Category: Event

Invite: Oral Histories of the Troubles

We are delighted to welcome Professor Graham Dawson – INCORE Visiting Professor – to give a seminar entitled: 

“The Afterlife of Feelings in Oral Histories of the Troubles”

The seminar uses Cultural Studies and psychoanalytic theories and methods to explore the emotional dynamics in Troubles life stories and their impact on memory politics and conflict transformation.

Date:     10 December 2024
Time:     4pm-6pm
Venue:  Ulster University Belfast Campus, Room BD-01-023

Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/scL7wSEaX7

The Seminar

Professor Dawson will begin by introducing previous work on conflict memories and subjectivities that employs theories and methods from Cultural Studies and psychoanalysis to analyse the psychic and emotional dynamics within life stories of the Troubles, considering their significance for the politics of memory and conflict transformation. This paper will focus on his most recent work concerning oral histories in two collections: the Dúchas Oral History Archive at Falls Community Council in West Belfast and the oral histories recorded for the ongoing AHRC-funded project, Conflict, Memory, and Migration: Northern Irish Migrants and the Troubles in Great Britain (2019-22). Through close engagement with three interviews from these collections, Professor Dawson will discuss methods to hear, understand, and write about the afterlife of embodied feelings derived from experiences up to half a century ago, as well as their materialisation in the ‘flow’ and what is termed ‘associative diffraction’ of memory within an oral history conversation. In conclusion, reflections will be made on the implications of this approach—and of post-positivist oral history practice more generally—for critiquing the policy framework of ‘an inclusive oral history initiative’ in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Reconciliation and Legacy) Act 2023.

About Professor Dawson

Graham Dawson works in interdisciplinary cultural studies on popular memory of war and conflict, with a focus on the memories, legacies and afterlives of the Northern Irish Troubles in Ireland and Britain. 

His research investigates lived experience, subjectivity and memory as represented in oral histories and life stories; the temporal dynamics of ‘post-conflict’ culture; community-based memory-work; and the cultural politics of conflict transformation and historical justice. Author of Making Peace with the Past? Memory, Trauma and the Irish Troubles (2007) and co-editor of The Northern Ireland Troubles in Britain: Impacts, Engagements, Legacies and Memories (2017), he was Co-I on the oral history project, Conflict, Memory and Migration: Northern Irish Migrants and the Troubles in Great Britain (AHRC-funded 2019-22, continuing informally). His next book, Afterlives of the Troubles: Life Stories, Culture and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland, will be published by Manchester University Press in 2025. Graham was formerly Professor of Historical Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories at the University of Brighton.

Invite: Nonviolence & Empowerment

Conflict Textiles, INNATE & the Hume O’Neill Chair in Peace (Ulster University) invite you to a discussion with Ramin Jahanbegloo on 28th November at 3.00pm (Belfast Room Ulster Museum Stranmillis Road Belfast).

Ramin is a political philosopher, from Iran, with a special interest in nonviolence.

Ramin Jahanbegloo has written numerous books and articles, the most recent being ‘Thinking Nonviolence: Struggle and Resistance’. The Ulster Museum’s current exhibition, ‘Threads of Empowerment’, displays many textiles which are testimonies to empowerment through nonviolent resistance, as well as being forms of resistanceand empowerment themselves. Ramin will discuss the relationship between nonviolence and empowerment, especially in the current challenging environment.

To register: https://tinyurl.com/raminnonviolence

Programme for Government

The HumeO’Neill Chair with Eliz McArdle from Ulster University and on behalf of the Peace Summit Partnership submitted a response to the Draft Programme for Government for Northern Ireland 2024. The response focused on contemporary peacebuilding issues for young people in Northern Ireland. It can be downloaded here.

The response was launched with the Peace Summit Partnership response at Stormont on 4 November 2024.

Hume O’Neill Lecture: Simon Harris

The inaugural John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair Peace Lecture took place on the Derry-Londonderry Campus of Ulster University on 20 September 2024 through a partnership of the Hume O’Neill Chair and the John and Pat Hume Foundation.

The lecture was given by Taoiseach Simon Harris TD. The lecture paid tribute to the work of John Hume and Tip O’Neill in terms of peacebuilding but also reaffirmed the commitment of the Irish Government to deepening peace on the island.

Taoiseach Simon Harris TD noted:

“We are also witnessing a new era in British-Irish relations. My recent meetings with Prime Minister Keir Starmer have set in motion a much-needed reset of relations between our two Governments. I have always believed – and this remains unshakable – that the peace process thrives when the British and Irish Governments act in full partnership as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement. Unilateralism failed in the past, as seen in the ill-judged attempts to address the legacy of the Troubles while ignoring the rights of victims’ families. Today, we are restoring a genuine sense of partnership, ensuring that together we address the critical issues that underpin lasting peace, progress, and reconciliation. The Irish Government is fully committed to strengthening relationships across all political traditions on this island, and to rebuilding trust where it has been eroded. We know the scars of history run deep, and the wounds of the Troubles still linger. Even more reason to seize this opportunity and work to achieve real progress”.

Taoiseach Simon Harris TD, Hume O’Neill Peace Lecture, 20 September 2024

The John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair Lecture Series builds on the previous Tip O’Neill Lecture series hosted at Ulster University from 2002-2009. These lectures took place at a significant time in the Northern Ireland peace process. The series featured an unparalleled group of international figures, including:

• Michel Rocard (9 May 2003)
• President Bill Clinton (6 July 2003)
• An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD (4 March 2004)
• Professor Romano Prodi (1 April 2004)
• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (26 April 2004)
• Pat Cox MEP (26 August 2004)
• Secretary-General Kofi Annan (18 October 2004)
• Dr Garret FitzGerald (15 December 2005)
• Senator John Kerry (5 March 2006)
• Ambassador Mitchell Reiss (21 May 2006)
• President Mary McAleese (4 December 2006)
• Dermot Ahern TD (3 April 2007)
• Senator Maurice Haves (4 June 2007)
• Professor Kader Asmal (4 February 2008)
• Robert Fisk (5 January 2009)
• President Juan José Ibarrete Markuartu (2 February 2009)

It is critical to note that through John Hume, in his honorary capacity as Tip O’Neill Chair in Peace Studies at the University of Ulster, many speakers took up the opportunity to speak at the university.

The Chair, in partnership with the John and Pat Hume Foundation, will continue the annual tradition of a lecture that delves into both local contexts and global issues, inviting notable figures working in peace and conflict to share their insights. It seems opportune to link the historical connections between Hume and O’Neill again through the new lecture series. However, more importantly, as new waves of conflict sweep the globe, it provides a forum to share lessons and place peace centre stage at the highest level.

Victim Mobilisation Paper

Professor Hamber delivered a paper entitled “Victim Mobilisation: An antidote to denialism, a route to new relationships?” at the Conference on Intergroup Relations After Violent Conflict: Insights from Research and Practice. The conference was held at The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University on 5-6 October 2023. The paper can be downloaded here.

Harvard University, Boston

Peace Summit 2023

The John and Pat Hume Foundation and Community Dialogue, in partnership with the Glencree Centre for Peace & Reconciliation, Youth Action NI, Holywell Trust, Ulster University and Integrated Education Fund today launched the Peace Summit 2023. Twenty-five years on from the Good Friday Agreement the summit has took stock of the status of the peace process. The Chair played an integral role in working with the partners in drafting the Consultation Report launched on 3 March 2023. The partners are keen to hear your views on the peace process in Northern Ireland 25 years on. Read the document and reply to b.hamber@ulster.ac.uk.

Peace Summit Consultation DocumentDownload

Medical Education in Conflict


As Ulster University’s School of Medicine moves into its second year of existence, and our medical students start to undertake more clinical placement, we have been thinking more about the places where they will work and the patients with whom they will interact. Our partner medical school is St George’s University of London, and so all curriculum materials relate to a London based environment.

Our own setting is of course different, and one thing that sets it apart from London is the fact that is recognised to be a society emerging from conflict . Through its international Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Hume O’Neill Peace Chair and work in the Schools of Psychology and Social Sciences (to give some examples), Ulster University has committed to exploring the impact of conflict on a range of areas in Northern Ireland.

The Chair will participate in an initiate conversation with students and educators about their views of medical education in a post-conflict setting. If you would like to join us on Weds 16 November 2022, 6:30pm (online) sign up here.