Lecture series

The lecture series of the research group “Identity and Heritage” is taking place regularly on Tuesdays at 6.30 pm and alternating between the locations of the research group (Weimar, Berlin, Dessau and Erfurt). Current positions in cultural heritage research are presented and discussed in a 45-minute lecture. Audio recordings of the lectures can be listened to in our audio archive.

06.05.2025

18:30

Berlin

Katharina Rotté: Travertinschichten: Geologie und Architektur in Rom (DE)

Travertin ist ein Gestein, das aufgrund seiner Morphologie zum Nachdenken über Geologie anregt: Die charakteristischen Bänderungen sind Spuren der Schichten, in denen dieses Süßwasserkalksediment wächst. In der Stadt Rom begegnet man dieser geologischen Evidenz überall. Der Vortrag nimmt dies zum Anlass, Bauen als geomorphen Vorgang zu beschreiben und die Genese der Stadt Rom allegorisch mit der Petrologie des Travertins zu parallelisieren.

13.05.2025

18:45

Weimar

Jochen Kibel: Resistant dwelling in colonial spaces (DE)

Subjectivation, space and the subjects of rights of colonial urbanism Kenya’s colonial legacy consists in colonial spatial planning and the establishment of a plantation economy that made millions of Kenyans landless, as well as in the residential architecture of colonial urbanism. In Nairobi, architecture was used during colonialism to spatially segregate, fixate, control and the attempt to mould colonial subjects. At the same time, these spatial policies were constantly undermined in Kenya, not only by the Mau Mau resistance movement, but also in the everyday practices of the inhabitants of colonial architecture.

20.05.2025

18:30

Berlin

Áine Ryan: Material Tells: A spatial examination of everyday landscape through a vernacular building type. (EN)

The talk describes an experienced landscape that was perceptible to Gaelic-Irish society in certain landscape features. Among these features was an outdoor ballcourt widely built as a social space during colonial English rule.

27.05.2025

18:45

Weimar

Elisaveta Dvorakk: Affect and Identification: Aesthetic and Epistemological Potentials of Aftermath Photography. (GER)

Aftermath photography engages with the traces and repercussions of violence without depicting the actual event. This lecture analyses the epistemological potentials of this photographic genre, which operates at the intersection of aesthetics, image critique, and knowledge production. The starting point is the question of how aftermath photography functions within an episteme of visibility, in which violence is often either rendered invisible or circulates in the media as hyper-affective and hyper-aestheticised shock imagery.

03.06.2025

18:30

Berlin

Darja Jesse: »a unifying bond of spirit between all Germans«. New and old legitimization strategies for the Germanisches Nationalmuseum after the Second World War (DE)

The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg was founded in 1852 on the initiative of the lawyer and collector Hans von und zu Aufseß (1801-1872) as a public foundation. The purpose defined by Aufseß was ambitious; with its collections of German history, literature and art, the museum was to preserve the »property of the German nation«.