Cultural Memory of War and Conflict

From Apartheid in South-Africa to 9/11 in the United States: there is not a single culture that is not shaped by the memory of war or conflict. This minor focuses on how such memory cultures influence and shape societies today. How do these memories contribute to the construction of religious, national and transnational identities?

We will analyze the afterlife of catastrophes such as Tans-Atlantic slavery, the Armenian Genocide, or the World Wars. How are they remembered, archived, mediated? You will learn to understand how governments, institutions, minority groups, survivors or artists create, repeat, manipulate or critique memory culture. This means that students learn to analyze and interpret the effects of different (new) media and various forms of transfer and construction of memory: archives, websites, lieux de mémoire, monuments, tourism, testimonies, art and literature.

The courses “Postcolonial Memory” and Cultural Memory of World War aI ad II”, will give introductions to central concepts and theories of collective memory and apply to them to different case studies that illustrate how the past shaped social and cultural identities in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the other courses, emphasis is on memory-construction in both individual and collective context, on trauma and on the cultural representation of these violent events in media. Cultural memory is produced through rituals, stories, monuments, newspapers, but also comic books or theme parks. What are the effects of such representations and practices?

You will learn to analyze the dynamics of remembering and forgetting of major political, ethnic and religious conflicts with global ramifications. In papers and assignments you are stimulated to apply the theory and method to a case from your own background or field of study. This will help you develop skills that will be of value in for example a profession in international relations, law, politics, heritage, cultural transfer, education or media and journalism.

This minor is very suitable for students who follow the BA International Studies. It is possible in BAIS to divide your minor over two semesters, only you will need to contact your coordinator of studies, to adapt your third year programme.

• Students who follow the programme for 30 EC choose 15 EC of courses per semester or make sure that they choose 30 EC in total over both semesters.
• This programme can also be followed for 15 EC in the first semester.
• For more information see link below

https://studiegids.universiteitleiden.nl/studies/10050