On Wednesday 19 February the School of History and Cultures hosted an HEA-funded event on ‘Commemoration and Conflict’ which explored the impact that often emotive public commemoration of past conflicts and mass loss of life can have on the ways in which related subject–matter is taught and learned in the HE classroom.
The programme featured several staff from the College of Arts and Law, including Jonathan Gumz, Kate Skinner, Peter Gray and Sadiah Qureshi (SHaC), Steve Hewitt (ACS), Isabel Wollaston (PTR) and Joanna Sayner (German).
The programme consisted of::
1914 And All That: Armed Conflict and the Classroom
• Teaching World War I: The Problematics of War from a Distance (Dr Jonathan Gumz, War Studies, University of Birmingham)
• D-Day Plus 70: Challenge, Opportunity, and the Anniversary of the Great Crusade (Dr Sam Edwards, History, Manchester Metropolitan University)
• Educating Warriors - the challenges of mixing history, theory and practice (Dr Peter Gray, War Studies, University of Birmingham)
In Living Memory: Commemoration and Contemporary History
• Memories of Germany and German Memories: The Politics of Remembering the Nazi Past (Dr Joanne Sayner, German Studies, University of Birmingham)
• The Shadow of History: Commemorating the 1982 Falklands war in Britain (Dr Helen Parr, History, Keele University)
• Terrorizing Students: The Perils, Challenges, and Rewards of Teaching about Terrorism (Dr Steve Hewitt, American and Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham)
Atrocities: Perspectives, Politics and the Personal
• ‘Hearing is not seeing’ v ‘choosing not to look’. Dilemmas and Challenges in using visual images of the Holocaust in the classroom (Dr Isabel Wollaston, Philosophy and Theology, University of Birmingham)
• 'These stats are somebody's ancestors': teaching the Atlantic Slave trade (Dr Kate Skinner, African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham)
• Personal Politics and the Teaching of Genocide (Dr Sadiah Qureshi , History, University of Birmingham)
- A participants review