About the Event:
The Turpanjian Institute of Social Sciences at AUA and the Max Weber Stiftung Georgia Branch Office are pleased to invite you to a lecture by Professor Sebastian Conrad on his recent book, The Making of a Global Icon: Nefertiti’s Modern Career.
The characteristic image of Nefertiti, the ancient Egyptian queen, is known all over the world. Discovered in 1912 and first exhibited in 1924, her bust has turned into an icon of universal beauty that is globally recognized. How did this transformation happen, from ancient queen to modern beauty standard? How can we explain her worldwide resonance in places like Germany and Britain, Brazil and Egypt, Bengal and the United States — places with vastly different aesthetic traditions? So far, Nefertiti’s true planetary career has not yet been explored.
This presentation addresses the worldwide reach of her fame for the first time. This is a story of struggles over legal ownership and restitution; it is also a story about competing beauty standards in a globalizing world. But it is more: Claiming Nefertiti was about making claims on modernity. Understanding Nefertiti’s global fame, from German Egyptologists to Michael Jackson and Beyoncé, tells us much about the changing patterns of cultural globalization, from the era of high imperialism to the neo-liberal global age.
The lecture is part of the MWF Global History Series and is jointly organized by the Turpanjian Institute of Social Sciences at AUA and the Max Weber Stiftung Georgia Branch Office in cooperation with Zeit Stiftung Bucerius.
A reception will follow the lecture.
About the Speaker:
Professor Sebastian Conrad is a prominent historian holding the Chair of Modern History at the Freie Universität Berlin. He is widely considered one of the leading figures in the field of global history, known for systematizing its methodology and expanding its scope to include intellectual and social dimensions.