Miren Mohrenweiser

Queen’s University Belfast PhD Award, Queen's University Belfast - History

I’m originally from Brighton, Michigan, and graduated from Butler University in Indianapolis in 2017 with a B.A. in History, English Literature and French. Though I began studying Irish history through a literature course in 2013, it wasn’t until I visited Belfast two years later—surrounded by its people and their memories—that I began to feel the full weight of this past. When I returned to Butler, I became increasingly fascinated by cultural history and the different ways in which fractured communities create space for conversation and reconciliation. My research as an undergraduate prompted an interest in how public memory intersects with prison politics that I’ll continue to explore as a Fulbright scholar. Through the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, I will incorporate my study of Irish history with direct engagement with the community to understand how Irish women both inside and outside the prison system understood themselves within the context of the Irish Troubles and how their struggle for both identity and memory has shaped modern Irish history. When I don’t have my nose in a book, I can often be found growing purple vegetables or sewing my own clothes, and I’m eager to incorporate these other passions into my life in Belfast over the next three years.