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Staff Profile

Dr Catherine Gilbert

NU Academic Track Fellow (NUAcT)

  • Email: catherine.gilbert@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Modern Languages
    Old Library Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
    UK
Background

I started as an Academic Track (NUAcT) Fellow in the School of Modern Languages in September 2020, after completing a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at Ghent University, Belgium (2018-2020). My current research project, ‘Genocide Commemoration and Education in the Rwandan Diaspora’, investigates the impact of place and displacement on commemorative practices within diasporic communities and the transmission of memory through educational initiatives. 

More broadly, my research interests span postcolonial African literatures and cultures, with a particular focus on cultural memory, trauma and narrative. My first monograph, From Surviving to Living: Voice, Trauma and Witness in Rwandan Women's Writing (Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2018), which examines the published testimonies written by Rwandan women genocide survivors, received the Memory Studies Association Outstanding First Book Award in 2019.

I obtained my PhD in French and Francophone studies from the University of Nottingham in 2014. I have subsequently held postdoctoral research and teaching positions at the University of Nottingham; the School of Advanced Study, University of London; and King’s College London.

From 2017 to 2018 I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford co-convening the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Series ‘Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation’. I recently co-edited, with Professor Kate McLoughlin and Dr Niall Munro, a volume developed from this series, On Commemoration: Global Reflections upon Remembering War (Peter Lang, 2020).

At Newcastle University, I sit on the steering committee of the Centre for Heritage and am co-convenor of the Cultures of Memory Faculty Research Group. Within the School of Modern Languages, I am part of the Decolonising Working Group and co-moderator of the Decolonising Modern Languages and Cultures blog.

I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Memory Studies Association (MSA) and led the organisation of the MSA Seventh Annual Conference on the theme of 'Communities and Change', which was held at Newcastle University from 3-7 July 2023.

From 2021-2023 I was Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ishami Foundation, a genocide education charity working in the UK and Rwanda. Ishami is a member of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Partnership Group and the APPG for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.

Research

Genocide Commemoration and Education in the Rwandan Diaspora

This project explores commemorative responses to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, seeking to build an understanding of the forms of commemoration taking place among Rwandan genocide survivors living in the diaspora. Focusing on three European case study areas - Belgium, France and the UK - it examines the myriad ways in which community groups, authors, artists and creative practitioners are communicating their experiences of violence and exile to the host societies, and investigates the impact of place and displacement on commemorative practices within diasporic communities. 

A second strand of the project investigates the transmission of memory through education, exploring the initiatives and activities of Rwandan community organisations aimed at helping teachers address the subject of the genocide in their classrooms. It analyses the teaching materials that are being developed as well as the responses of teachers and students in both Belgian and British schools. 

Overall, this project seeks to strengthen our understanding of memory practices emerging among migrant communities and how we can meaningfully work together to better live with the ongoing legacy and impact of traumatic historical pasts.


PhD supervision

I welcome enquiries from research candidates with an interest in cultural memory studies, and particularly from candidates looking to explore creative responses to conflict, violence and displacement.


Current PhD students:

Vic Riveros Schober (co-supervised with Philippa Page)

Natalie Heidaripour (co-supervised with Chris Whitehead)

Emma Bloodgood (co-supervised with James Riding and Rachel Pain)

Teaching
SML1022 Introduction to Cultural Studies - 'Memory' Unit
Publications