Discussion: Reflections of the Lebanese Civil War

Memory, violence & reconciliation

18.00-19.30, Tuesday 26 October 2010
Anatomy Theatre Museum, King’s Building, Strand Campus
This event is hosted by the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies and the Middle East & Mediterranean Studies Programme.

Bringing together for the first time three experts on ‘Memory and Conflict in Lebanon’, to speak about their new books, we invite you to participate in a discussion on the Lebanese Civil War.

In their new books, Dr Franck Salameh,Language, Memory, and Identity in the Middle East: The Case for Lebanon; Dr Sune Haugbolle, War and Memory in Lebanon; Dr Craig Larkin Memory And Conflict In Lebanon: Remembering And Forgetting The Past, these authors explore the themes of civil warm memory, nationalism and identity, and truth and reconciliation in post-civil war Lebanon.

The panel will be chaired by the Director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies, Dr Michael Kerr, and his guests will examine the identity forming narratives at the heart of Lebanon’s conflicts and how the post-civil war generation remembers the past, before opening up for an hour of audience participation through questions and answers.

^{Image: Covers from the books by Salameh & Haugbolle. Larkin's book is forthcoming.}

Panelists' biographies

MIchael Kerr is Director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies and Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies. He is a graduate of Essex University (BA Hons. Political Science), and the London School of Economics (MSc. Government; PhD. International History) where he was Leverhulme Research Fellow in 2007-08. Michael runs the MA in Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies and his research interests include power-sharing and third party intervention in divided societies, civil war and peace processes. PhD applications are welcome on these topics, with particular focus on Northern Ireland and Lebanon. He is the author of three books on regulating political conflict in Lebanon and Northern Ireland. His forthcoming book, The Destructors: The Story of Northern Ireland's Lost Peace Process will be published by Irish Academic Press in May 2011.

Franck Salameh is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Boston College, Department of Slavic and Eastern Language and Literatures, where he teaches courses on the modern Middle East, ancient Near East, intellectual and cultural history of the modern Middle East, Arabic language, and modern Levantine literature. He is author of Language Memory and Identity in the Middle East; the Case for Lebanon, and The Annotated English Translation of Charles Corm's 6000 ans de génie pacifique. His current book projects are The Other Middle East, and Charles Corm; a Political Biography.

Sune Haugbølle is Assistant Professor in Modern Islam and Middle East Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Craig Larkin is Associate Research Fellow in the Department of Politics, at the University of Exeter.