Admission requirements
Admission requirements and any restrictions.
Description
We all can vividly remember the dramatic scenes of planes crashing into the Twin Towers, of war-torn regions in Iraq, or elated mass celebrations of tearing down the Berlin wall. The screenshots of these highly mediatized events have become part of global public memory. Yet, how often nowadays do we hear any detailed accounts of these events or inquiry into their aftermaths, besides such clichéd references as ‘9/11’, ‘war against terrorism’ or ‘transition to democracy’? Which aspects of these and other recent histories of war and conflict have been highlighted or neglected by the media, and why?
This course will inquire into the dynamics of remembering and forgetting of major political, ethnic and religious conflicts with global ramifications, with the focus on the social tensions and transformations produced by contesting and contested memories. By exploring a variety of cases we will analyze and compare representations of conflict and post-conflict remembering around the world and the role of the media in shaping them.
The course will consist of four lecture blocks, each focusing on a particular ‘problem’ of remembering and forgetting and discussing case studies from several regions. Within this comparative framework, memory practices will be analyzed as interconnected and tied up with global issues of geopolitics, cultural location and knowledge production (i.a. imperialism and colonialism, migration and diaspora, transitions and historiography, indigenous knowledge and communities). Each block, drawing on an established field in Memory Studies, will use a set of interrelated concepts and approaches. The course will encourage students to test the relevance of the learnt approaches by discussing examples from a variety of regions and applying these in their own research projects.
Course objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, students will have:
developed transnational comparative perspectives on discourses and representations of post-conflict memory;
learnt about the ways in which media representations shape cultural memory and hence our ideas about social transformation and identities;
acquired a good understanding of major concepts and approaches in interdisciplinary Memory Studies and an awareness of how they have been developed and applied within particular cultural-historical contexts;
enhanced their skills of critical reading, oral presentation and analytical writing;
devised and completed a research project that applies concepts and approaches discussed in lectures within case studies (individual work) interconnected through a comparative perspective (group work).
Timetable
The timetable is available on the website
Mode of instruction
Lectures and several presentation/discussion sessions.
Assessment method
Portfolio (30%)
Oral presentation (20%)
Written examination with essay questions (50%)
The final mark for the course is established by (I) Determination of the weighted average (II) Completion of all assignments (non-submission of an assignment will result in failing the course).
Resit
Only the written examination can be retaken. To pass the course, the exam grade must be at least 5.5.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
t.b.a.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
For information concerning the content of this course D.E.A. Schellens
For practical matters you may contact the secretarial office of the Opleiding Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur/Neerlandistiek. Onderwijsadministratie: Reuvensplaats
Remarks
Not applicable