starting point of many accumulating disasters in this world", Sir Peter Ustinov stated in a letter on the occasion of the foundation of the Intitute. And he warned: "Beware stale opinions, dead opinions, inherited opinions, thoughtlessly adopted."
It was at the initiative and with the personal collaboration of Sir Peter Ustinov that the Institute was founded in Vienna in 2003. The Institute is aimed both at combating prejudices in our society and at contributing to a better understanding of prejudices.

Notes on the Institute's Publications

Handbook of Prejudice

At the request of the Sir Peter Ustinov Institute, the Handbook was developed at the Institute of Conflict Research by Professor Anton Pelinka, Dr. Karin Stögner and Magistra Karin Bischof. It contains descriptions and analyses of the major socio-political prejudices. It serves as a source of information and as a decision-making aid for academics, teachers, social workers, personnel managers and people interested in the subject.

All the texts were authored by renowned academics: Werner Bergmann, Dietlinde Gipser, Saskia Sassen, Susan T. Fiske, Rainer Kampling, Klaus Ottomeyer, Wilhelm Heitmeyer/Andreas Zick, Ruth Wodak, Manfred Nowak/Konstanze Pritz, Phyllis Chesler, Dietmar Mieth, Wolfgang Benz/Peter Widmann. Previous Ustinov guest professor Aleida Assmann was enlisted as author of the preface.

Special thanks are due to voestalpine AG, which acted as sponsor and funded the project.

Cambria Press NY will publish the English-language version in 2009 under the title Handbook of Prejudice (for more information see www.cambriapress.com). A German-language edition is planned for 2010.

Materials on "How to deal with prejudice"

This project is the direct outcome of the research conference on Vorurteile in der Kindheit: Wie entstehen sie? Wie kann man gegensteuern? (Prejudices in childhood: What is their origin? How can they be counteracted?), held in March 2007. The principal insight gained was that children can both spread and become victims of prejudices at a much earlier age than generally assumed - and that consequently due attention needs to be paid to this problem already when children are still in their infancy.

The object of the project is to craft materials for teachers and school administrations. The idea is to help understand the impact of prejudices and hostile perceptions on and among children and to respond to them at school level, because those exposed to contempt even in their infancy feel denigrated and discriminated against. This is the seedbed for self-doubts, uncertainty and ultimately learning inhibitions - each one of them the possible cause of blighting the chances of leading a fulfilled life and finding a satisfying job.

The materials will appear in two editions, each adjusted to the children’s development level:

The materials are designed for use in schools in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. They have been formulated by the authors with the support of a team of academics coming from the three countries. The funding, too, is provided by the three countries: by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture and by the Ustinov Foundations in Düsseldorf/Munich and Geneva.

The special Academic Advisory Council is composed of Prof. Wolfgang Benz, Head of the Centre for Antisemitism Research at the Technische Universität Berlin, Dr. Kurt Messmer, University of Teacher Education Central Lucerne, Switzerland, Siegried Frech, Agency for Civic Education, Baden Württemberg, and Prof. Anton Pelinka, Head of the Institute of Conflict Research, Vienna.

The project is run by the Democracy Centre Vienna under the guidance of Mag. Gertraud Diendorfer. The materials are published by the Sir Peter Ustinov Institute. The first part for primary schools was finalised in the summer of 2009. It was authored by: Petra Wagner, Hedwig Huschitt, Tamara Sturm-Schubert, Elisabeth Nevyjel, Brigitte Glur, and Elfriede Windischbauer.

In Austria, materials are distributed to schools by the Ministry of Education, and they can be downloaded from the homepages of the Ustinov Institute: www.ustinov.at and of the Democracy Centre: www.demokratiezentrum.org. In Germany, the Sir Peter Ustinov Foundation will make the materials accessible for downloading at the homepage: www.ustinov-stiftung.org. Distribution in Switzerland is still to be decided on.

The second part - designed for secondary level I - is planned to be published in 2010.

Publication of the book Vorurteile und Genozide (Prejudices and genocides)

This book will be edited by Professor Wolfgang Benz at the request of the Sir Peter Ustinov Institute. In addition to an introductory essay, covering, inter alia, the effects of prejudices and hostile perceptions, the book will contain eight specialist articles on the following genocides: Herero war, Armenian genocide, holocaust, genocides of Sinti and Roma, Pol Pot regime, Yugoslavia, Ruanda, and Darfur.

The Sir Peter Ustinov Institute is especially interested in the publication of this book, because in his guest lectures entitled Völkermord im 20. Jahrhundert, Zur Geschichte des Genozids vom Vorurteil zur ‘ethnischen Säuberung’ (Genocide in the 20th century. On the history of genocide - from prejudice to ‘ethnic cleansing’) Professor Benz highlighted how threat perceptions had had a major share in making the above-mentioned genocides possible. This aspect deserves maximum attention. The book is intended to point out the potential consequences of demonising minorities and to spread this warning to the widest possible circle of readers.

Sponsors have provided us with the means for realising this project, and we should like to take this occasion to express special thanks to them. The book Vorurteile und Genozide (Prejudices and genocides) will appear in 2010.

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