VISITING PROFESSOR TO DISCUSS COLLECTIVE MEMORY FORMATION IN EAST AND WEST GERMANY

NORMAN – “Collective Memory Formation in Democratic and Authoritarian Societies: East and West Germany 1948-1989” will be the topic of a free, public discussion to be held Tuesday, Oct. 24, at the University of Oklahoma.

The presentation, led by Mark Wolfgram, assistant professor of political science at Oklahoma State University and sponsored as part of the European Union Center’s Issues in an Expanding Europe Lecture Series, will begin at 4:30 p.m. in 2020 Gaylord Hall, 395 W. Lindsey.

Mitchell Smith, associate professor of political science and international and area studies at OU, and co-director of the European Union Center, said, “Collective memory is an inherently fascinating topic in the context of German history, but an understanding of the formation and substance of collective memory is vital to understanding conflict, cooperation and societal interactions around the globe.”

Wolfgram’s research interests include the intersection of politics and culture in various media, the portrayal of ethnic conflict in the media, sociology of memory, collective memory studies and critical mass media research. Currently, Wolfgram is finishing a book-length manuscript titled Getting History Right: East and West German Collective Memories of the Holocaust and War.

Wolfgram received his doctoral degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, master of arts degree in political science from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1995, and bachelor of arts degree in political science from Western Michigan University in 1992. He has received research and writing fellowships from Carleton University; the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation; Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University; German Academic Exchange Service; and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation.

Co-sponsors of the event include the School of International and Area Studies; the German Program in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics; and the Department of History, all within OU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information on Wolfgram’s presentation, contact Smith at (405) 325-8893 or mps@ou.edu. For accommodations on the basis of disability, call Sandi Emond in the School of International and Area Studies at (405) 325-1584.