Memory, History & Identity

Research networks

Our staff also contribute to many research networks:

News

Theorising Cultural Diplomacy

Our research focuses on political, social and cultural norms, the diverse forms of identity which are formed on the basis of these norms, and the verbal and visual representations which play a key role in the on-going renegotiation of both norms and identities.

We study individual societies and cultures, and at the same time examine cross-national phenomena such as the impact of post-modernity, globalisation or migration. Sociology, politics, history, literature and film studies are engaged in a dialogue, enriching each other’s analysis of contemporary cultures and efforts to construct a European identity.

Research focus

Research in this cluster analyses the framing of issues in policies, institutions and public debates in terms of norms and identities. Examining Europe’s national cultures and the continent as a whole, it focuses primarily on responses to transnational developments (globalisation, migration, Europeanisation, postmodernity), asking how political and social factors lead to the emergence of new perspectives, arguments and representational practices.

In this enquiry, politics, sociology, history, literary and film studies inform and complement each other’s explanations and analyses. Cultural production is studied both for its ability to reflect changing conditions and for its capacity to imagine alternatives and model social change.

Core themes

Norms

Staff	Research
Dr Lisbeth Aggestam	Norms and values in European foreign policy Identity politics and foreign policy: Britain, France and Germany
Dr Ingolfur Blühdorn	Societal modernisation and the transformation of social norms. Diversity and change of norms underpinning environmental and democratic politics.
Dr David Clarke	The politics of victimhood (with particular reference to the victims of communism in the former East Germany) The politics of memory in contemporary Germany
Dr David Galbreath	Researches how international organisations shape the security-rights nexus. Work has mostly focused on conflict prevention and resolution around events of ethnic tensions and nationalism. Editor-in-chief of European Security since 2009.
Dr Adalgisa Giorgio	Changes in norms and ideologies that regulate women's lives in Italy. Global childhood: international norms versus local demands in representations and self-representations of children in Italy.
Prof Axel Goodbody	Environmental norms The framing of environmental discourse Risk perception and the (German) literature of climate change
Mr Brian Neve	Research shows how new primary sources shed light on the way certain key norms and identities of the thirties were marginalised or deflected by the post-war political and ideological shifts associated with the Cold War.
Dr Nina Parish	Research focuses on and compares the aesthetic and formal aspects of visual and verbal representations of norms, concentrating on experimentation with book form, the computer and related technologies in the French-speaking world.
Dr Scott Thomas	Research programme centres on how the global resurgence of culture and religion transformation international relations. It challenges the existing constructions of culture, religion, and identity, and examines the impact of culture and religion on key areas in international relations - conflict, cooperation, diplomacy, peace-making, inter-religious dialogue, and economic development.
Dr Anne White	Migrant identities Gender role stereotypes in post-communist Europe

Identities

Staff	Research
Dr Ingolfur Blühdorn	Changing conceptions of identity and their significance for environmental and democratic politics.
Prof Anna Bull	Research focuses on the construction of ethno-territorial identities by collective political actors in Italy and Europe and its implications in terms of policy-making. Researches how former extreme-left and extreme-right Italian terrorists re-construct their personal and collective identity in their recent memoirs.
Dr Adalgisa Giorgio	Identities in transition: the case of Neapolitan identity in contemporary narrative in relation to geography, nature, gender, history and tradition. Feminine subjects in transition in contemporary Italian narratives by women.
Mr Brian Neve	Work explores questions of identity, representation and citizenship in relation to an original case study: of the life and work of Cy Endfield as an American film maker who resettled in Europe as a result of the Hollywood blacklist.
Dr Nina Parish	Research interests include the representation of migrant identities and experiences within the museum space. Recipient of Erasmus Mundus grant for staff exchange in the Museum Studies Department at the University of Sydney, examining how narratives of European integration are articulated in Australian migrant museums and community museums.
Dr Renate Rechtien	Research focuses on explorations of personal and collective identity in relation to place, especially to the urban environment in contemporary German culture. Researches into articulations and re-articulations of gendered identities in contemporary German culture in the context of migration.
Dr Peter Wagstaff	The construction of identity in French autobiographical writing, with particular reference to text and image studies. Literary and filmic representation of migration, frontier crossing, and the diasporic experience.
Dr Anne White	Migrant identities Gender roles in post-communist Europe

Place

Staff	Research
Dr David Clarke	Literature and place Urban space in contemporary cinema
Dr Adalgisa Giorgio	Contemporary representations of Naples between nature and culture, tradition and innovation. The object and idea of house/home in a postmodern world of fragmented selves, migrations, uprooting, and precariousness.
Prof Axel Goodbody	Heimat and local identity Place and cultural memory Place belonging and environmental commitment
Dr Anne White	Translocalism and transnationalism Small-town identities in post-communist Europe

Student research

Some of our student research projects also relate to this cluster.

Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies