Exploring the debate over commemoration in the years after the First World War and today, the panel will consider how memorials reflect the social and political values of their time and assess their contemporary relevance in the centenary of the end of the war.
Join Emma Login, First World War Programme Manager at Historic England, artist Said Adrus and Sam Edwards, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in the Department of History, Politics & Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University as they explore the politics of commemoration. This panel will be chaired by Sarah Victoria Turner.
Biographies
Said Adrus
As an International visual artist Said Adrus’s practice incorporates painting, print ,video ,digital photo based works and installations. The focus of his work has been to ‘experiment ‘ in various media , yet retain a playful approach on sensitive issues . Global issues about diaspora, communities and notions of ‘Britishness’ in contemporary context influence Said’s work. It is also within an art practice of representation and cultures that his work as an artist draws critical positions. Issues of displacement, mobility, belonging and exile are current themes & through Said’s personal experiences. Said’s work has involved researching and developing Pavilion, a project that consists of video, photo-based works and re-working of an archive film into an installation. It explores the hidden history of the Muslim Burial Ground created for the Indian Muslim soldiers who were part of the British Army in both World Wars.
Sam Edwards
Dr Sam Edwards is Senior Lecturer in History at Manchester Metropolitan University and Director of the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage. Sam's research explores the cultural history of twentieth century conflict, especially the ways in which war has been commemorated and memorialised, an issue he has also discussed on BBC Radio and television. Sam's first book - Allies in Memory: World War II and the Politics of Transatlantic Commemoration (Cambridge University Press, 2015) - was shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize. Sam is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a former Fulbright Distinguished Scholar.
Emma Login
Dr Emma Login joined Historic England in 2016 as the First World War Memorials Programme Manager. Emma was previously a consultant at the National Memorial Arboretum and her research, conducted at the Ironbridge International Institute of Cultural Heritage, explored processes of war memorial construction in the UK, France and the USA.
Sarah Victoria Turner
Sarah Victoria Turner is Deputy Director for Research at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London. Her article, The Poetics of Permanence: Inscriptions, Poetry and Memorials of the First World War, was published in the Sculpture Journalin 2015. Sarah recently co-curated The Great Spectacle: 250 of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, at the Royal Academy in London (June – August 2018).