The Role of Architecture in National Identity

Recent trends in architecture have increasingly separated buildings from possessing a local, regional, or even national identity. This discussion will analyze the relationship between architecture and communal identity, seeking to explain how certain styles of architecture can build up national identity while others seem to deconstruct said identity.

Stephen Travis Sholl is an MA student at the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs, and previously studied International Conflict and Security Studies at the Brussels School of International Studies at the University of Kent, and holds a BA in History from Freed-Hardeman University. In 2021 he was a fellow of the Budapest Fellowship Program, a joint fellowship program of the Hungary Foundation and MCC. During his studies and work in Washington and Brussels, much of his academic research has focused on transatlantic relations and Central Europe. His first thesis was on the impact of memory politics on Hungarian foreign policy.

Moderator: Dr Attila Kálmán, historian and teacher. His main research area is the history of the Transylvanian nobility in the 18th-20th centuries. He is a member of several non-governmental organizations aiming at the preservation and appropriate use of the monuments of Transylvanian noble architecture.