1962Founding of the Commission for History of Austrian Theatre (Chairperson: Heinz Kindermann) for publication of the series Austrian Theatre History. 
   
   
1986    Reorganisation of the basic research platform, addressing new primary research into history of Viennese theatre, the Burgtheater and its audiences, courtly baroque theatre, theatre of the Casa de Austria, and Jesuit theatre (Chairperson: Margret Dietrich). 
   
1992    Renaming as the Commission for the History of Theatre (Chairperson: Margret Dietrich). 
   
1998    Implementation of new fundamental approaches relating to cultural sciences in combination with the former theatre history research (Chairperson: Moritz Csáky). 
   
1999    Renaming as the Commission for Culture Studies and Theatre History (KKT). members : link 
   
2003    First ernst mach forum, dialogue of science and scholarship. 
   
2006    Founding of the Centre for Cultural Research – Grouping of research institutes at the historical philosophical section of the ÖAW into seven centres. In addition to the KKT, the Centre for Cultural Research consists of the Commission for the “Fackel” Text Dictionary, the Austrian Academy Corpus, the Commission for the History of Art, and the Commission for Music Research.
   		 
   
2007    Constitutive Conference of the Centre in cooperation with an international advisory board. The program and staff of the former Commission for Literature are incorporated into the KKT. Also included in this move are the Literary and Cultural Studies Committee of the Austrian and Hungarian Academies of Sciences and the periodical “Sprachkunst”. Application for reorganisation into an Institute of Culture Studies and History of Theatre (IKT). 
   
2008    On 20 June 2008, the General Assembly of the Austrian Academy of Sciences decides to transform the Commission for Culture Studies and Theatre History (KKT) into an institute from 1 September 2009, for an initial period of three years (Director: Moritz Csáky; as of 1 March 2009 Michael Rössner). 
   
2009    The new research cluster Translation is implemented into the IKTs research portfolio under the new director, Michael Rössner. At the same time, the project Eurosphere. Diversity and the European Public Sphere. Towards a Citizens’ Europe (6th EU programme 2007–2012) as well as a staff member and project staff from the EIF (Institute for European Integration Research of the ÖAW) are incorporated into the IKT to sustain the new research cluster. 
   
2010    Reorganisation of the Centre for Cultural Research: in addition to the IKT, the Centre consists of the Commission for the History of Art, and the Commission for Music Research. (Speaker: Gernot Gruber). 
   
2011    On October 1, 2011 Michael Rössner, Director of the IKT, takes over the role of Speaker of the Centre for Cultural Research for a three-year term. 
   
2012       The term limit of the Institute was suspended after having an excellent evaluation in November 2011. 
   
2013       Acquisition of new Third-Party-Funded Projects (1 APART Grant, 2 FWF Projects) 
   
2015    Expansion of the scientific administration office (events and third-party funds). Retirement of two long-time staff members at the end of the year. 
   
2017 After a successful second evaluation, the current director’s management period is extended until the end of 2020. 
   
2018After a retirement, a new staff member is appointed to the vacant research areas. Acquisition of third-party funded research projects that were developed at the institute (Elise-Richter-Program Fund). 
   
2019Acquisition of further high-tier research projects that were developed at the institute (2 ERC Grants, as well as a DACH and FWF project). 10th anniversary of IKT ( see theMOVIE) 
   
2020The habilitation of a staff member increases the number of habilitated researchers at the IKT to six. Extension of the current director’s management period until September of 2021. 
   
2021On 31 December 2021, Director Michael Rössner and Deputy Director Elisabeth Großegger retire. 
   
2022From 1 January 2022, historian Johannes Feichtinger heads the IKT as interim director, and political scientist Ljiljana Radonić as interim vice-director. 
   
2023On 1 July 2023, following an international scoping consultation regarding its future direction, the IKT established three research groups: Knowledge Production | Memory Culture | Antisemitism Studies. 
   
2024Effective from 1 April 2024, the IKT was redesignated the Institute of Culture Studies (IKW).