EIHS Symposium: Back from the Archives: Identity, Culture, and the Politics of Writing History

The recent explosion, or perhaps just greater visibility, of ethno-racial, ethno-religious, and other nationalist projects that seek to tightly intertwine identity and culture underscore the necessity of re-examining and freshly analyzing the connections between culture and identity. This nexus, though extraordinarily durable, is also mutable over time, putting the practice of history in dialogue with new or transformed communities of interest who have claims on shifting visions of culture. Our three panelists, all freshly back from a year immersed in their own research, are well positioned to explore how the conventions of history and its writing both facilitate and impede these endeavors as they discuss how they must both lean on and push against history.

Panelists:

• Farina Mir (Associate Professor, History, University of Michigan)
• Ian Moyer (Associate Professor, History, University of Michigan)
• Carina Ray (A.M. and H.P. Bentley Chair in African History and Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan)
• Valerie A. Kivelson (moderator; Thomas N. Tentler Collegiate Professor; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History, University of Michigan)

This event presented by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible in part by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.