"A Bigger 'We': Rethinking National Identity in Divisive Times."

Wir weisen auf einen interessanten online-Vortrag unserer EC2U-Partneruniversität in Umeå (Schweden) hin, der nicht nur fachlich relevant, sondern auch sehr aktuell ist: 

Titel: "A Bigger 'We': Rethinking National Identity in Divisive Times." von Prof. Elizabeth Weiser
am Mittwoch, 14.10., 13 bis 14 Uhr 

Den Link zur Anmeldung finden Sie hierExterner Link.

Intro: What holds a community together when it disagrees about its past? In this hybrid lecture organized by Umeå University, Prof. Elizabeth Weiser explores how museums shape who "we" are, and how that "we" can grow to include those long left out of the story.

How do we develop, sustain, and promote a sense of communal identity in divisive times?
Museums do more than preserve history. They select, arrange, and interpret objects and narratives, and in doing so they shape how communities understand themselves. Prof. Elizabeth Weiser studies museums as rhetorical institutions, and her work shows how this power can either reinforce national identity or open it up. Her book Museum Rhetoric (Penn State Press, 2017) examines how museums construct and sustain national identity. Her newest book, Rhetorics of Repair in Museums of Conscience (Routledge, 2026), turns to museums created by historically excluded communities, such as minorities, workers, and immigrants. It asks how the collective "we" might be expanded rather than merely reinforced. Drawing on institutions that confront suppressed histories, competing memories, and contested belonging, Weiser presents four rhetorical techniques that museums and communities can use to create room for more complex public identities. These are identities that acknowledge difference and historical conflict while still sustaining a meaningful sense of shared life.