Biz Nijdam Presenting at MOA’s 2023 Visual + Material Culture Research Seminar Series
By elizabeth nijdam on October 18, 2023
Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies. Since Art Spiegelman’s Maus, comics and the representation of German history have been irrevocably linked. But while global comics have continued to engage with histories of the Holocaust and WWII, German-language comics have focused on a different era of German history: the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Among these fiction and nonfiction comics on East German history, there is a subgroup of graphic novels that explicitly seeks to engage with more traditional forms of narrating history, such as documentary photography, archival collections, and museum exhibitions. These graphic historiographies not only adopt some of the strategies of these institutional forms of memory culture, but they also comment on the way in which history and memory is shaped through them. This presentation looks at three comics on East German history as case studies to demonstrate how graphic historiography reveals the essential processes of the writing of history while intervening in debates about historical truth and authenticity.
How to Attend:
Where: MOA’s Community Lounge (Near the administration reception and opposite the MOA Library and Archives).
When: November 9th, 4 – 5 pm
Note: The Museum will be closed to the public due to seismic upgrades, but the administration area remains open. Please enter through the administration entrance, which is past the courtyard on your right, facing the Museum’s main entrance.
This interdisciplinary seminar series is for anyone with interests in visual and material culture across different departments at UBC and beyond. The seminar provides an opportunity to share research and exchange ideas, usually followed by conversations over a drink at Koerner’s Pub. Open to students, staff, faculty and community members in and around UBC. The seminars will be held in-person at MOA.
Participation is free, and no registration is required.
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