Program
Day 1 – Wednesday, 19 November, 2025, Zurich
12:45-13:00 Introduction
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
13:00-15:00 Panel 1 – New Spatialities for New Institutions
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Laurent Stalder (ETH Zurich)
Designing Defence: Interiors, Infrastructures, and Imperial Sovereignty from Whitehall to the Veld
Matthew Wells (University of Manchester)
Designing Debt Diplomacy: Deutsche Bank and the Ottoman Public Debt Administration
Eva Schreiner (KHI Florenz)
Envirotech and the League of Nations’ Construction of “International Geneva”
Alex Levine (UCLA)
Interior and Symbolic Americanism: The “Caracol” Assembly Hall by Emilio Duhart (1960-66) at the United Nations building in Chile
Verónica Esparza (Universidad San Sebastián, Chile), David Caralt (Universidad San Sebastián, Chile)
15:00-15:30 Break
15:30-17:30 Panel 2 – Artefacts and Apparatuses of Diplomacy
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Anne-Françoise Morel (KU Leuven)
Rearranging: The Danish Mess and the Making of a Multi-Scalar Diplomatic Interior in Beijing (1912–1920)
Sean Yuxiang Li (University of Copenhagen)
German Diplomacy via Chairs, Chandeliers and Central Heating
Christiane Fülscher (FH Dortmund)
Not Just Moscow: Interiors of Soviet Embassies from the Cold War Era
Olga Kazakova (HSE, Faculty of Humanities)
Cables, Keyboards, and Carpets: Digitalisation and the Making of European Bureaucratic Space, 1970s-1980s
Marco Ninno (KU Leuven)
17:30-18:00 Break
18:00-19:30 Keynote Lecture
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Fredie Floré (KU Leuven)
Notes on the Global Interior
Olga Touloumi (Bard College)
Day 2 – Thursday, 20 November, 2025, Zurich
09:00-11:00 Panel 3 – Agency, Actors, and Authorship
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Anna Myjak-Pycia (ETH Zurich)
Building for Democracy or Dictatorship?: Chloethiel Woodard Smith’s United States Chancery and Residence in Asunción, Paraguay
Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin)
Negotiating Peace on a Round or Square Table? The Diplomatic Interiors of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission at the DMZ in Korea through the Lens of the Swiss Military from 1953 to 1970
Denise Bertschi (ETH Zurich)
Democratically Negotiated Representation: Debating the Interiors of Swiss Embassies in the 1980s
Jonas Hirschi (University of Bern)
Diplomatic Interiors and Atmospheres: Sensing the State Through the Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C
Bradley Reynolds (University of Turku), Onerva Kiianlinna (Aalto University)
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-13:00 Panel 4 – Social Spaces for Diplomacy
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Anne Hultzsch (ETH Zurich)
Furnishing the Spaces of l’Authenticité. The Interior Designs of New Form/Ndako Ya Sika in 1970s Kinshasa
Johan Lagae (Ghent University), Igor Bloch (Ghent University/VUB)
Diplomatic Landscapes of Recreation: From the Inside
Fanti Baum (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
Beyond the Hemicycle: Informal Spaces in the Brussels’ European Parliament
Sanja Banjeglav (KU Leuven), Sven Sterken (KU Leuven)
13:00-14:00 Break
14:00-16:00 Panel 5 – Adaptations and Provisional Settings
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Maarten Delbeke (ETH Zurich)
From Spaces of Local Power to Spaces of International Representation: Barcelona and the “International Conference on Communications and Transit” (1921) of the League of Nations
Eva March (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Empire’s Technical Stage: The Technische Hoogeschool Bandoeng and Technical Diplomacy at the Margin of Empire
Nanda Nugraha (EPF Lausanne)
Bandung Conference and the Interior of Merdeka Building: South-South Diplomacy and Architectural Practices
Rina Priyani (University of Virginia)
IAEA’s Early Interiors: Vienna 1958–1979
Anna Livia Friel (TU Wien)
16:00-16:30 Break
16:30-18:15 Group Discussion
ETH Hönggerberg, HIL E 71.1
Moderation by Angela Gigliotti (Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences/ETH Zurich/Syracuse University)
On the Setup and Future Activities of an International Research Network on Diplomatic Spaces
Sacha Zala (University of Bern/Dodis), Anne-Françoise Morel (KU Leuven), and Davide Rodogno (Geneva Graduate Institute/HION History of International Organizations Network)
All participants join in the brainstorming
Day 3 – Friday, 21 November, 2025, Geneva
10:30-11:00 Welcome to the Geneva Graduate Institute
Geneva Graduate Institute, Petal 2, S12
11:00-12:00 Workshop – Digital Humanities
Geneva Graduate Institute, Petal 2, S12
Moderated by Davide Rodogno (Geneva Graduate Institute)
Interventions by the Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism community on ongoing research on multilateralism and digital tools
All participants join the workshop and discussion
12:00-14:00 Break
14:00-15:00 Study Visit – The Palace of Nations
Palace of Nations
The Historical Interiors and the Ongoing Renovation
UN Geneva Visitors Service and Strategic Heritage Plan Team
15:00-15:30 Break
15:30-17:30 Roundtable – Archival Research
Palace of Nations, Room VIII
Moderated by Andreas Kalpakci (ETH Zurich) and Charlotte Rottiers (KU Leuven)
Diplomatic Interiors in the Archives: Sources, Methods, and Challenges
Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert (UN Library & Archives Geneva), Giorgio Ennas (Utrecht University), Fredie Floré (KU Leuven), Denise Hagströmer (National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo), and Olga Touloumi (Bard College)
All participants join in the discussion
17:30-18:00 Concluding Remarks
Palace of Nations, Room VIII