Well it
certainly has been awhile since I have blogged! These past few weeks have been
intense in terms of workload. I wrote a politics paper, a reflection on my
Northern Ireland experience (totaling 12 pages), decided on the topic for my
final project, wrote a proposal for my final project, and organized the
logistics of my field study.
So now I am off
to Derry (I’m typing away on the bus) to complete my independent study project.
This is the unique uniting factor of all SIT programs: a one-month period to
conduct a field study and produce a paper analyzing your findings. I have
chosen to complete mine in the city of Derry in Northern Ireland. I have been
fascinated with the topic of commemoration and memory in terms of the Northern
Ireland conflict.
At first I
thought about doing a project on the murals in Belfast as a form of commemoration
that can provoke or hurt opposition groups, but this has been the focus of many
other SIT Ireland ISPs and I wanted to do something a bit different. Then, my Academic
Director, Aeveen, suggested I look into the Peace Bridge in Derry. The bridge
opened in 2011 and is a pedestrian and cycling bridge that connects one bank of
the River Foyle to the other. This might not seem significant, however, like
many communities in Northern Ireland, Derry is a divided city. The Catholic
majority stays on one side of the bank (with the exception of a small
protestant community referred to as “The Fountain”) and the Protestant
community lives on the other side. There has been very little interaction
between these two groups, but in the past few years Derry seems to be making
great strides in terms of the peace process. The bridge is meant to be a symbol
of peace, but also encourage cross-community interaction. My project will be to
examine if this bridge can overcome centuries of sectarian memory.
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| Peace Bridge in Derry |
I have no idea
where this project will take me, so I’m just going along for the ride!
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