Identity Hunters
In this video essay, Vanesa Valcheva examines how nationalist narratives usurp convenient historical figures, mythologising them as the cannons of a specific ethnonational spirit. Through the example of Bulgarian-North Macedonian relations, Vanesa investigates the necessity of history making nationalisms legitimate. Video Transcript Nationalism is illegitimate without history. Nationalist narratives can exist successfully if specific episodes […]
Written by David Williams Andrew Tate – Chances are if you’re under 35 and not living under a rock, you will have come across this name. The Times reported that Tate gathered more than 13 billion views in 2022, making him a hugely influential figure on the internet teaching young men about women and how […]
In this podcast, Kemal Mohamedou traces the global trajectory of neo-authoritarianism, from its conceptions and configurations, to the ramifications it leaves in its wake. The insightful episode investigates today’s disciples of neo-authoritarianism and their “shift away from democracy, multilateralism, and cooperative security.” Featured Imagery: Sigmund Freud artwork by David Cerny hanging over a street in […]
Written by: Kristýna Kvitkova “Half a century ago, the world had a chance to stop a ruthless aggressor and missed it. I pledge to you: We will not make that mistake again,” stated President George H. W. Bush on 20th August 1990 following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.The “mistake” he vowed to never repeat was the Munich Conference. In September 1938, Adolf Hitler threatened to start a war in Europe by invading Czechoslovakia in order to annex the Sudetenland, a Czechoslovak frontier […]
In this podcast, Marion Gabriel explores the power of symbols in redefining history through means of omnipresence. She investigates the fasces as a poignant example of emblems’ role in constructing a national soul and character. Featured Imagery: Wikipedia.
In a meeting with an IRA gun smuggler the historian Richard English noted how easily the Republican could explain Irish history: “the Brits – they’re the problem, and will be. They have been since 1169, and will be until such time as they leave”
The Haitian Revolution that began in 1791 and ended thirteen years later with the creation of the first independent state in the Caribbean and Latin America in 1804, is as C.L.R James notes, a truly epic story. It was the metamorphosis of a socially disaggregated and dislocated collection of people, united often only by the continent of their origin, into a revolutionary polity and self-identifying nation.
Taiwan throughout history had been given the status of terra nullius, until the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty was able to see the strategic value of the island. He eventually brought Taiwan onto the map, and ever since Taiwan has been considered as part of China. However, the First Sino-Japanese War changed the history of Taiwan, sparking a first identity struggle on the island. Suddenly, Taiwan was no longer part of the Han civilization but under the colonial control of the Japanese, where it remained for 50 years.
Living in London now, in an environment where Asian (and in this case East Asian) culture is peripheral, I am hungry to see or hear representations of almost any kind, and am unbothered in my rampant consumption of Japanese cultural products. But growing up in Singapore as an ethnic Chinese, I felt conflicted about the widespread popularity of Japanese films and books.
Identity Hunters 