An interdisciplinary roundtable panel — Yasmine Flodin-Ali (Religious Studies), Calum Matheson (Communications), Tony Novosel (History), Mina Rajagopalan (History of Art & Architecture), Ana Sekulic (History), and Adam Shear (Religious Studies) — will lead this discussion, subtitled “Confronting Intergenerational Collective Memory of Violence and Displacement.”

During the past century, the world has experienced nearly incessant violence and persecution in which religion is a significant factor. Tens of millions of people have been forced to migrate because they are minority populations of states that define belonging by ancestry and faith. Today, hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar are living in Bangladeshi refugee camps. The partitions of Greece and Turkey, India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, and Protestant and Catholic Ireland still reverberate through collective memory and geopolitics.  

Students may arrive in our classrooms with these events seared into their personal and collective memories. This discussion will offer an opportunity for scholars whose teaching touches on these histories to share strategies for fostering generative and constructive classroom experiences. This event is cosponsored by Pitt's Global Studies Center. 

The event is from noon to 1:30 p.m. Jan. 19 at 4130 Posvar Hall. Register here (RSVPs appreciated but not required).