Granny Goes to Abu Dhabi: How Authoritarian States Market Themselves Abroad (& Why Some Are So Good at It)

-Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht Chair, Department of History, JFKI - PI, Gender, Border, Memory, Excellence Cluster SCRIPTS

Abstract:

Prof. Jessica Gienow-Hecht will give her lecture on illiberal place branding, specifically how illiberal states pitch or market their image worldwide. We recommend the audience read Prof. Gienow-Hecht's article in advance: Jessica Gienow-Hecht, 'Nation Branding: A Useful Category for International History,' Diplomacy & Statecraft 30, no. 4 (2019): 755-779. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592296.2019.1671000)

About the lecturer:

Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht is a historian for international and North American history and Chair of the Department of History at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American History, Freie Universität Berlin. She has taught courses at the universities of Virginia, Bielefeld, Halle-Wittenberg, Harvard, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Cologne, the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin), Doshisha University (Kyoto), and Sciences Po (Paris). Her first book, Transmission Impossible: American Journalism as Cultural Diplomacy in Postwar Germany, 1945-1955 (1999), was co-awarded the Stuart Bernath Prize and the Myrna Bernath Prize. Her second book, Sound Diplomacy: Music and Emotions in Transatlantic Relations, 1850-1920 (2009, 2012) has won the Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award. Prof. Dr. Gienow-Hecht is engaged in a number of research projects, publication projects and collaborations addressing “nation branding,” emotions and humanitarianism.