Memory in the City

Cities are not only brick and mortar. In cities, cultures converge, interact, flourish, and sometimes clash violently. Cities hold the key to restoring and making whole the fractures and silences of our collective memory and identity, shaping how we see ourselves and, with it, our home and the world around us.

'Memory in the City’ celebrates the power of creative and historical writing and art to reimagine cities as places of memory, solidarities, narratives, and new perspectives.

Through an imaginative and interactive reading of André Dao's Anam, the author, and ANU scholars will take us on a journey through different urban landscapes – Melbourne, Hanoi, Paris, and Cambridge, to explore the long-lasting impact of migration on the cultural tapestry of our cities and the potential for new pasts and futures.

Moderator, Ann-Sophie Levidis, Lecturer in French Studies, ANU 
Andre Dao, Refugee Advocate and Novelist 
Leslie Barnes, Associate Professor in French Studies, ANU
Desmond Manderson, Professor of Law, Director of the Centre for Law Arts and Humanities, ANU 
Sue Thompson, Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, ANU 

Wellspring: Enquiry and Exchange Bringing campus to the community, Wellspring is an exciting series of immersive events that explores new depths of cultural enquiry and exchange. A collaboration between The Street Theatre and the ANU School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Wellspring invites Canberra’s curious to experience the inexhaustible source of human creativity and communication. Get ready for big bold ideas inviting curiosity and conversation.

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