Join historians from Queens University Belfast with expertise on two divided societies: Northern Ireland and the post-war German Democratic Republic (GDR). Each will discuss their respective research into public culture and public memory. Their presentations will be followed by a discussion and Q & A about how their work might find resonance within our own political moment.

PRESENTERS

Dave Robb (Reader in Music, Queens University Belfast)
"A Filling Station for Losers": Gerhard Gundermann singing for the underdogs in a divided Germany

In the divided Germany of the Cold War, coal miner and musician Gerhard Gundermann sang political songs in support of the GDR state. Expelled from the communist party for dissent in 1984, he became a leading advocate of change in the years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the united Germany of the 1990s, Gundermann released four highly acclaimed albums reflecting the view of the socially marginalized. Dave Robb (Queen's University Belfast) will share his work on Gundermann and his translations of his songs into English for the album Filling Station for Losers. Songs of Gundermann (Buschfunk 2024).

Olwen Purdue (Professor in History, Queens University Belfast)
To remember, or to forget? The public history of contested pasts in a divided present

In divided societies history is often seen as part of the problem, something employed to lend legitimacy to a particular political stance, or denote belonging or otherness. In such contexts, we are often encouraged to promote forgetting rather than remembering. But public engagement with the past can play a positive role in breaking down barriers and helping societies come to terms with difficult or traumatic pasts. Taking Northern Ireland as a case study, this lecture explores the challenges of engaging public audiences with the region's difficult past, looking at how public history initiatives are encouraging dialogue and understanding across the deep divisions that continue to mark that society.

This event is co-sponsored by The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design (Music and Museum Studies Programs), the History Department, and the Divided Communities University Seminar Series.