Salon Discussion with Prof. Glenn Penny (UCLA): "Central Peripheries from Salzburg to Basel"

Glenn Penny is Professor and Henry J. Bruman Chair in German History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Prof. Penny will briefly discuss his current research, after which the floor will open for further discussions.

Abstract by Prof. Glenn Penny:

"Historians of German-speaking Central Europe, and particularly historians of Germany, do not spend much time thinking about Modern Germany’s southern border. I believe we should, and I suspect that if we do, we might find that it has much more to teach us about a globalized German history than the eastern German border that has received so much attention.  Multiple and varied notions of belonging have long crisscrossed the borders animating our political maps of the region between Salzburg and Basel.  There is, in fact, a good deal of evidence that the most important borders shaping inhabitants’ sense of belonging across this region are the mental maps in their heads.  As many ethnologists have demonstrated, those subjective maps are often centered around places and things historians of nation states regard as peripheral, even trivial.  Yet there are so many centers in spaces on the putative peripheries joining Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, that it is worth considering the historiographical and theoretical implications of viewing the region itself as a central periphery.  That might afford us new ways of conceptualizing and narrating German histories."

Glenn Penny is Professor and Henry J. Bruman Chair in German History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research investigates the relationships between Europeans and non-Europeans, with a particular focus on Germans' interactions with the broader world. As a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, Penny completed "In Humboldt's Shadow," addressing controversies surrounding European ethnological museums. His latest monograph, "German History Unbound," challenges conventional narratives by highlighting the polycentric nature of German history and advocating for a broader integration of migration flows and pluralities of belonging. Currently, he is engaged in a project exploring belonging in the southern German borderlands and completing research on German identity in Chile during the interwar period.

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