How do political communities remember and overcome traumatic events of the past? Recently, this question has attracted more and more attention in academia and public discourse. With the latest economic and social turmoil, such as the Eurozone recession in 2008, the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, the “rule of law crisis” connected to the democratic backsliding in the EU, reassessment of colonial past and Black Lives Matter pretests as well as the most recent and impactful Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sociologist and political scientists around the world started to pay increased attention to the social construction of these events by different social and political actors as well as the formation of collective memories regarding them. Symbols connected to these events started to be shaped by different actors in different communities in multiple and contradictory forms. While some communities preferred to vocalize in some ways traumas of the past, others preferred to silence them. Both of these processes are closely related to the formation of collective memory; as Ann Rigney argues, the paradox of collective memory and political commemoration is that “to be collective, you have to be selective.” Accordingly, this seminar deals with this contradictory and dynamic formation of collective memory, namely struggling and overcoming a difficult past. During the sessions, students will learn about the concept of collective memory and its contradictory dynamics that are connected to the political commemoration of a difficult past. The final session of the seminar will be devoted to the conference, where the students will be given an opportunity to present their country-specific findings regarding the topic of the seminar.
- Trainer/in: Polina Zavershinskaia