THCAS Research Travel Grant
Grant
Overview
abstract
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My research focuses on the role of religious iconography and mythologies in the formation and maintenance of personal, national, and cultural identity--a topic of particular importance since 9/11 and now even more given recent (and ongoing) electoral gains by the AfD political party in Germany and the Freedom Party in Austria. The political parties routinely characterize Austrian and German national and cultural identity as "Christian." My research analyzes invocations of Christian iconography and the Holy Family in contemporary literature as a means of conceiving of Austrian and German identity in the 21st century. The interdisciplinarity and timeliness of this topic lends itself to grant applications through agencies here in the U.S. and abroad such as the German Academic Exchange Service. To that end it invites and demands collaboration, which I plan to pursue at the conference mentioned. The intermingling of religious and political identity is also a topic of importance here in the U. S. so there may be opportunities for collaboration on campus as well.
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