INQUIRY

New York University • College of Arts and Science
Shaping Citizens’ Values in Augustus’ Rome and Post-
9/11 America: Scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid and Zack
Snyder’s Man of Steel
Emma Hickey, Global Liberal Studies
Sponsor: Professor Christopher Packard, Global Liberal
Studies
This study explores the ways in which Virgil’s Aeneid
shaped and unified national identity in Augustus’ Rome and
the ways in which post-9/11 American superhero movies do
the same. The analysis is done through the lens of instrumentalism,
as outlined by Daniele Conversi in Nationalism
and Ethnosymbolism: History, Culture and Ethnicity
in the Formation of Nations, and is complemented by the
ethnosymbolic nationalist approach of Anthony D. Smith in
Ethno-Symbolism and Nationalism: A Cultural Approach.
This study looks specifically at the use of cultural symbols,
myths and icons in each text by focusing on similarities in
the ways Dido and Superman are used in their respective
works to canonize certain values embodied by the characters.
Specifically, it discusses how the myths and characters of
Dido and Superman were altered in the Aeneid and Man of
Steel and the ways in which these changes reflect Augustus’
Rome and post-9/11 America. Understanding these changes
is significant because they influence how ancient Roman
and American citizens perceive themselves and the values
of their nations.
Beirut’s Reconstruction: Colonialism, Architecture and
Identity
Valerie Itteilag, Art History
Sponsor: Professor Jon Ritter, Urban Design and Architecture
Studies
Architecture forms the backbone of a nation’s identity
and the identities of its citizens. What does it mean, then,
that an independent nation recovering from a post-colonial
civil war choses to rebuild “the heart of the nation” in
a colonial style? The Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990)
destroyed significant sections of Beirut, heavily damaging
the city center, its Ottoman structures and colonial buildings
of the French Mandate (1918–1943). This paper argues
that while reconstructed architectural features like unified
façades in the colonial style contribute to the revival of a
colonial image, urban design decisions like selective demolition
and higher street walls reflect a strong Haussmannian,
or Parisian, design influence on reconstruction efforts
and, subsequently, post-reconstruction Lebanese identity.
Analysis of Haussmannian design principles reveals that the
reconstruction, led by private joint-stock company Solidére,
physically revived the “Paris of the Middle East,” which
in turn created demographic changes in the city center and
ruptured the relationship of Lebanese social classes to the
center of their city. The French inspired reconstruction of
Beirut forever changed how Beirutis see, utilize and shape
their city. The private funders of post-civil war Beirut recreated
a colonial enclave of wealth and exclusivity rather than
a place of inclusion and diversity.
From the Canvas to Congress and Beyond: Significance
of American Landscape Painting on the Development of
an American Identity in the Nineteenth Century
Caroline Johnson, History
Sponsor: Professor Linda Gordon, History
This paper explores the relationship of American landscape
paintings to the development of a unique American
identity in the period of 1870–1900, a time when artistic
expression transcended the sphere of art alone and came to
influence political, cultural, mythological and philosophical
attitudes in the United States. The paintings of this period
were pivotal in influencing the first American conservation
efforts as well as in shaping attitudes exhibited in popular
geopolitical ideologies like Manifest Destiny and Frederick
Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis. Changing styles and
aesthetics of landscape painting resulted in a continuous
development of the myth of the West as a characterization
of a shifting American identity. This paper explores the tradition
of the European-born concept of art of the sublime as it
made its way from Europe to the East Coast of America and
into the West as well as how the American frontier proved to
be fertile ground for ideas of the sublime in art to translate
into politics and popular culture. This research is significant
in the field of history because it explores the ways in
which American landscape paintings brought about political
change and the development of a popular mythology that
was built on images of places Americans in the East would
never see in their lifetime. Thus the research shows how
qualities of the sublime evolved from a European legacy,
largely limited to the world of art, into tangible political and
social change when exposed to the physical vastness of the
American West.
The Neustadt and the Grande-Île: The Urban Transformation
of Strasbourg at the Crossroads of France
and Germany
Ava Kiai, French
Sponsor: Professor Jean-Louis Cohen, NYU Institute of
Fine Arts
In 1871, France’s northeastern territory was annexed to
newly unified Germany, and Strasbourg was made the capital
city of the new region, Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen. Strasbourg
became Imperial Germany’s vitrine to the west as an
ambitious urban extension project was swiftly taken up that
would double the city’s total area and prepare it for its new
responsibilities as part of the German state. Strasbourg was
outfitted with entirely new neighborhoods to the north and
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