Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation

About
texture of the memorial to the murdered jews of europe

Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation is a Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Series running in 2017-18. It will bring together academics from many different fields, politicians, people who have played a role in peace negotiations and leading figures from cultural policy and the charitable sector.  They will be joined by novelists, poets, artists and musicians whose work has marked war in some way.

 

Featured speakers include author Aminatta Forna, architect Daniel Libeskind and composer Jonathan Dove. View the full programme here.

The broad questions to be explored in the Series include:
• Who is commemoration for and why?
• How does commemoration lead to reconstruction and reconciliation?
• What is the future of commemoration?

 

The Series is divided into three strands: Textual Commemoration (October - December 2017), Monumental Commemoration (January - March 2018) and Aural Commemoration (April - June 2018).  Each strand will be launched by an ‘In Conversation’ event featuring an internationally-renowned figure from the arts.  These launch events will be followed by two panel-led workshops each term.  There will also be three events aimed directly at post-graduates: a training day in object-based research methods, a postgraduate forum and a one-day conference.

The Series is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in memory of John E. Sawyer.

Follow us on Twitter @PostWarOx

Subscribe to our Podcast Series

Read the final report from the series via the link below: 

 

*Image credit to Rafael Rodrigues Camargo

 

Contact:

Convenor:
Kate McLoughlin
kate.mcloughlin@ell.ox.ac.uk

Convenor:
Niall Munro
niall.munro@brookes.ac.uk

People
Past Events

Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation

Black and white image of texture of the memorial to the murdered jews of Europe

Memoir and Memory (October 2017) 

Event Held:  
Aminatta Forna, OBE (novelist and memoirist, Lannan Visiting Professor of Poetics at Georgetown University) in conversation with Elleke Boehmer (Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford). 
The discussion focused on the ways in which Ms Forna’s work has portrayed situations of conflict and post-conflict, and how literature can offer new perspectives on commemoration, reconstruction and reconciliation. 

 

Poetry and Life-Writing: Panel-Led Workshop 1 (October 2017) 

Focusing on the role of poetry and life-writing in post-war healing, the workshop brought together experts working at the intersection of literature, human rights, foreign policy and peace initiatives. 

Panel: 
Dunya Mikhail (poet) 
Philippe Sands, QC (barrister and writer) 
Lord (John) Alderdice (Liberal Democrat peer; former Speaker of the Northern Irish Assembly; Director of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC)) 
Professor Jeremy Treglown (Senior Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London) 
Chair: Professor Elleke Boehmer (Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford) 

 

Conflict and Community: Panel-Led Workshop 2 (November 2017) 

A workshop was held to explore the special commemorative needs that arise in the wake of civil war and terrorism. 

Panel 
Rachel Seiffert (novelist) 
Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge (Professor of Modern Literature and History, University of East Anglia) 
Professor Harvey Whitehouse (Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford; Fellow of CRIC) 
Professor Elleke Boehmer (Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford) 
Chair: Professor Helen Small (Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford). 

 

Memorable Objects: Postgraduate Training Day (November 2017) 

This day brought together postgraduates in the humanities and social sciences to assist with their research, using the Pitt Rivers Museum collection of memorial artefacts from around the world as well as a team experienced in training scholars in object-handling. 

 

Daniel Libeskind (February 2018) 

Architect and designer Daniel Libeskind gave a talk as part of Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation. 

Libeskind’s work is deeply connected to memory. In this talk he shared his creative process and thinking for many of his most prominent buildings including the Jewish Museum Berlin, Military History Museum in Dresden as well as recent Holocaust memorials in Canada and the Netherlands. 

 

Museums and National Identity: Panel-Led Workshop 1 (February 2018) 

The workshop explored the role of museums and memorial sites, drawing cross-cultural comparisons and investigating the relationship between post-war commemoration and national identity. 

Panel 
Mark Johnston (Director of the Australian National Veterans Art Museum (ANVAM)) 
Dr Emma Login (First World War Memorials Programme Manager, Historic England) 
Dr Christina Steenkamp (Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Change, Oxford Brookes University) 
Dr Gabriel Moshenska (Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University College London) 
Tony Horwitz (journalist and author) 
Chair: Dr Jane Potter (Reader (Arts), Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies, Oxford Brookes University) 
 
Grave Stones: Panel-Led Workshop 2 (March 2018) 

The workshop explored the significance of plastic commemoration, both sacred and secular, looking at places of worship, funerary sites and sculpture, and memorial monuments to investigate the interactions between space, place, object and memory. 

Panel 
Pfarrerin Dr Cornelia Kulawik (Pastor of Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Berlin-Dahlem; former pastor of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche, Berlin) 
The Very Reverend John Witcombe (Dean of Coventry Cathedral) 
Dr Silke Arnold-de Simine (Reader in Memory, Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck, University of London) 
Charles Gurrey (sculptor and carver) 
Chair: Dr Joshua Hordern (Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford) 

 

Postgraduate Forum (March 2018) 

A forum was held featuring brief presentations by postgraduate students from across the disciplines relating to the series. 

 

Music and Memory: Jonathan Dove (April 2018) 

Jonathan Dove in conversation with Dr Kate Kennedy. 
Composer Jonathan Dove talked to Dr Kate Kennedy (University of Oxford) about the relationship of his music to war and remembrance. 

 

Music and Memory: Panel-Led Workshop 1 (April 2018) 
A workshop was held to elicit the distinct contribution of music – as opposed to silence and non-musical sound – to commemoration and healing. 
 
Panel 
Peter Grant (Senior Fellow in Grantmaking, Philanthropy and Social Investment, Cass Business School, London) 
Laura Hassler (Director, Musicians Without Borders, The Netherlands) 
Rihab Azar (Musician and Performer (oud); MA in Music Education, University College London) 
Chair: Dr Kate Kennedy (Weinrebe Research Fellow in Life-Writing, Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, University of Oxford) 

 

The Rest Is Silence: Panel-Led Workshop 2 (May 2018) 
A workshop was held to focus on the role of silence in commemoration. 
 
Panel 
Dr Adrian Gregory (Associate Professor of History, University of Oxford) 
Professor Mahinda Deegalle (Professor of Religions, Philosophies and Ethics, Bath Spa University) 
Dr Lydia Wilson (CRIC Research Fellow; Visiting Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center, City University New York) 
John Dunston (Tutor, Farmington Institute, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford) 
Chair: Professor Paul Whitty (Professor in Composition, Oxford Brookes University) 

 

Post-War: Remembrance, Recollection, Reconciliation (May 2018) 

A one-day interdisciplinary conference was held which was the culmination of the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Series Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation. Over the course of the 2017-18 academic year, the Series brought together academics, creative practitioners, field-workers and policy-makers to explore textual, monumental and aural commemoration and its role in reconciliation and peace-building. Postgraduate students and early career researchers from all disciplines were invited to share their original research.   

Keynote Speaker: Professor Marita Sturken (Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University) 

 

Remembrance – Concert (June 2018) 

A concert was held to form the conclusion of the year-long international seminar series Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation. 

Simon Over conductor 
Annabel Drummond violin 
Anna Leese soprano 
Jon Stainsby baritone 
City Choir Dunedin (New Zealand) 
The Parliament Choir 
Southbank Sinfonia 

Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending 
Augusta Holmès La Nuit et L’Amour 
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin 
Interval 
Anthony Ritchie Gallipoli to the Somme (European premiere) 

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