Public Symposium: Difficult Histories and Modern Conflict
As the First and Second World Wars fade from living memory, new questions arise as to how to teach these cataclysmic events to students in the 21st century, and what cultural memory messages are transmitted in the course of educational interaction.
A group of scholars from various countries in the British world that had major commitments in both conflicts have founded a new research project on this topic. This process will generate new questions and ways of thinking about and teaching these important issues across identified English-speaking countries including the Indigenous service experience.
You are invited to participate in and benefit from this latest international research at the Public Symposium Difficult Histories & Modern Conflict: The State of the Field Internationally,
which will be hosted by the University of Newcastle and Newcastle Museum on 27 January 2016.
All are welcome to this free event. It will be of particular interest to academics in history and education (with broad appeal across disciplines), postgraduate research students and history teachers.
The evening will include talks by Dr Catriona Pennell (University of Exeter, UK), Dr Mark Sheehan (Victoria University of Wellington, NZ) and Dr Paul Kiem (History Teachers Association NSW). This will be followed by a Q&A session with the presenters, and then refreshments will be served. Please arrive at 4pm for a 4:15pm start.
About the speakers
Dr Catriona Pennell is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter, UK. Dr Pennell is an historian of 19th and 20th century British and Irish history with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of the First World War and British imperial activity in the Middle East since the 1880s. She is currently the lead academic on a collaborative research project with the Institute of Education, investigating pupil responses to the UK government-funded First World War Battlefield Centenary Tours Programme.
Dr Mark Sheehan is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. Dr Sheehan's research interests include critical/historical thinking, NCEA/secondary assessment and curriculum theory as well as the role of history in reconciliation, especially in regards to memory, remembrance and indigenous epistemologies. He is currently an Investigator in a longitudinal project (2015 to 2019) studying how young people make meaning out of ANZAC official commemorative activities.
Dr Paul Kiem is a past President of both the History Teachers' Association of Australia and the History Teachers Association NSW (HTANSW). He has been an editor of Teaching History since 1995, was Chief Examiner of Modern History, is the author of a number of texts and speaks widely on Modern and Extension History. Dr Kiem has taught history for more than twenty years, predominantly in secondary schools but also at TAFE and university. He is currently Professional Officer and Publisher for HTANSW.
This event is sponsored by the Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle and Newcastle Museum.
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.