Queen's University Belfast | Curran, Barbara

Curran, Barbara

Part time PhD Student

Year of Entry: 2003

Thesis Title: Collective memory and history education in post-conflict societies: Can history education be used as a vehicle for reconciliation?

Summary of Research: Collective memory has been viewed as important for the maintenance of social identity, and is particularly salient in the midst of intergroup conflict. In the aftermath of violence however, group based emotional attachment to the collective memory and the in-group narrative on the past remains. What role does formal history education have in dealing with controversial events in the past as part of the reconciliation process? The recent revision of the history curriculum in Northern Ireland has provided an opportunity to investigate teachers’ and pupils perspectives on the use of formal history education for the understanding of multiple narratives in a politically strained environment. In a mostly segregated environment, how are competing narratives dealt with and has the new approach to the past affected pupils’ understanding of community and out-group perspectives?

Supervisors: Dr Ulrike Niens, Dr Claire McGlynn.