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[Distinguished Speaker Series] Dr. Christiane Gruber: From ISIS to the AfD: Ultraist Rhetoric and Visuality in Orientalist Concurrence
September 22, 2023 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
From ISIS to the AfD: Ultraist Rhetoric and Visuality in Orientalist Concurrence
Dr. Christiane GruberSeptember 22 from 3:00pm – 4pm ESTVoorhees Hall, room 001, followed by a receptionZoom registration: bit.ly/CGruber
When ISIS militants burst onto the scene more than six years ago, journalists and pundits were quick to label the Islamist group a medieval martial movement. Since then, however, scholars have shown how this particular extremist group – one among many ultraist socio-political formations active worldwide – should in fact be considered hyper-modern in its use of futuristic-nostalgic rhetoric, astutely crafted visual messaging, and vast portfolio of media and communication technologies.
As of late, however, ISIS has been outstripped in sheer production and online presence by right-wing political groups in Europe and the United States, such as Identity Evropa, Alternativ für Deutschland, Act for America, and Stop Islamization of America. A close analysis of the rhetorical and visual production of these Euro-American extremist and hate groups reveals not a diametric clash with ISIS’s own output but rather a concurrence in symbolic lexica, in which, above all, a new form of Orientalism – of anathemizing the perceived other – is asserted to craft and entrench a nativist stance. This “border security” stance involves a range of identity-based taxonomic simplifications as well as a calculated visual instrumentalization of fears linked to migration, miscegenation, and misogyny.
Dr. Christiane Gruber is Professor of Islamic Art and Former Chair in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan as well as Founding Director of Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online. Her scholarly work (available here) explores medieval to contemporary Islamic art, especially figural representation, depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, manuscripts and book arts, architecture, and modern visual and material cultures. Her two most recent publications include The Praiseworthy One: The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Texts and Images and The Image Debate: Figural Representation in Islam and Across the World, and her public-facing essays have appeared in Newsweek, The Conversation, New Lines, Jadaliyya, and Prospect Magazine, among others.