Nostalgia and Constructions of National Identities

with Alexei Kazakov, University of Ottawa, Canada

Thursday, 28 November 2024 | 6:00 c.t.-8:00 pm | Rabinstraße 8 | 53111 Bonn | Room 2.025

In his talk, Alexei Kazakov proposes a new framework for understanding how national identity has taken shape since the late twentieth century. Grounding his argument in theories of postmodernity that account for shifts in the experience of time, notably that of nostalgia, he shows how notions of national identity "fixed in time" have become increasingly incongruent with accelerating change and result in a sense of cultural dissonance. As he engages this perspective to reassess the status of the 1972 Summit Series – the hockey tournament between Canada and the Soviet Union which has loomed large in Canadian national identity –, the speaker evolves a conception of national identity suited to the current historical moment.

Alexei Kazakov is a SSHRC fellow and doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on contemporary philosophy of history, the historiography of modernity and postmodernity, and the concept of nostalgia.