From Belfast to the World
Monday 27 Oct, 5pm-7pm, Washington D.C.
Creative Arts, Public History, and Study Opportunities at Queen’s University Belfast
Free Event With Queen’s Academics, Alumni and North America Team
Discover how the creative arts and public history at Queen’s University Belfast connect local experience in Northern Ireland with global contexts.
In partnership with the Northern Ireland Bureau in Washington D.C., this event showcases Queen’s expertise across the arts, culture, and public history sectors. Rooted in Northern Ireland’s unique history as a divided society, Queen’s is at the forefront in shaping innovative approaches to memory, heritage, and storytelling.
With strong local and international partnerships within these sectors — particularly with US-based organisations — Queen’s provides a dynamic environment for exploring how history and creativity inform and respond to today’s most pressing global issues.
Whether you are curious about short-term study abroad, a bachelors or graduate level degree, or research that bridges communities worldwide, Queen’s offers a rich, engaging, inspiring and affordable setting for learning and discovery.
This event is relevant to those who would like to learn more about Northern Ireland and Queen’s University Belfast, including:
- Prospective students (and parents!) for both bachelors and graduate degrees
- Guidance counsellors and fellowship advisors
- Academic connections seeking student mobility opportunities for short term study
- Anyone who would like to connect with Queen’s in these disciplines
Venue: The Northern Ireland Bureau, The Homer Building, Washington D.C.
Getting there: Closest Metro Station: Metro Center (Red, Orange, Silver and Blue lines); take Exit D (13 St) and building entrance on the left.
Cost: Free
Registration Essential
EVENT SCHEDULE
Start Time: 5pm
Enjoy light refreshments and informal networking with Queen’s University Belfast academics and alumni.
Main program: 5.45pm – 7pm
Includes an overview of Queen’s University Belfast and a panel discussion featuring experts in creative arts and public history.
NORTHERN IRELAND: SHAPING CREATIVE HISTORIES
Northern Ireland is very proud of its artistic heritage. International stars across the fields of Drama, Music and Film began their careers there, including Liam Neeson, Michelle Fairley, Van Morrison and Snow Patrol. The region boasts a thriving creative infrastructure from renowned theatres and music festivals to a booming film and TV industry, including the production of Game of Thrones. It’s vibrant cultural and museum scene is exemplified by National Museums NI, whose four museums are leading the way in engaging audiences to explore and share diverse histories and cultures in dealing with contested pasts.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Prof Olwen Purdue will share insights about her work with Northern Ireland’s archives and museum sector, focusing on how they address the region’s contested past and divided present. She will also talk about her memory and storytelling work with marginalised communities from West Belfast to the Middle East. She will share some of the ways in which the work of herself and her colleagues, in collaboration with a wide range of public history professionals, shapes the teaching of Public History at Queen’s.
Dr. David Robb will reflect on his personal experience as a musician and researcher. Studying for his PhD in Berlin in the 1990s during a time of deep historical transition he encountered the contested histories of East and West Germany. This provided an excellent foundation for his work in Belfast where he plays an active part in the local songwriting scene and has grown a local and international network on protest song research. The arts departments at Queen’s have excellent relationships with the professional creative sector across Northern Ireland offering students valuable work placements and industry experience.
VICE-CHANCELLOR'S INTERNATIONAL ATTAINMENT AWARD
Hear from American student Bernadette Pitt-Payne on how the Vice-Chancellor's International Attainment Award facilitated her studies.
Find out more about Scholarships for North American students
Professor Olwen Purdue
Olwen Purdue is Professor of Modern Social History and Director of the Centre for Public History at Queen’s University Belfast. Her work focuses on the history of poverty, welfare and social class and on public history in divided societies. Recent publications include Urban Spaces in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (2018), Children, Poverty and the Poor Law in Industrial Belfast (2024) and Public History in Ireland: Difficult Histories (2024). She was international editor for The Public Historian and is series editor for Routledge’s Global Perspectives in Public History series.
Professor Purdue is fellow of the Royal Historical Society and member of its Council. She has worked with the archives and museums sectors across Ireland as a Director of the Irish Museums Association and academic advisor to the Ulster Museum and Titanic Belfast. She has worked with both the Smithsonian Institution and US Holocaust Memorial Museum on dealing with difficult pasts.
Dr. David Robb
David Robb is a Reader in Music at Queen’s University Belfast. He works in the field of popular music studies and is an expert in the history, politics and cross-border circulation of songs. His numerous publications in this area include the book Songs for a Revolution: The 1848 Protest Song Tradition in Germany (2020). He has recently completed an AHRC research fellowship on the East German protest singer and dramatist Gerhard Gundermann. A musician and songwriter, Robb released the album Filling Station for Losers (2024) featuring his translations of Gundermann’s songs (www.songsofgundermann.com).
Dr. Robb has built a wide-ranging international network of scholars. At his conference ‘Politics in Music and Song’ in Belfast in September 2023, panels looked at the role of music in divided societies across the world. He is a Fellow of the Senator George Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and a member of the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain.