Lecture

To Own a Country

Impulse, 20.00-22.00 - Who 'owns' a country? In this One World Week lecture, social psychologist Borja Martinović digs into the ways claimed 'ownership' of a country can influence the ways ethnic groups relate to each other.

Organised by Studium Generale
Date

Thu 26 March 2020 20:00 to 22:00

Venue Impulse, building number 115
Stippeneng 2
115
6708 WE Wageningen
+31 (0) 317 - 482828

To Own a Country

Statements as 'we were here first' or 'we built this country' are increasingly used by far-right politicians to claim ownership of a country for the dominant ethnic group. But similar claims can be used by indigenous people to claim certain rights. And two established groups can disagree about who owns a country, like the Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo.

Social psychologist Borja Martinović digs into the ways claimed 'ownership' of a country can influence the ways ethnic groups relate to each other. Is it desirable to totally abandon all of those claims?

About Borja Martinović

Borja Martinović (photo: Ed van Rijswijk - Universiteit Utrecht)
Borja Martinović (photo: Ed van Rijswijk - Universiteit Utrecht)

Borja Martinović was trained in both sociological and social-psychological research traditions. The topic of her dissertation was interethnic contacts in Western countries. During a post-doctoral project she examined national identification in the Netherlands among ethnic minorities and native Dutch, as well as ethnic and religious identification of ethnic minorities, and how these affect intergroup relations.

In 2012/2013 she visited the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, and worked on a project about the ideology of autochthony (entitlements for first-comers) and how such beliefs affect acceptance of immigrants.

From 2017 till 2021 she works on a project about collective psychological ownership and intergroup relations, funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.