Of course we define ourselves…don’t we? If that’s the case, where do our notions of identity originate? Are we free to choose our own identities, and if so, how are they formed, and how do they change over time?
Gerald N. Izenberg, Ph.D., professor of history in Arts & Sciences, will examine the complex notions of identity in a series of programs, beginning with the Assembly Series lecture, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 21 in Graham Chapel. The Assembly Series talk is free and open to the public.
Expanding on this theme, he will give a talk on “The Varieties of ‘We’: Collective Identities and their Conflicts,” for the Center for the Humanities, for which he currently is a Faculty Fellow. The event begins at noon, Friday, March 23 in McDonnell Hall, Room 162. The final event, provided for the Century Series of the University’s Alumni & Development Programs, will be on “What, If Anything, Does Democracy Owe Identity?” at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 26, in Lab Sciences 300.
Sponsoring the trio of talks is the Arts & Sciences’ Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH), a program for students whose majors combine a concentrated study of texts central to the European and American philosophical, religious, and literary traditions with an area of concentration, to create an advanced sequence of courses and research tailored to students’ special interests. For more information on IPH lectures, please call Amy Lehman, 314-935-4200, or visit the Web site at http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~iph/.
A scholarly interest in what Erik Erikson termed “the identity crisis” led Izenberg, an expert in European intellectual history of the 19th and 20th centuries, to a subspecialty — psychohistory. Psychohistory uses psychological and psychoanalytical theories and methods to provide a more profound understanding of historical personalities and events.
In his book, Impossible Individuality: Romanticism, Revolution, and the Origins of Modern Selfhood, Izenberg adds a psychological dimension to the traditional examination of political, social and cultural developments to show how four major figures of the period- Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Wordsworth, and Chateaubriand – created a modern concept of the self.
In Modernism and Masculinity, Izenberg looks at the role the modern concept of masculinity played among leading European writers and artists of the modernist revolution before World War I. In these books, and in essays such as “The Self in Question” in the academic journal Modern Intellectual History, Izenberg’s investigation into the “self” has contributed significantly to this growing body of literature and has placed him among the most accomplished historians of the concept of self in the country.
A three-time recipient of the Teaching Award in the Humanities at Washington University, given by students, Izenberg has also been recognized with a Distinguished Faculty Award in 1996.
Izenberg joined Washington University in 1976, and became a professor in 1991. He also helped create the Program in Literature and History and co-directed it from 1977 to 2004. He received a bachelor’s degree from University College, University of Toronto in 1961, and a master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 1962 and 1968, respectively. Additionally, he studied in Zurich and received a certificate in psychoanalysis from the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1995, Izenberg received a diploma from the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. Since then, he has been active in the St. Louis institute, as a member and as a president, serving from 2003 – 2005.
For more information on the Assembly Series, visit the Web site at http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu.