Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts: A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis and Cross-Case Synthesis of Oral Histories and History in Post-Conflict and Postco
Lead Research Organisation:
Bath Spa University
Department Name: College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts proposes a cross-disciplinary analysis and cross-case synthesis of experience and memory in post-conflict and postcolonial contexts. Case-research, conducted from disciplinary bases in anthropology and history, will interrogate relationships between oral histories and amateur histories with more formal written archives and historiography in a series of disrupted settings (evictions in colonial and apartheid west Namibia; memories and historical interpretations of the Egyptian Jewish diaspora; war-time evacuation in Vichy, France; recent maritime exodus of migrants from Africa; and Portuguese migrant subjectivities in post-colonial Angola). This will be complemented by systematic cross-case engagement, synthesis, theorisation and communication of case-study research, conducted through regular meetings of our core research team, a larger research workshop, and presentation to the broader AHRC-LABEX Pasp network.
In the postconflict and colonial contexts of our cases, 'disruption' is present in three senses: as the productive ways in which multiple experiences retrieved through oral histories may refract and revise historical analysis; as the happening histories of objectively disruptive events break the flow of individual and collective experience; and as a strategy for cross-disciplinary research to disrupt and democratise conventional understanding by drawing attention to occluded experiences. 'Recovery' is also polysemic, invoking retrieval of past experiences, and the possibility for enhanced well-being, through voicing memories that may have been suppressed and attending to mismatches between public discourse about displaced groups and individual experience.
We will publish our findings in a bespoke collection (the Palgrave Studies in Oral History is a possible outlet) and in peer reviewed journals such as Oral History, and make our research available in English and French to wider publics at http://disruptedhistories.net.
In the postconflict and colonial contexts of our cases, 'disruption' is present in three senses: as the productive ways in which multiple experiences retrieved through oral histories may refract and revise historical analysis; as the happening histories of objectively disruptive events break the flow of individual and collective experience; and as a strategy for cross-disciplinary research to disrupt and democratise conventional understanding by drawing attention to occluded experiences. 'Recovery' is also polysemic, invoking retrieval of past experiences, and the possibility for enhanced well-being, through voicing memories that may have been suppressed and attending to mismatches between public discourse about displaced groups and individual experience.
We will publish our findings in a bespoke collection (the Palgrave Studies in Oral History is a possible outlet) and in peer reviewed journals such as Oral History, and make our research available in English and French to wider publics at http://disruptedhistories.net.
Organisations
Publications
Sullivan S (trans. B. Bacle)
(2022)
Cartes et mémoire, droits et relations: articulations de la modernité globale et des dynamiques locales dans la délimitation territoriale des aires de conservation communales au Nord-Ouest de la Namibie.
in Conserveries Mémorielles: Revue Transdisciplinaire
Sullivan S
(2022)
Maps and memory, rights and relationships: articulations of global modernity and local dwelling in delineating land for a communal-area conservancy in north-west Namibia.
in Conserveries Mémorielles: Revue Transdisciplinaire
Sullivan S
(2022)
Synthese croisee: faire ensemble / doing together (trans. B Bacle)
in Conserveries Mémorielles: Revue Transdisciplinaire
| Title | Bee Song |
| Description | Sullivan's research with local Namibian collaborator (Welhemina Suro Ganuses) on the Dammann-Khoekhoegowab language archive at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien has led to one recomposition of a 1954 recording, through a collaboration with UK-based recording artist Toby Marks / Banco de Gaia - both the 1954 and 2020 recordings can be heard online at https://soundcloud.com/futurepasts/sets/a-bee-song. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | This recomposition has been played publicly, and apparently appreciated, in one dance event in the UK ('Eat Static & Banco De Gaia Extra Date', https://www.discoverfrome.co.uk/event/eat-static-banco-de-gaia-extra-date/, and included in a listening booth in a forthcoming exhibition by Basler Afrika Bibliographien celebrating 50 years of its institutional history. |
| URL | https://soundcloud.com/futurepasts/sets/a-bee-song |
| Description | The starting point for the joint AHRC Care for the Future and French LABEX Past in the Present project 'Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts' is the methodological complexity infusing whose and what types of experience and knowledge are considered to be of value in formulating historical analysis and narrative. As detailed in our first project working paper (online in both English and French at https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/working-papers_documents-de-travail) we understand debates and struggles over sources of information and memory to be at the heart of the presences of pasts as these are shaped into unfolding futures. We have conducted and combined new research and pursued a range of empirical and methodological objectives, guided by the following questions: - how might oral histories, testimonies and narratives speak to, with and as 'History' in selected contexts of objectively disruptive historical events including war, migration, colonisation, and eviction? - how do oral histories, as well as amateur histories recorded through blogs and websites, refract and revise more formal history and historiography in these contexts? - are there themes, patterns and theoretical modifications that might arise through sustained conversation, engagement and synthesis of experiences inscribed through multiple cases across similarly disrupted historical experiences? Might these themes permit the roles and values of oral and amateur history research to speak with more methodological strength to processes of knowledge production in historical research based on written archives? Our research programme has combined two key activities: 1. a series of comparative case-studies, and 2. cross-case synthesis. Our primary research has systematically interrogated relationships between oral histories and amateur histories with more formal written historical archives and historiography in each of our case studies, showing how oral and amateur histories disrupt formal written historical reference in these cases. We have found that the past that becomes written as 'History', as well as the memories which become fashioned into more-or-less formalised national strategies of 'remembrance', are caught within contingent discursive webs and institutional(ised) structures. Further complexity is conferred through differences in how 'memory' is understood and utilised by historians and anthropologists. For example, memory in the sense of narratives and evocations of the past, should not necessarily be confused with memories of experiences lived or transmitted by individuals in the present. From this perspective, oral history may differ from memory insofar as the historian works *with* oral sources and testimonies, whereas the sociologist or anthropologist works *on* memory to analyse the different ways in which the past is mobilised in the present by actors in specific contexts. Our project is culminating in a Special Issue of the online transdisciplinary journal Conserveries Mémorielles: Revue Transdisciplinaire entitled 'Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts | Histoires Perturbées, Passés Retrouvés'. All seven papers in the Special Issue will be published in both English and French. They are currently (March 2021) being edited by the journal for online open access publication. |
| Exploitation Route | We hope our research will contribute to greater sensitivity in the inclusion of diverse past experiences in practices of commemoration in the present. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/ |
| Description | Our research workshop in January 2018 at Bath Spa University included a number of beyond-academia participants working, for example, in project management and communications in developing countries and for community arts and heritage projects. The event stimulated lively and intense discussion, with many participants animated by the perceived correspondences between the different case research presentations, as well as the issues of memory and commemoration embedded in the case contexts that were shared. Sian Sullivan's case research on oral history, cultural landscapes and displacement led to requests to contribute expert testimony in two reports to the Ancestral Land Commission appointed by the Namibian government in 2018 (i. Sullivan, S., Ganuses, W.S., |Nuab, F. and senior members of Sesfontein and Anabeb Conservancies, Dama / ?Nukhoen and ?Ubun Cultural Landscapes Mapping, West Namibia, in progress report to Namidaman Traditional Authority, Sesfontein. Bath: Future Pasts, 6 August 2019; ii. Sullivan, S. and Ganuses, W.S. 2020 Understanding Damara / ?Nukhoen and ?Ubun indigeneity and marginalisation in Namibia, pp. 283-324 in Odendaal, W. and Werner, W. (eds.) 'Neither Here Nor There': Indigeneity, Marginalisation and Land Rights in Post-independence Namibia. Windhoek: Land, Environment and Development Project, Legal Assistance Centre. ISBN 978-99945-61-58-2). Sullivan's research with local Namibian collaborator (Welhemina Suro Ganuses) on the Dammann-Khoekhoegowab language archive at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien has led to one recomposition of a 1954 recording, through a collaboration with UK-based recording artist Toby Marks / Banco de Gaia - both the 1954 and 2020 recordings can be heard online at https://soundcloud.com/futurepasts/sets/a-bee-song. This recomposition initiative has been played publicly, and apparently appreciated, in one dance event in the UK ('Eat Static & Banco De Gaia Extra Date', https://www.discoverfrome.co.uk/event/eat-static-banco-de-gaia-extra-date/, and was included in a listening booth in an exhibition by Basler Afrika Bibliographien celebrating 50 years of its institutional history. Lindsey Dodd's case research led to an invitation to speak at a major international heritage policy event. Her talk entitled 'Devoir de mémoire ou devoir d'écoute ? Le sentiment d'avoir été oublié par l'Histoire' ('Duty to remember or duty to listen? The feeling of having been forgotten by history') was delivered to over 500 professional practioners and other beyond-academia attendees at the 2020 conference of the UNESCO Chair 'Memory, Cultures and Interculturality' (Université Catholique de Lyon, 6-8 February 2020). The conference was largely attended by lawyers and human rights activists from Francophone Africa. The conference patron was His Excellence Monsieur Ibrahim Boubcar Keïta, the President of Mali and other speakers included the President of the Constitutional Court of Mali, the Minister for National Reconciliation and Humanitarian action of the Central African Republic, the former Minister for Culture and Heritage of Turkey and the former Minister for Immigration and Refugees of Iraq, as well as several high-placed UNESCO representatives and numerous lawyers from the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The conference was webcast live and featured in a Malian TV news broadcast. A book will come from the conference proceedings, which Dodd will contribute to. Dodd's work has also been taken up in the French local press - in newspapers L'éveil de la Haute-Loire (9/5/17), Le Populaire du Centre (9/5/17), L'Echo Creuse (30/6/17) and on the radio station France-Bleu (21/5/17). Olivette Otele's research with migrants from sub-Sahara Africa reveals a collective memory based on overcoming suffering. It has contributed to enhanced understanding amongst organisations supporting refugees and migrants in Wales (especially the South East Wales Racial Equality Council) regarding dimensions such as monitoring, the movement of individuals from refugees and asylum seekers status to ordinary people status, and the importance of making visible stories that diverge from and disrupt an institutional narrative of recovery and integration. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Provision of expert testimony for a comprehensive and updated examination of the land rights of indigenous and marginalised communities in Namibia commissioned by the Land, Environment and Development Project of Namibia's Legal Assistance Centre to support Namibia's Ancestral Land Commission, appointed by the government in 2018, and supported by the Regional Democracy Fund of the United States Department of State. Full reference - Sullivan, S. and Ganuses, W.S. In press. Understanding Damara / ?Nukhoen and ?Ubun indigeneity and marginalisation in Namibia, pp. 283-324 in Odendaal, W. and Werner, W. (eds.) 'Neither Here Nor There': Indigeneity, Marginalisation and Land Rights in Post-independence Namibia. Windhoek: Land, Environment and Development Project, Legal Assistance Centre. ISBN 978-99945-61-58-2. |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Report on "Dama / ?Nukhoen and ?Ubun Cultural Landscapes Mapping, West Namibia" to the Namidaman Traditional Authority, Sesfontein, Namibia, by Sullivan, S., Ganuses, W.S., |Nuab, F. and senior members of Sesfontein and Anabeb Conservancies (August 2019). Used in submission by the Namidaman Traditional Authority to the Ancestral Land Commission appointed by the Namibian Government in 2018. |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | The research reported here influenced and enriched understanding, awareness and wellbeing, as confirmed by local and national cultural and political leaders, and the project's partner organisations in Namibia. The recognised paramount leader of Damara / ?Nukhoe, Gaob (King) Justus ?Garoëb, writes that the research "gives us hope that our history and customs will be written down and shared with future generations to come" (10 November 2020, specifically referencing the collaborative research informing the expert testimony mentioned above). A Senior Leader of the Namidaman Traditional Authority writes that the mapping of previously inhabited places and the facilitated return of a local cultural group to play musics associated with one of these key places (as documented in the Future Pasts research film The Music Returns to Kai-as) "contributed towards Nami-Daman culture revival and upliftment", "greatly contributed towards Conservancy formation", and "activated our youth" regarding "their rich culture" (25 October 2019). The Science Adviser to the NGO Save the Rhino Trust Namibia writes of how the research amplified awareness of the impacts of nature conservation policies on Indigenous cultural landscapes, while the Executive Director of Gobabeb Namib Research Institute, affirms that the research enriched broader understanding through "making an important contribution to document[ing] cultural heritage with individuals who are amongst the last people living today having a direct memory of these sites and their local histories". |
| URL | http://www.lac.org.na/index.php/projects/land-environment-development-lead/neither/ |
| Description | Historicising Natures, Cultures and Laws in the Etosha-Kunene Conservation Territories of Namibia (https://www.etosha-kunene-histories.net/) |
| Amount | £327,023 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/T013230/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2020 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | Research Fellowship of the Collegium de Lyon (Université de Lyon) |
| Amount | € 30,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | University of Lyon |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | France |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | Archives Municipales de Boulogne-Billancourt |
| Organisation | Municipal Archives of Boulogne-Billancourt |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Providing research context to some of their collections; potential of working towards a public output. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Archival support. |
| Impact | No output as yet. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Archives départementales de la Creuse |
| Organisation | Archives Department of Creuse |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Working with some of their collections; working towards a potential public output. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Providing information on the ground for oral history research; facilitating work with archival materials; agreed to archive relevant recorded interview material for posterity from this project. |
| Impact | No outcome as yet. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB) |
| Organisation | Basler Afrika Bibliographien |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Archival research at BAB focusing specifically on written transcripts and sound recordings made in the 1950s by the German Africanist scholar and theologian Prof. Ernst Dammann (1904-2003) and his wife Ruth Dammann (née Scholtisek, 1911-1995) (Inventory PA.39, Carton F (Khoekhoegowab), Folders 1-9, and Cassettes 32-41) will extend research that engages with this archive. The research has been developed through an additional collaboration to explore and make professional recompositions of archive and field recordings of musics, in conjunction with appropriate agreements and permissions from the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in Switzerland and the Hoanib Cultural Group in Sesfontein, Namibia. |
| Collaborator Contribution | BAB has contributed a supporting letter for this research that will permit enquiry into past audio recordings and the contexts of their documentation, focusing in particular on the archive identified above. BAB also hosted Sian Sullivan and Namibian collaborator Welhemina Suro Ganuses for several days in November 2017 in support of their archival research. A recomposition working with a recording held by the archive (https://soundcloud.com/futurepasts/sets/a-bee-song/s-Q04GcAXzeAQ) will be included in a listening booth in an exhibition by the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in March 2021 to celebrate 50 years of its institutional history. |
| Impact | Public seminar given at BAB by Sian Sullivan and Namibian collaborator Welhemina Suro Ganuses in November 2017, entitled "Future Pasts". Introducing a historical cultural mapping project in western Namibia. Presentation based on archival research at BAB entitled 'Sound and (hi)story in Damara / ?Nukhoen pasts, from Basel to west Namibia' (with Welhemina Suro Ganuses), given at at Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts research workshop, Bath Spa University, 26-27 January. One recomposition made that works with a recording held by the archive (https://soundcloud.com/futurepasts/sets/a-bee-song/s-Q04GcAXzeAQ) |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | South East Wales Regional Equality Council, UK |
| Organisation | South East Wales Racial Equality Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The research is on-going and long lasting impact is not yet measurable but this research is based on previous collaborations with Asian, African and Afro-Caribbean communities in South Wales that have been previously been facilitated by SEWREC. SEWREC also provides their expertise in collaborative work with minority ethnic groups. SEWREC has been the recipient of several grants. I have organised several conferences at SEWREC's request regarding the history of people of African descent. These were designed for a broad audience. |
| Collaborator Contribution | SEWREC's strong support of minority ethnic communities including refugees and asylum seekers makes it their first call when trying to access mainstream services. SEWERC will serve as a safeguard and a benevolent observer during the interview process. March 2018: the partner has organised the meetings/workshops (transport, logistics, etc.). Together we chose 3 types of focus groups (young, older people and working, professional people). I conducted interviews but the partner was present. |
| Impact | March 2018: I have been working closely with SEWREC and people of African descent, conducting interviews and organising focus groups aimed at bringing communities together. These groups have provided us with valuable information about people of African descent in Wales (mainly Newport and Cardiff). We have been able to draw young people, older generations and professional, working people to these events. Our findings will be published in a joint report. A background research has already been published (see publication section). It provides us with an understanding of the context in which this more focused research was done. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | University of East London, Library and Learning Services: Archives, UK |
| Organisation | University of East London |
| Department | Library and Learning Services |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My research will add to the tremendous work done by this institution to share knowledge and raise awareness about the history and stories of refugees. March 2018: the collaboration was fruitful. The institution was very supportive and provided me with material that is not available elsewhere. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of East London, Library and Learning Services: Archives, UK holds a great number of archival material that are crucial for this research. Their expertise in the field is also of great value. March 2018: the Library has provided me with a great number of archives that were used during this research. These are hundreds of papers. These are for example Papers of the Refugee Council relating to all aspects of refugee history, policy and practice, both in the UK and worldwide as well as material from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (London Office) as well as papers from the Northern refugee centre. |
| Impact | Preliminary outcomes were presented at the workshop organised for the project in January 2018 (see events organised). Further details about outcomes will be presented in Paris at the workshop organised by the AHRC and LABEX from the 15-17 March 2018. A report was also written and is available: Sullivan, S, Baussant, M, Dodd, L, Otele, O and Dos Santos, I (2017) Disrupted histories, recovered pasts: a cross-disciplinary analysis and cross-case synthesis of oral histories and history in post-conflict and postcolonial contexts. Bath Spa University, Bath. ISBN 9781911126065 |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | "Black History Month, Scholarly Activism and the Power of Cross-Community Histories", St Peter's College, University of Oxford. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The talk was the first ever keynote address organised by St John's College Oxford for Black History Month. My aim was to explain why Black history Month was set up in the USA, how it changed over time. It was about providing them with a historical context in the 1920s Us that later foster a culture of scholarly activism from people of African descent. The second part of the presentation was aimed at providing a historical overview of migration movements from the African continent to the Us then the and how that led to setting up a Black History Month in the UK. Looking into migration in the 20th and 21st century provided a larger scope to look into questions of discrimination, social cohesion resilience and the notion of recovery. There were 50 people in the audience: Oxford fellows, Professors and a vast majority of undergraduates and postgraduate students from St John's and Keble College Oxford. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | "Migratory flows, colonial encounters and the histories of transatlantic slavery". International Institute for Migration (IMI), University of Oxford. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This is part 1 of 2 presentations that looks at migratory flows from Africa to Europe. The second one will be in 2017-2018 academic year. It will look a specific case studies this time from Europe to Africa and at circulation within Europe. This talk was necessary to understand the current state of affairs between Europe and Africa. It is important to go back at the genesis of colonial encounters in order to understand the contradictions and workings of the policies and politics of European border control stances. The aim of this series of talks is also to interrogate the roles of 'acteurs/entrepreneurs' of history as both participants and writers of the stories from Africa. In other words it delves into the salient question of positioning and looks at several questions about Afro-European trajectories and knowledge exchange and production. A blog post is to be found here: https://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/blog/migratory-flows-colonial-encounters-and-the-histories-of-transatlantic-slavery A Podcast here: https://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/events/migratory-flows-colonial-encounters-and-the-histories-of-transatlantic-slavery |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/events/migratory-flows-colonial-encounters-and-the-histories-of-transatlant... |
| Description | "Mourning in Reluctant Sites of Memory: From Afrophobia to Cultural Productivity" at the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam. (September) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This presentation was aimed at establishing links between the memorialisation of the colonial era and the rejection of the perceived Other in Contemporary Europe. It took Britain as a case study in order to highlight the contradictions between growing xenophobia leading to Afrophobia on the one hand and the seemingly pacifying discourse about the memory of slavery on the other. Mass maritime exodus of people of African descent and of people from the Middle East as well as highly publicised series of deaths in the Mediterranean have stimulated discussions about national identities, European borders and even the European Union membership. Britain and France's stances on border control have ignited old quarrels regarding national identity and sovereignty. Public debate pre and post Brexit in Britain seemingly shied away from colonial legacies and yet the overall discursive field, including rhetoric often associated with foreign bodies, reminds us of post-war debates about the uncivilised new migrant. The presentation looked at black bodies as sites of memory and sites or morning. In this case the representation of Black refugees bodies in British newspapers and tabloids. It sought to highlighted overt and covert instances of Afrophobia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/132318/cfp-missing-memorials-and-absent-bodies-n... |
| Description | "Remembering, Forgetting and Memorialising Histories in Contemporary Europe" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was the opening plenary for the Society of the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. The aim was to look at the way we remember and forget in Europe and in particular when it comes to the history of colonisation. How remembrance shaped European identities with migration movement that continue to influence the way Europeans define themselves. stories of migrant in the 21st century were used as a case study to illustrate showed how upward migration mirrored southward migratory waves that have been taking place since the 15th century. Beyond drawing the studies of the long 18th century into the 21st century, the aim of the talk was also to invite people to think about cross cultural exchanges that take place wether these migration are forced or not and to examine the process of knowledge, culture and history transmission in particular and how that is related to the position of power of all involved. It is also about redefining the contours of Europe both in the cultural and geo-metaphorical senses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bsecs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BSECS-2019-Programme-DECEMBER-2018-2.pdf |
| Description | 'Our hearts were happy here' - research blog (Sullivan) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is a public online research blog post. It has only recently been posted but has been shared with interested parties in Namibia and has encouraged discussion, correspondence and requests for meetings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/227 |
| Description | 'Our hearts were happy here' for panel on 'Cultural maps and hunter-gatherers' being in the world', CHAGS12 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation called '"Our hearts were happy here"': recollecting acts of dwelling and acts of clearance through mapping on-site oral histories in west Namibia' given for a panel on 'Cultural maps and hunter-gatherers' being in the world', at the 12th international Conference on Hunter-Gatherer Societies (CHAGS12) in Penang Malaysia. A lively discussion followed the panel. New research collaborations explored with the panel organiser, Dr Ute Dieckmann (Univ. of Cologne), led to the development of the AHRC-DFG project Etosha-Kunene Histories (AH/T013230/1, 2020-2023), as well as publication of a book chapter in an edited volume - Sullivan, S. and Ganuses, W.S. in press, April 2021 Densities of meaning in west Namibian landscapes: genealogies, ancestral agencies, and healing, pp. 139-191 in Dieckmann, U. (ed.) Mapping the Unmappable? Cartographic Explorations with Indigenous Peoples in Africa. Bielefeld: Transcript. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://chags.usm.my/ |
| Description | Black Mediterranean and the Migrant Crisis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the event was to translate social science work on the Black Mediterranean, xenophobia and racism to activists and wider publics. The emerging Black Mediterranean concept draws on and expands the "Black Atlantic" to engage with histories of both cultural exchange and racial violence in the Mediterranean basin. This framework is being used by scholars, activists, and artists to understand the historical precedents for the ongoing Mediterranean refugee crisis. It provides a framework for linking border fortification and xenophobia with racism - issues often analysed separately. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://networks.h-net.org/node/113394/discussions/150072/ann-reminder-black-mediterranean-and-migra... |
| Description | Blog post: Children's disrupted wartime lives - recovered in the archives |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote an engaging research blog about my trips to France during the Autumn of 2016, where I listened to oral histories with 70 people, and collected 35 more. I am not yet aware of any impact this blog may have had. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/171 |
| Description | Blog post: Reflections on research method and cross-case synthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote a blog post which elaborated my own reflections about our research questions and sketched out a plan for crossing our cases. It is not possible to report on the impact of this activity at this point. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/466 |
| Description | Children 'without' parents in war - a talk (Paris) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Gave a talk 'Absence and presence: children 'without' parents in rupture, deportation and its aftermath', at conference Children and adolescents 'without' families in the conflicts of the twentieth century, Archives nationales de France, 27-29 November 2019. The event had wide publics, from international scholars and postgraduates, archivists and museum specialists, to members of the public (mostly French and from the Paris region). The paper sparked a range of questions and discussions and contacts made for follow-up research activities and future collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://networks.h-net.org/node/6088/discussions/3535398/call-papers-children-and-adolescents-withou... |
| Description | Densities of meaning - Cologne |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Presentation entitled 'Densities of meaning in west Namibian landscapes: genealogies, ancestral agencies, and healing' given at Research Workshop on "Mapping the Unmappable", at University of Cologne, Germany (December 2019), leading to publication of a book chapter: Sullivan, S. and Ganuses, W.S. in press, April 2021 Densities of meaning in west Namibian landscapes: genealogies, ancestral agencies, and healing, pp. 139-191 in Dieckmann, U. (ed.) Mapping the Unmappable? Cartographic Explorations with Indigenous Peoples in Africa. Bielefeld: Transcript. I also participated in the chapter peer review process for the volume in which this appears, providing detailed reviews for three other chapters appearing in the volume. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://transition.uni-koeln.de/past-events/past-events/events-sorted-by-year/past-events-2019/mappi... |
| Description | Disrupted Histories website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is the public-facing website that has been created for Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts' as a means of sharing our research and events associated with our project. The website currently hosts eight research blogs (six in English, two in French), our working paper series, and information regarding our project research workshop in January 2018 - for which it acted as a central online space for sharing information regarding logistical arrangements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/ |
| Description | Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts Public Keynote Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To launch our Research Workshop on 27 January, the project Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts organised and hosted a Public Keynote Lecture on The Politics of Memory, by Marie-Claire Lavabre, Director of Research at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris. Marie-Claire Lavabre is a well-known Professor of Sociology specialising in public memory and the politics of the past, who has authored books concerning political uses of the past in contemporary France (2017), Europe and its representations of the past (2008), the sociology of Communist memory (2004) and the social movement politics of 1968 (1998). The lecture was delivered in French with translation into English by Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts Co-Investigator Olivette Otele and introduced by project Principal Investigator Sian Sullivan. Dr Alison Hems, Senior Lecturer in Heritage and Public History at Bath Spa University, acted as discussant for Professor Lavabre's talk. The keynote lecture attracted around 50 people from beyond Bath Spa University, as well as from the academic and postgraduate communities within BSU and an international audience of workshop participants. The lecture sparked more that an hour's lively discussion and audience members reported being very stimulated by the lecture, the discussion and the themes considered by the Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts Anglo-French project, particularly given the post-Brexit moment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/364 |
| Description | Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts Research Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this focused one-day research workshop (on 27th January), preceded on 26th January by a public keynote lecture by sociologist of public memory, Professor Marie-Claire Lavabre, we sought to share some of our preliminary case research and to juxtapose this research with similar analyses conducted by scholars, practitioners and artists beyond our project. The event stimulated some very lively and intense discussion, with many participants animated by the correspondences between the different case research presentations, as well as the issues of memory and commemoration embedded in the case contexts that were shared. Feedback to date includes the following statements: "Thank you so much for yesterday and congratulations on a really wonderful workshop. It was a very enriching experience and I feel very lucky to have participated, - so many excellent speakers and really interesting studies.. I am still reflecting over the many ideas and thoughts that were shared which reflected that it is often within the very personal testimonies and shared stories of individual experience that history is brought to life and is sometimes contested; we continuously unravel the past into our future in acts of resistance, healing and in the search for truth ... .....deep thanks to Sian Sullivan for organising an enlightening exchange of studies that bring to light multiple tensions between collective memory and personal testimony, and which question whose voices determine the historical narrative....a truly enriching conversation from around the world...." (Developing Countries Communications and Project Management specialist); "I would like to thank you for a wonderful and inspiring conference. The dialogues over the weekend has opened new ways of thinking for me regarding memory and how history is recovered. I am currently working on my second book which is all about recovering lost and traumatic pasts. I found the subject matter of the conference absolutely fascinating and was wondering if there was an opportunity available to take part in it further. ... Again, I would like to thank you for inviting me to such a wonderful event in a beautiful campus" (Oral History research specialist UK); "I ... wanted to write and say thank you again to one and all for a fascinating conference and lovely company. I have actually been discussing alot of what came up in the conference over the past ten days with both people in academia and non-academics. Invigorating thoughts and discussions" (Oral History research specialist Israel); 'I just wanted to thank you for welcoming us in such a nice environment!' (workshop participant from Croatia). 'The disrupted histories keynote lecture and workshop quickly became exciting spaces for discussion and were the finale of a two year project that gathered empirical date on a wide variety of experience of how human histories are disrupted. To be invited to join the discussion at this stage was a privilege. The workshop presentations developed into nuanced discussion as to how so many indviduals and communities have found their lives disrupted by external events. Professor Sullivan's work tracing the lost villages of Namibia unfolded while she worked with her informants searching for the springs and graves of their lost villages and her journeys into the African veld led the informants to recall forgotten child-hood-songs, physical records of which now only physically exist in an archive in Switzerland. The memories of the older generation of villagers in this study showed the importance of finding and recording human experiences before they are lost to us forever. Work on the untold stories of children evacuated in France in World War 2 [by Lindsey Dodd] and the vanished culture of barge workers who lived on British canals during the industrial revolution up until the early 20th century [by Jodie Matthews] presented unique and unexpected findings. As a researcher whose work examines how living through conflict and disruption impacts on the health and well-being of indivduals, I look forward to further work that examines the life courses of those informants who contributed to these many and varied projects. Am also looking forward to to contributing a working paper to this project's archive. Thanks to everyone for putting such an amazing event together' (PhD student). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/project-workshop-january-2018 |
| Description | Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts workshop participation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | I gave a paper entitled: 'Disrupting memory, recovering history; or, the delicate balance between life and evidence' as part of our cross-disciplinary project workshop, which raised questions as discussions afterwards about the nature of historical knowledge and the 'ownership' of the past by those who lived it. There was also discussion to do with the affective nature of knowledge and the affective register of scholarly writing. All of these issues push at the boundaries of the discipline of history and were enriched by cross-disciplinary perspectives. Postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers who were present reported finding new perspectives on their own work as a result of engaging in discussion about this paper. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/project-workshop-january-2018/research-workshop-jan2018-abstracts-... |
| Description | French Children in Troubled Times - a talk (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a research presentation to international audience of French studies scholars and historians, and postgraduate students, at the University of Nottingham as part of a workshop entitled 'French Children in Troubled Times'. Talk: 'Children's evacuation inside wartime France'. My talk drew directly on the oral narratives collected as part of the the Disrupted Histories project and challenged the capacity of written archival sources to represent the nuances and affective dimensions of childhood experiences in the past. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Has the European Union been a success? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | I was asked to write a short piece about the EU and I chose to talk about the unequal relationship the EU has with countries of the African continent and in particular with 21st century migrants. The piece is accessible to members only now (it was available for a couple of months) but I copied it below: BBC world Histories and BBC History Magazine are monthly publications and have a circulation of 97 500. The integration of new states and the adoption of the euro exacerbated political and economic problems, and led to social unrest. Far-right movements have risen with unemployment in Greece and economic turmoil in Italy, where minority discrimination and anti-immigrant sentiment are also increasing. That trend is noticeable in Germany and France, too. In part, these issues have been caused by colonial actions and more recent EU policies towards neighbouring regions, notably Africa. The European response to its 'migrant crisis' has been to enlarge borders beyond the Mediterranean. Measures taken by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) have made many Africans prisoners in their own countries because of the EU's approach to economic migration. The EU Trust Fund For Africa's aim is to tackle the root cause of migration and help vulnerable populations, but it has focused on tightening border controls outside the EU by providing funds to a few African countries. In July 2018, 55 millions euros were given to the Maghreb region (especially Morocco and Tunisia, seen alongside Libya as part of the 'North Africa Window'). The EU is responding to so-called emergency situations rather than working with countries that are not transit states. Young people continue to risk their lives on dangerous new routes north into Europe. Meanwhile, no sustainable economic and educational measures have been put in place in central and west Africa. Those regions are suffering from both the EU's approach and the International Monetary Fund's debt policies. Though research and innovation projects provide opportunities for African and European researchers to collaborate, their impact on the vast majority of the population in the continent remains limited. As to the future, changes in the EU must be sustainable. On 28 July, French president Emmanuel Macron stated that the EU will soon have to function within three circles. The first would comprise treaties with superpowers such as Russia and Turkey. The second would be close to the current membership, focusing on freedom of movement and a commitment to research and innovation. The third circle would be the "core of the reactor", according to Macron, including countries that adhere to a fully integrated labour market and real social convergence. The EU needs those internal changes. It must also re-think its neo-colonial economic and migratory approaches. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/big-question-has-european-union-eu-been-success-bre... |
| Description | Lunch Talk (Sullivan): "'Future Pasts.' Introducing a historical cultural mapping project in western Namibia", BAB |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited research seminar given with Namibian collaborator Welhemina Suro Ganuses at the Namibia Resource Centre of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in Basel, Switzerland. Sparked questions and discussions and led to further collaborative possibilities as well as to invitations to give a research seminar in Hamburg (in July 2018) and submit a paper to a panel on Cultural Mapping at the next Conference on Hunter-Gatherer Societies (also in July 2018). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://baslerafrika.ch/event/lunch-talk-future-pasts-introducing-a-historical-cultural-mapping-proj... |
| Description | Newspaper article about evacuated children (French local press) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed for an article in the local press (Le Populaire du Centre - but as via a press agency, it appeared in print and online for a number of different regional newspapers in central France) about my research into child evacuees to this region during the Second World War. This was published in the newspaper in May 2017. People interested in being interviewed were invited to contact me. As a result, I was contacted by around 30 people, from the Creuse and from Paris. From that group of people, I have interviewed 19. The other people had comments and stories to contribute to me by email, but were not available for interview or were not direct witnesses to these historical events, but were relatives of evacuees/host families from the period. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.lepopulaire.fr/gueret/histoire/creuse/2017/05/09/des-milliers-d-enfants-evacues-loin-des... |
| Description | Research blog post: Seeking points of articulation in a cross-case synthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I added a blog post to our website which described and analysed the outcomes of a project meeting specifically intending to develop the cross-case synthesis in our research project. it is impossible at present to estimate the impact here. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/458 |
| Description | Research blog re: public keynote lecture by Marie-Claire Lavabre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Research blog announcing and publicising Public Lecture by Marie-Claire Lavabre. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/364 |
| Description | Research blog: Interviewing in the Creuse |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I added a blog post detailing my research trip to the Creuse in July 2017, and thinking through some of the project-related questions. I expect this writing to be worked into a more formal analysis at a later date. At present it is impossible to consider the impact of this. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/478 |
| Description | Research paper (Huddersfield) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I gave a 50 minute research paper about the research conducted during my sabbatical leave to students, staff and members of the local history society at the University of Huddersfield. That research was the archival research undertaken for this grant - I compared the oral narratives of three former children, and the ways in which they acted in their lives as 'amateur historians' in revolt against prevailing historical discourse, and the ways in which trauma manifested itself inside their narratives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Research seminar (Sullivan), !Nara harvesters of the northern Namib |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a research seminar presenting field data from Future Pasts to a cross-disciplinary academic audience that included anthropologists and archaeologists and that attracted a number of post-graduate students. The seminar stimulated discussion and questions, with a positive comments reported after the event. It resulted in the presenter being invited to serve as an examiner on a PhD committee in the department for new ethnographic research in Namibia (although unable to accept due to dates clash). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | School visit (Hulme) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to speak at Loreto Sixth Form College in Hulme about children's experiences of war, based on my oral history research in France. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Sound and (hi)story in Damara / ?Nukhoen pasts, from Basel to west Namibia, Research workshop at BSU |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation entitled 'Sound and (hi)story in Damara / ?Nukhoen pasts, from Basel to west Namibia ' for project research workshop, generated from collaborative research at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien with Namibian collaborator Welhemina Suro Ganuses. The presentation and associated panel stimulated lively discussion and assisted cross-case synthesis work for the project. This presentation has now been developed into a paper currently under review for a special issue on 'Power and the Archive' for the journal Oral History: Sullivan, S. and Ganuses W.S. Recomposing the archive? On sound and (hi)story in Damara / ?Nukhoe pasts, from Basel to west Namibia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://dsrupdhist.hypotheses.org/project-workshop-january-2018/research-workshop-jan2018-abstracts-... |
| Description | Talk providing critical perspectives on 'devoir de mémoire'/duty of memory (Lyon) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Gave a talk : 'Devoir de mémoire ou devoir d'écoute ? Le sentiment d'avoir été oublié par l'Histoire', at the conference of the UNESCO Chair 'Memory, Cultures and Interculturality', at the Université Catholique de Lyon, 6-8 February 2020. The conference was largely attended by lawyers and human rights activists from Francophone Africa. The patron of the conference was His Excellence Monsieur Ibrahim Boubcar Keïta, the President of Mali. Other speakers included the President of the Constitutional Court of Mali, the Minister for National Reconciliation and Humanitarian action of the Central African Republic, the former Minister for Culture and Heritage of Turkey and the former Minister for Immigration and Refugees of Iraq, as well as several high-placed UNESCO representatives and numerous lawyers from the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The conference was webcast live and featured in a Malian TV news broadcast. A book will come from the conference proceedings, which Dodd will participate in. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.ucly.fr/l-ucly/agenda/conference-des-defis-du-devoir-de-memoire-a-la-problematique-de-ju... |
| Description | Talk: 'Recovering Evidence, Disrupting Lives?' (Belfast) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk to oral historians (academic, third sector, media) in Belfast entitled 'Recovering evidence, disrupting lives? The risky business of uniting archival evidence and oral history' which provocatively challenged the injunction that oral source material should be coupled with archival evidence. The talk provoked a great deal of discussion, given differing views about truth, validity and the requirements of 'History' as a scholarly discipline. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.ohs.org.uk/conferences/belfast-2018/ |
| Description | Talk: Remembering Wartime Childhoods (Lyon) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented the work towards my book 'Remembering Wartime Childhoods', which draws on all of the research data collected for the Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts project, to an international, interdisciplinary audience at the Collegium de Lyon. The talk generated lively discussion, with some members of the audience having never known that the discipline of oral history, and the study of memory and history, existed; there was a great deal of discussion around the affective dimensions of the work presented, for both the researcher and the audience, and a realignment of my research interests around the critical value attached to feelings felt both in the past and in relation to the past. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | The emotions of history - a roundtable talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A multidisciplinary roundtable discussion at the Collegium de Lyon (France) between scholars and postgraduates, which engaged an international audience in thinking about emotion and affect across their disciplines. Dodd has been invited to contribute to an interdiciplinary book on affect and gender as a result. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |