Brownbag Session | Conflict, Memory, and Social Division in the Former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and the Basque Country (Blaze Joel)

Conflict, Memory, and Social Division in the Former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and the Basque Country

This presentation analyzes the exacerbation and maintenance of social division through conflict and commemoration in four different European societies – Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and the Basque Country. These societies all experienced intense inter-ethnic conflicts that made ethnicity more salient and turned ethnic understandings into oppositional forces, a trend which has been reinforced in the years since the conflicts have ended. As the Breakup of Yugoslavia, the Troubles, and the Spanish-Basque Conflict have moved further into the past, they have become essentialized into key mobilizing events that are the focus of the memorial cultures of each respective community, which set (often literally) in stone the divisions from the conflicts, transforming them into part of the daily lives of people regardless of their ethnicity. These divisions over memory also have immense consequences for politics, education, sport, and social and cultural life.

Blaze Joel promoviert an der UC Berkeley im Fach Geschichte. Er wird vom 15. Februar bis zum 31. März in Regensburg sein. Seine Forschung konzentriert sich auf Nationalismus, Erinnerung, Gewalt und nationale Identität im Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts. Er untersucht diese Themen mit Blick auf die Nachfolgestaaten des ehemaligen Jugoslawiens, Nordirland und das Baskenland sowie in einem internationalen, transeuropäischen Rahmen.

Das Doktorand*innenaustauschprogramm zwischen Regensburg und Berkeley wird unterstützt von der Universität Regensburg, dem Leibniz-Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung, CITAS, der Regensburger Universitätsstiftung und dem Institute of European Studies (IES) an der University of California Berkeley.