BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:The Moynihan Institute\, and the program for Comparative Politi cs / International Relations is pleased to host \;Laia Balcells\, Prov ost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown Univer sity. Her co-author Elsa Voytas\, assistant professor of political science at IE University's School of Global and Public Affairs in Madrid\, Spain\ ; and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College\, will unfortunately not be in attendance. Can museums influence the way visitors think about past vio lence and modern-day politics? Although the impacts of symbolic transition al justice (TJ) policies such as museums have largely been overlooked\, we hypothesize that they can shape perceptions of groups involved in violenc e\; and preferences toward public policies to address the past. In cases w here museums recount multi-sided violence\, reconstructing the conflict ca n be a difficult and complex undertaking—if museums are a reminder of past discord or are perceived as biased\, they might reinforce prior beliefs a nd heighten societal divisions. In May 2022\, we conducted a field experim ent at the Ulster Museum in Belfast\, Northern Ireland\, where sectarian v iolence during the Troubles (1968-1998) periodically erupted between large ly Catholic republicans and predominantly Protestant unionists. We randoml y assigned a sample of university students to visit one of two exhibits in the same museum: a treatment exhibit (Troubles and Beyond\, recounting th e Troubles-era violence) or a placebo exhibit (Elements\, a natural scienc e exhibit about the periodic elements). We measure visitors’ attitudinal s hifts and gauge persistence of the effects for the following six months th rough follow-up surveys. We complement the results from the field experime nt with a survey experiment embedded in a regionally-representative survey in Northern Ireland. Our results suggest that while symbolic TJ policies have little effect on attitudes in post-civil war settings\, they might po larize some social groups along the master cleavage of the conflict.Laia B alcells is a Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. She was an assistant professor of political science at Duke University (2012-2017)\, and a Niehaus Visiting Associate Research Scholar at the School of Public and International Affa irs at Princeton University (2015-16). Her research and teaching are at th e intersection of comparative politics and international relations. She fo cuses on issues of security\, peace and conflict\, with a special interest in civil wars\, terrorism\, nationalism and ethnic conflict\, and transit ional justice after conflict. Her first book\, "Rivalry and Revenge: the P olitics of Violence during Civil War\," was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). DTEND:20230407T173000Z DTSTAMP:20260308T201506Z DTSTART:20230407T160000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:The Troubles and Beyond. The Impact of a Museum Exhibit on a Post-C onflict Society UID:RFCALITEM639085833067415390 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Moynihan Institute\, and the program fo r Comparative Politics / International Relations is pleased to host \; Laia Balcells\, Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University. Her co-author Elsa Voytas\, assistant professor of political science at IE University's School of Global and Public Affair s in Madrid\, Spain\; and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College\, will u nfortunately not be in attendance.

Can museums influence the way vi sitors think about past violence and modern-day politics? Although the imp acts of symbolic transitional justice (TJ) policies such as museums have l argely been overlooked\, we hypothesize that they can shape perceptions of groups involved in violence\; and preferences toward public policies to a ddress the past. In cases where museums recount multi-sided violence\, rec onstructing the conflict can be a difficult and complex undertaking—if mus eums are a reminder of past discord or are perceived as biased\, they migh t reinforce prior beliefs and heighten societal divisions. In May 2022\, w e conducted a field experiment at the Ulster Museum in Belfast\, Northern Ireland\, where sectarian violence during the Troubles (1968-1998) periodi cally erupted between largely Catholic republicans and predominantly Prote stant unionists. We randomly assigned a sample of university students to v isit one of two exhibits in the same museum: a treatment exhibit (Troubles and Beyond\, recounting the Troubles-era violence) or a placebo exhibit ( Elements\, a natural science exhibit about the periodic elements). We meas ure visitors’ attitudinal shifts and gauge persistence of the effects for the following six months through follow-up surveys. We complement the resu lts from the field experiment with a survey experiment embedded in a regio nally-representative survey in Northern Ireland. Our results suggest that while symbolic TJ policies have little effect on attitudes in post-civil w ar settings\, they might polarize some social groups along the master clea vage of the conflict.

Laia Balcells is a Provost's Distinguished Ass ociate Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. She was an assistant professor of political science at Duke University (2 012-2017)\, and a Niehaus Visiting Associate Research Scholar at the Schoo l of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (2015-16). H er research and teaching are at the intersection of comparative politics a nd international relations. She focuses on issues of security\, peace and conflict\, with a special interest in civil wars\, terrorism\, nationalism and ethnic conflict\, and transitional justice after conflict. Her first book\, "Rivalry and Revenge: the Politics of Violence during Civil War\," was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics).

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