Admission requirements
Participation in the seminar is only permitted if the propaedeutic phase has been passed (60 EC).
Students are expected to respect others, and to be open to different opinions.
Description
The process of shaping and reshaping memories is a political matter, most visible in cases of oppressive political regimes. This process is essential for establishing new identities and political legitimacy. Why is collective memory so important, and what are the tools to control collective memories? How does selective memory relate to power and how memorials and memory institutions impact identities? What implications could remembering and forgetting have on societies living in democracy or in transition? This course will delve into these questions and the politics of memory, more generally. It will focus on how contentious historical episodes – (post)colonialism, slavery, the Second World War, (post)communism, the Cold War, and others - are remembered, revised and represented in public. The course will discuss the links between memory and the state, nationalism and totalitarianism, as well as the extent to which political actors can control or reinvent historical narratives.
The course will introduce students to concepts such as collective, cultural and public memory, nationalism, colonialism and totalitarianism. Memory studies as intersection of different fields of humanities, social sciences and communication sciences offer a variety of approaches, methods and topics for discussions. Furthermore, the students will analyze and have the opportunity to co-create real-world public representations of issues such as colonialism, slavery, the Holocaust, the Cold war, and post-communism. They will discuss the use and effects of various tools of collective memory-shaping, including the state education system, mass media and cultural artifacts such as films, and museums.
Course objectives
Students will
acquire knowledge of the main theories and concepts of the study of collective and cultural memory, and politics.
learn the analytical approaches to practices of remembrance in democratic and oppressive political regimes.
be able to apply and improve already acquired skills like presenting and collaboration in field work.
develop and improve their critical thinking and debating skills by engaging in discussions and analyses of a variety of empirical cases of political interventions in collective memory, based on multiple sources, including different types of media, such as text, video, objects, images, tables and graphs.
improve their ability to reflect upon personal and community experiences.
develop further societal awareness and understanding of perspectives while collecting data and analyzing social, cultural and political intersections
Mode of instruction
seminar
Assessment method
Participation in group exercises and presentations (10%)
Midterm assignments: 2 reflection essays (total 40%)
Final assignment (50%)
It is possible to have a re-take of the final assignment.
Reading list
No books are required to be purchased for this course. The syllabus and the readings will be accessible on Brightspace.
Registration
See 'Practical Information'
Timetable
See 'MyTimetable'