A picture of the Titanic taken at the Belfast Titanic museum

BISA at 50: Reflections and perspectives - A historic setting for reconnecting with old acquaintances and meeting new ones

Brent J Steele

As part of our 50th anniversary reflections and perspectives series, we asked some #BISA2025 delegates to share their reflections of the 50th anniversary conference which took place in Belfast. Here we share reflections from Brent J Steele, Professor at the University of Utah.

I attended this year’s BISA meeting full of excitement for panels and roundtables, to see old friends, and for my first trip to Northern Ireland and Belfast. I left deeply grateful for the work of BISA’s excellent staff and leadership, and came away from the conference humbled and awestruck by the history of the setting.

For me the highlight was the Titanic museum and the BISA reception that followed. BISA organised both phenomenally well, and I say that as someone who loves museums and is not usually fond of receptions. In this case, I loved both, for different reasons, in Belfast.

A model of the Titanic lit up with blue and yellow lighting at the Titanic museum in Belfast

As I probably mentioned to too many friends and colleagues at the conference, I have an assignment for my Intro to International Relations course at Utah. At the end of the semester students get into groups and apply frameworks/theories and themes from the course to the Titanic, and present that as an interactive lecture to the class as a whole. So I was particularly excited to see the museum, and it did not disappoint. It is a stunning multi-media achievement and experience. It provides a comprehensive overview of the complex history of the ship from its construction in the shipyards of Belfast, to the aftermath for survivors, naval safety, and even the impact for Laws of the Sea.

Left: a text board with messages to and from the Titanic before it sank. Right: the wooden staircase of the Titanic dining room replica in Belfast

I took a ton of pictures like a typical tourist, but I’m hoping they will provide my students additional material for their group discussions this Fall, when I teach Intro to IR again. The museum tour which was at a designated time for BISA attendees and was very well organised. It concluded right at the area where the reception was held and precisely at the time it started. The coordination and synchronization had to be a monumental task for BISA staff. As someone who gets overwhelmed at receptions when they are way too packed, the BISA reception in a ballroom like the one in the actual Titanic (and depicted in the famous dinner scene in the film), was spacious and easy to get around and mingle, with copious drinks and food. It was a wonderful way for me to start off the conference, a historic setting for reconnecting with old acquaintances and meeting new ones. I enjoyed everything about BISA, and will remember much of this incredible conference for some time, but for me the setting was definitely one of the highlights!

A board showing the names of all those who were aboard the Titanic

Top image: Paul Hermans, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

All other images by Brent J Steele.