I am interested in the intersection of identity formation, nationalism, memory, and nostalgia, particularly as realized through nativist and social movement discourse. Central to this concern however is the use of the mimetic function to access “originality”. The experiential and performative impulse that embodies and reifies an original “we”, an impulse imperative in activating discursive formations with concrete dimensions. My interest is in practices of belonging centered on objects seen as residues of an original people/culture and the representational function these objects serve within a nation-state narrative. My approach to practices of belonging re-situates materiality, through embodiment and objects, as co-productive in the experience of appropriating identity claims.

Alongside and counter to more nationalistic identity formations I am also interested in narratives in tension with a dominant histo-mythical narrative underwriting nationalistic discourse. Here identity negotiation through mimesis serves to act as a kind of resistance by allowing for a broader understanding of subjectivity through role playing. In order to better access individual narratives produced through and against the master narrative of nationalism, I analyze periphery social formations. I am interested  in the way in which transgressing identities re-distributes discipline of the body within alternative spaces where subverting nationalistic ideologies happens by performing/enacting non-normative identities.

My work seeks to understand the gap between nationalistic and transgressive identities and how they work to re-imagine the state and belonging. Understanding how memory works through and against these identity formations gestures toward a new understanding of the correlation between “originality” and belonging. My interests in identity, memory and language arise out of the current cultural and political situation in Switzerland regarding immigration and the increasing right wing backlash against both immigration populations as well as against Swiss-born “non Swiss”. It is my hope to identify key strategies employed by citizens in their day-to-day experiences that exist at the frontier of nativist exceptionalism and transform or exceed these narratives.