Books by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager
For most migrants, developing communication strategies in host countries is vital for finding soc... more For most migrants, developing communication strategies in host countries is vital for finding social connections, navigating the pressures of assimilation, and maintaining links to their original cultures. Migrant World Making explores this process of constructing a homeplace by creating a network of communication tools and strategies to connect with multiple communities. Since what it means to be a migrant differs from person to person, the contributors to this edited collection showcase numerous practices migrants adopt to communicate and connect with others as they forge their own identities in globalized yet highly nationalistic societies. With varying aspirations and motives for seeking new homes, migrants build communities by telling stories, engaging in social media activism, protesting, writing scholarly criticism, and using many other modes of communication. To match this variety, the transnational scholars represented here use a wide array of rhetorical, cultural, and communication methodologies and epistemologies to describe what the experience of migration means to those who have lived it.
Whenever political and social decisions use categories of identity such as race, religion, social... more Whenever political and social decisions use categories of identity such as race, religion, social class, or nationality to distinguish groups of people, they risk holding certain groups as inferior and culturally “Other.” When people employ ideologies of imperialism, colonialism, patriarchy, and classism, they position certain groups as superior or ideal/ized people. Such ideological positioning causes nations to take actions that isolate or endanger minoritized populations. This cultural Othering can lead to atrocities such as Native Americans being expelled from their native lands through the Trail of Tears, millions of Ukrainians starving to death during the Holodomor, or millions of Jews exterminated during the Holocaust.
Communicating the Other across Cultures uses examples from the United States, Western Europe, and Russia to demonstrate historical patterns of Othering people, as well as how marginalized people fight back against dominant powers that seek to silence or erase them. Deeply ingrained in our society, cultural Othering affects information in history books, children’s education, and the values upheld in our society. By taking a closer look at historical and modern instances of Othering, Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager shows examples of how different societies created ideas of social and cultural superiority or inferiority, and how deeply they are ingrained in our current society. In everyday life—the cash in your pocket, the movies shown at your local theater, museum exhibits, or politician's speeches—certain cultural ideologies are consistently upheld, while others are silenced. By exposing the communicative patterns of those in power, Khrebtan-Hörhager then suggests alternative ways of thinking, communicating, and eventually being, that offer transformative solutions for global problems.
Academic Journal Articles by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager
Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2023
We argue that the Russian feminist and resistance groups, Pussy Riot, Feminist Antiwar Resistance... more We argue that the Russian feminist and resistance groups, Pussy Riot, Feminist Antiwar Resistance, and Les Pleureuses, operate and should be acknowledged as agents of social change, and leaders of cultural opposition during the current Russia-Ukraine war. We establish Second World Feminism and Russian feminism as its cultural product in this essay. We argue how, in the years preceding the war, Pussy Riot repeatedly protested the totalitarian grip of the Russian state, its corruption, and the concretion of the Russian Orthodox Church and the state in creating conditions of female obedience and oppression. Further, we analyze the emergence and the ongoing activism of the antiwar resistance movement, FAR and its branch Les Pleureuses, in their fight against war, patriarchy, authoritarianism, and militarism. We illustrate how and why Russian feminists/resistance groups became agents of dissent, and can become torchbearers of peace. We examine the collectives' potential contribution to and compatibility with transnational feminist alliances and make a case for including both Russian and Second World Feminisms as meaningful and impactful perspectives within the framework of transnational feminism.
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research , 2023
In this essay, we examine the role of visual and material rhetoric in rethinking and negotiating ... more In this essay, we examine the role of visual and material rhetoric in rethinking and negotiating identity, culture, and belonging. Specifically, we analyse the La Malinche temporary exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, and how it functions as an invitational site to critique and challenge pre-existing colonial boundaries; to rethink and renegotiate complex, hybrid feminine identities, and to engage in intercultural dialogue. We explore the relationship of the exhibit design and selected pieces to the concepts of mestizaje, Mexicanidad, and feminidad. Finally, we discuss the salience of la Malinche's cultural transformation from a traitor to an icon, and her importance to modern Chicano/a scholarship, through the connections created in artistic representations of her legacy.
Communication, Culture, & Critique, 2023
The release of Coco in 2017 came as a cultural reaffirmation for many Mexicans who have previousl... more The release of Coco in 2017 came as a cultural reaffirmation for many Mexicans who have previously seen themselves represented in animation as heavily-accented maids or comedic sidekicks included to forward the narrative of the White hero. Coco brought to screen the first animated Disney feature film with a Mexican protagonist. If previous animated Latinx representation has consistently relied on the same repeated archetypes (bandidos, bad hombres, machos, the constantly pregnant Latina, etc.), Coco took a different approach: celebrating mestizaje and contradictions of Mexican identities, and embracing a culturally nuanced portrayal of Mexicanidad. We explore how exactly those contradictions and paradoxes happen, and what they mean for the affected community. We argue that Coco subverts negative, narrow stereotypes by highlighting the complexities of Mexicanidad, while simultaneously paving the way for improved Latinx representation in children’s animation.
Europe Now , 2022
This is part of a series on the Ukraine Crisis. Austro-Russian historic, political, economic, and... more This is part of a series on the Ukraine Crisis. Austro-Russian historic, political, economic, and cultural bonds Complex cultural relationships between Russia and Austria span hundreds of years, years deeply rooted in rich imperial, political, and cultural interdependence. Unlike many other European countries, these two former imperial powers managed to not wage wars against each other until World War I, when Russia and Austria involuntarily crossed swords for the first time. Even though they fought on the opposite sides, they both experienced a similar end-they lost the war and underwent major transformations of their respective states, governments, and political systems.[1] With numerous tragedies befalling the two royal families, including suicides, assassinations, and executions, both monarchies ceased to exist. In the end, Russia's monarchy was brutally replaced by the Soviet Communist regime, and Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved.[2] 2/15 Since then, according to the Russian ambassador to Austria Dmitriy Lyubinskiy, Russia and Austria have managed to maintain a very special bond and build "constructive relationships" that are mutually beneficial, pragmatic, and substantially dependent on the conscious personal contact and collaboration between the respective heads of the states. [3]Collaborative and mostly amicable relationships involve stable trade, numerous business and political visits, as well as vibrant cultural and scientific cooperation. Many of those bonds, however, have been highly controversial, questioning the ethics of the Austrian political elite and their dubious choice of profit versus patriotism. For example, in 2018, former Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl, who invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to her wedding and curtsied to him during the pompous ceremony in Austrian Gamlitz, was given expensive jewelry-and then a seat on the board of directors at the Russian state-controlled oil industry giant Rosneft.[4] A more recent corruption scandal, associated with Russian oligarchy and a honey-trap video that involved the Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, or FPÖ), pressured Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to step down in 2021.[5] Nonetheless, regardless of the scandals and controversies, various bonds remain strong. So is Austrian-Russian interdependency-and in some instances, Austrian dependency on Russia. According to Elisabeth Christen, Senior Economist at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, WIFO), about 80 percent of Austria's natural gas is imported from Russia.[6]What it means is that the immediate embargo on Russian gas would certainly hurt Austria more than it would hurt Russia, so the Austrian government declared it will continue to import Russian gas and oil.
Women's Studies in Communication, 2019
Quarterly Journal of Speech , 2020
This essay aims to contribute to the development of invitational rhetorical theory, using the tra... more This essay aims to contribute to the development of invitational rhetorical theory, using the tragic and sobering story of “comfort women” as an illustrative case study. By focusing on the relatively recent mediated and special turns in the rhetorical studies, we propose a critical cultural analysis and eventual addendum of mediated texts as well as the rhetoric of materiality as essential means to understand and apply invitational rhetoric. Our project demonstrates how—in a socio-political context of cultural erasure and forgetting—material and visual messages serve as the most invitational modalities. The material and visual rhetoric intervene in the context of strategic amnesia, endurance, and as they center the voices and experiences that historically have been made completely subaltern. Utilizing a selection of artifacts of the rhetoric of materiality and pieces of media rhetoric, we demonstrate how those forms of invitational rhetoric create and encourage safe dialogical spaces for traditionally silenced, marginalized communities. Ultimately, we aim to demonstrate how the new understanding and utilization of invitational rhetoric can become a mechanism for social change and enable a shift in the public consciousness.
KEYWORDS: Comfort women, invitational rhetoric, rhetoric of materiality, mediated rhetoric
Communication, Culture & Critique, 2019
In this essay, we analyze how the temporary photographic exhibits of Anna Magnani and Sophia Lore... more In this essay, we analyze how the temporary photographic exhibits of Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren served as artifacts of creating, circulating, and negotiating italianità: the essence of Italian culture and national identity. The photography exhibits in Rome and Sorrento anchor our study, but in order to understand more fully how they invite or reinforce cultural meaning, we evaluated these works in their larger architectural, regional, and urban contexts. We conclude that the exhibits communicate contrasting versions of italianità in order to subvert patriarchic tendencies in society, withstand globalization, challenge pan-European transnationalism, and create a strong sense of shared, yet diverse, identity by Italians, as well as manifest national pride to the visitors of the Belpaese.
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 2019
This essay examines contemporary art as a tool of political resistance against existing and emerg... more This essay examines contemporary art as a tool of political resistance against existing and emerging ideologies as well as controversial and discriminatory cultural norms. On the example of the 2017 Venice Biennale, this research project analyses art, and more specifically, selected nation-specific exhibits, as pieces of critical pedagogy, representative of ideological and cultural resistance. Concentrating on the comparative analysis of art exhibits from US-American, Russian, and German national pavilions, this research project explains what their respective art communicates, what the main messages are, and elaborates on the impact, the salience, and the affect the exhibits have on their numerous audiences today, when the sphere of international and intercultural relations is challenged like never before. This essay further demonstrates that the exhibits challenge and critique the past and the present of their respective national cultures and attempt to refocus and humanize the future in the globalized world.
Communication, Culture, & Critique , 2018
This article examines the French Musée du quai Branly (MDQB) as a cultural and rhetorical site th... more This article examines the French Musée du quai Branly (MDQB) as a cultural and rhetorical site that communicates a vision of French-ness, contrasted by a particular memory of Otherness. I argue that the materiality of MDQB that officially promotes " cultural dialogues " exoticizes the Other as inferior to the French and invites a colonial gaze on the majority of the cultures of the world. This then indirectly reaffirms and revitalizes French colonialism, and radicalizes dialogue between the French and Others. Having analyzed the museum's multifaceted materiality in three categories (politics of location, representation, and pedagogy), I explore cultural and political implications of this site of public memory, and locate it in the current politically-and culturally-turbulent climate of France and Europe.
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 2017
a Department of communication studies, colorado state university, fort collins, co, usa; b Depart... more a Department of communication studies, colorado state university, fort collins, co, usa; b Department of communication studies, the university of texas at el Paso, el Paso, tX, usa ABSTRACT This essay comparatively examines U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Mexican interculturality in the Despicable Me movie franchise. We argue that cultural transformations of the main protagonists -Russian Gru and Mexican El Macho -are politically significant cases of U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Mexican interculturality, reflected and constructed by popular culture in general, and by animated cartoons in particular.
Journal of International and Intercultural Communication , 2016
This essay examines the topicality of intra-European intercultural tensions, focusing on German-I... more This essay examines the topicality of intra-European intercultural tensions, focusing on German-Italian relations. Grounded in Burke's interpretation of literature as "equipment for living," this project uses Marisa Fenoglio's Never without a woman-a novel about an Italian Gastarbeiter in Germany-as a case study and suggests a critical cultural analysis of German-Italian food-related rhetoric as reflective and constructive of German-Italian interculturality. This essay invites a nuanced understanding of the rhetoric of European foodways as representative of the contemporary European culture and intercultural communication because we are what we eat.
Studies in European Cinema , 2016
This essay analyses Accattone (1961), the first film of Italian director, poet, and novelist Pier... more This essay analyses Accattone (1961), the first film of Italian director, poet, and novelist Pier Paolo Pasolini. Specifically, we ground our reading of Accattone in a nuanced, culture-specific understanding of fluid gender relations in the culture of post-war Roman slums. We argue that, to date, the significance of the female characters in Accattone has been underappreciated. Our essay attempts to fill that gap in the literature by examining the central roles women play in Pasolini's first film. Indeed, the female characters create and delimit the world in which Accattone, the main male character, lives. Central to their importance to the plot is the gender fluidity and performativity of the women, as well as Accattone. We contend that the female characters perform complex identities that fuse motherhood, prostitution, and womanhood. We demonstrate how their identities necessarily contain a strongly historicized and cultured motherly element, which facilitates the poverty-stricken borgate and enables continuity of life in the Eternal City.
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 2016
This essay critically examines the current duality of Russian-Ukrainian intercultural relations a... more This essay critically examines the current duality of Russian-Ukrainian intercultural relations and explores the subject of politics of active and selective memory as the claimed root of current controversies and military tensions. Through rhetorical analysis of historical and contemporary national narratives, it demonstrates how culturally defining experience of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War is remembered, rethought, and reused by respective parties to reinvent the Self and the Br/Other, as well as rethink ones positionality on the world arena.
Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 2016
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 2015
In this essay, we examine corporeality, its discursive framings and the salience of cultural cont... more In this essay, we examine corporeality, its discursive framings and the salience of cultural contexts in the interpretation of embodied protest rhetoric on an example of originally Ukrainian and by now international feminist group Femen. We analyse the embodied rhetoric of Femen's activism from various angles, with a special focus on the pivotal role of cultural locations in the interpretation of Femen's embodied activism, in particular, and corporeal resistance, in general. With our findings, we hope to extend the existent knowledge on corporeal framing and politicalization of the body as a culture-specific site of resistance and social change.
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Books by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager
Communicating the Other across Cultures uses examples from the United States, Western Europe, and Russia to demonstrate historical patterns of Othering people, as well as how marginalized people fight back against dominant powers that seek to silence or erase them. Deeply ingrained in our society, cultural Othering affects information in history books, children’s education, and the values upheld in our society. By taking a closer look at historical and modern instances of Othering, Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager shows examples of how different societies created ideas of social and cultural superiority or inferiority, and how deeply they are ingrained in our current society. In everyday life—the cash in your pocket, the movies shown at your local theater, museum exhibits, or politician's speeches—certain cultural ideologies are consistently upheld, while others are silenced. By exposing the communicative patterns of those in power, Khrebtan-Hörhager then suggests alternative ways of thinking, communicating, and eventually being, that offer transformative solutions for global problems.
Academic Journal Articles by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager
KEYWORDS: Comfort women, invitational rhetoric, rhetoric of materiality, mediated rhetoric
Communicating the Other across Cultures uses examples from the United States, Western Europe, and Russia to demonstrate historical patterns of Othering people, as well as how marginalized people fight back against dominant powers that seek to silence or erase them. Deeply ingrained in our society, cultural Othering affects information in history books, children’s education, and the values upheld in our society. By taking a closer look at historical and modern instances of Othering, Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager shows examples of how different societies created ideas of social and cultural superiority or inferiority, and how deeply they are ingrained in our current society. In everyday life—the cash in your pocket, the movies shown at your local theater, museum exhibits, or politician's speeches—certain cultural ideologies are consistently upheld, while others are silenced. By exposing the communicative patterns of those in power, Khrebtan-Hörhager then suggests alternative ways of thinking, communicating, and eventually being, that offer transformative solutions for global problems.
KEYWORDS: Comfort women, invitational rhetoric, rhetoric of materiality, mediated rhetoric
encore complètement tournée malgré les efforts de nos dirigeants respectifs./ Colonialism has been a long, long night. But we have been independent for forty-five years, and the page has not yet been completely turned despite the efforts of our respective leaders”1 (Stora and Jenni 199). I argue that decades after the War of Algerian Independence that officially ended the French colonial rule, the aftermath of colonialism still plays a crucial role in both the identity politics of the respective nations, and their understanding and interpretation of history, responsibility, and cultural memory.
The contribution is part of the volume Migrant World Making, edited by Sergio F Juárez, Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Michael Lechuga and Arthur Soto-Vásquez and published by Michigan State University Press.
Many premodern societies were patriarchal and violent, but Italy is in many ways unique. The legacies of the Roman Empire, Italian Fascism and Roman Catholicism still loom large. Each, I would argue, has contributed to a modern Italy in which male violence has been normalized....
Femicides do not occur in a vacuum; they are the outcome of a society that legitimizes violence against women. And while I believe changes to the law to better protect Italy’s women are welcome, looking at the country’s culture – both past and present – may also be a necessary step. Until then, Italy’s daughters will not be safe, or fully free.
As the war drags on, those who anticipated a collapse of Putin’s regime and Russia’s economy find themselves disappointed. Despite the draconian sanctions and cultural isolation, Russia is experiencing what looks like a bloody, ruthless Renaissance. Economically, socially, and culturally, Russia is reforging itself.
A century on, Italy looks set to get its first far-right leader since Mussolini’s body was strung up for all to see at the end of World War II. On Sept. 25, 2022, voters are widely expected to elect as prime minister Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Fratelli d’Italia, or Brothers of Italy – a party whose lineage traces back to the rump of Mussolini’s fascists.
Cultural Othering happened when Native Americans were expelled from their native lands through the Trail of Tears in the United States, millions of Ukrainians were starved to death during the Holodomor in the Soviet Union, and millions of Jews were exterminated in Germany and Poland during the Holocaust.
Cultural Othering has always existed, in various forms. It is paradoxical: it is timeless and time-sensitive, it is culturally unique and universal.
Buongiorno, tutti – dagli Stati Uniti, all’Italia, il paese piu bello del mondo, and welcome to the official “Bridging Cultures in Roma: CSU Academic Blog 2024.” Please meet our squadra di cuore: a group of CSU Rams, our eternal Wanderlusts in the eternal city of Rome.
Buongiorno, tutti – dagli Stati Uniti, all'Italia, il paese piu bello del mondo, and welcome to the official “Bridging Cultures: Italy-USA” 2022 blog. Please meet our wonderful CSU Rams, our eternal Wanderlusts in the eternal city of Rome!
I nostri ragazzi came to Italy in turbulent times, and had to master quite a few unexpected challenges– with elegance and style, always making una bella figura! They even formed a few squadre – ad-hoc squads, to handle the unexpected! La Squadra Chicago 6 had a 3-day delay in the windy city on the way to Rome. La Squadra della Quarantena 5 had a week of self-isolation and Roman solitude. La Squadra Medusa 4 experienced all the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea and the unplanned tattoos of its jelly fish. In the end, all of them are la Squadra di Cuore.
This fascinating summer education-abroad course in the Eternal City of Rome, Italy, focuses on theory, concepts, principles, research methods, and practical skills of communication with a global mindset. It explores concepts of intercultural and cross-cultural communication, construction, and negotiation of Italian identity (italianità), and the strategies of an effective dialogue with the Italian Other. It explores la vita italiana and makes us aware of what it means
to be americani in Italia and provides us with aspirations and skills of becoming world citizens with a global, cosmopolitan and inclusive mindset. While the course Bridging Cultures equips us with theoretical tools, we set off on navigating contemporary Italy step by step: with all its natural beauty, cultural richness, and complex heritage.
In addition to a great variety of perspectives, subjects, and research approaches, we were very fortunate to have a lovely diversity of brilliant minds in the classroom. Those included:
Alissa who is a world-traveler who loves to challenge herself with new perspectives.
Ryan, an interpersonal scholar attempting to help individuals overcome communication inhibitors.
Laila, a Saudi Arabian scholar and teacher, pursuing her doctoral degree.
Molly, whose academic journey to Italy inspired her to flourish into a passionate educator aimed to teach cultural fluency.
Min, a cultural hybrid who proudly embraces her Korean heritage and thrives to empower and educate others through the world of organizational and intercultural communication and hopes to make changes in the world.
Rebecca, a dedicated interculturalist with the interest in the intersections between cultural knowledge and personal and professional spheres.
In diesem Vortrag geht es um das Konzept des „Othering“ – die Unterscheidung zwischen „uns“ und „den Anderen“ – und wie es unser Verständnis von Identität, Geschichte und Kultur(en) prägt. Der Vortrag thematisiert, wie durch Kategorien wie race, class, gender, social class, und religion über Jahrhunderte bestimmte Gruppen ausgegrenzt und marginalisiert wurden, während andere Gruppen unsere Narrative bestimm(t)en. Es geht um die Frage, welche Folgen „Othering“ für Politik, Bildung, Kultur und sogar unser alltägliches Leben hat.