The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism
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Book Description
This Handbook is the first systematic effort to map the fast-growing phenomenon of memory activism and to delineate a new field of research that lies at the intersection of memory and social movement studies.
From Charlottesville to Cape Town, from Santiago to Sydney, we have recently witnessed protesters demanding that symbols of racist or colonial pasts be dismantled and that we talk about histories that have long been silenced. But such events are only the most visible instances of grassroots efforts to influence the meaning of the past in the present. Made up of more than 80 chapters that encapsulate the rich diversity of scholarship and practice of memory activism by assembling different disciplinary traditions, methodological approaches, and empirical evidence from across the globe, this Handbook establishes important questions and their theoretical implications arising from the social, political, and economic reality of memory activism.
Memory activism is multifaceted, takes place in a variety of settings, and has diverse outcomes – but it is always crucial to understanding the constitution and transformation of our societies, past and present. This volume will serve as a guide and establish new analytic frameworks for scholars, students, policymakers, journalists, and activists alike.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Aleida Assmann
Introduction: The Activist Turn in Memory Studies
Yifat Gutman and Jenny Wüstenberg
Part 1: Debates
Editors: Yifat Gutman and Jenny Wüstenberg
Introduction: Contentions over Memory Activism
Yifat Gutman
1.Decomissioning Monuments, Mobilizing Materialities
Ann Rigney
2. Populism and the Collective Past: Revisionism or Memory Activism?
Sebastiaan Faber
3. Unlocked Memory Activism: Has Social Distancing Changed Commemoration?
Orli Fridman and Sarah Gensburger
4. Memory vs. History: The Politics of Temporality
Alison Landsberg
5. Regimes of Temporality
Mischa Gabowitsch
6. Memory Activism in History
Joanna Wawrzyniak
7. Transnational Memory Activism and Performative Nationalism
Jie-Hyun Lim
8. Intersectionality and Memory Activism
Red Chidgey
9. Activist Voices: What Is at Stake – A Short Manifesto for Activist Memory Studies
Anna Reading
Part II: Actors and Agency
Editor: Irit Dekel
Introduction: Agent, Structure and Subjectivity
Irit Dekel
10. Implicated Subjects
Jennifer Noji and Michael Rothberg
11. Extreme Right
Sophie Schmalenberger, Christoffer Kølvraa, and Bernhard Forchtner
12. Communities
Małgorzata Bakalarz Duverger
13. Coalitions
Esther Dischereit
14. Scholars
Nil Mutluer
15. Conservatives
Francesca Polletta and Alex Maresca
16. Border-Crossers
Öndercan Muti
17. Ghosts
Jessica Auchter
18. Anti-Neoliberals
Raimundo Frei, Carolina Aguilera, and Manuela Badilla
19. Activist Voices: Post Heroes
Nora Amin
20. Activist Voices: Museum Entrepreneurs
Tali Nates and Chaya Herman
Part III: Institutions and Institutionalization
Editor: Joanna Wawrzyniak
Introduction: Definitions and Contestations
Joanna Wawrzyniak
21. Administration
Sara Dybris McQuaid and Sarah Gensburger
22. Law
Marta Bucholc
23. States
Damani J. Partridge
24. Political Parties
Kate Korycki
25. International Organizations
Katherine McGregor
26. Redress Economies
Piotr Filipkowski and Joanna Wawrzyniak
27. Activist Voices: Education – Interview with Tanja Vaitulevich
Joanna Wawrzyniak
28. Class
Till Hilmar
29. Family
Lars Breuer
30. Religion
Zuzanna Bogumił
31. Slavery
Ana Lucia Araujo
32. Empire
Meghan Tinsley
33. Colonialism
Julia C. Wells
34. Museums
Amy Sodaro
Part IV: Spaces
Editors: Yifat Gutman and Jenny Wüstenberg
Introduction: Constructing Spaces of Memory Activism
Jenny Wüstenberg
35. Migrant Spaces
Yasemin Yildiz
36. Urban Spaces
Christian Wicke
37. Queer Spaces
Kate Davison
38. (De)Colonial Spaces
Tricia E. Logan
39. Post-conflict and Mid-conflict Spaces
Yifat Gutman
40. Deindustrialized Spaces
Stefan Berger
41. Sacred Spaces
Lia Kent
42. Indigenous Spaces
Kerri Malloy
43. Mediated Spaces
Noam Tirosh
44. Clandestine Spaces
Shepherd Mpofu
45. Activist Voices: Singing Spaces – Interview with Rana Sulaiman
Hussam Mohammed Rekani
46. Post-Soviet Spaces
Mischa Gabowitsch
47. Latin America
Silvana Mandolessi
48. North America
Jenny Woodley and Jenny Wüstenberg
49. The Arctic
River Ramuglia
50. Africa
Duane Jethro
51. Middle East and North Africa
Norman Saadi Nikro
52. South East Asia
Kar Yen Leong
53. East Asia
Joohee Kim and Ilyeong Jeong
54. Oceania
Steven Ratuva
55. East-Central Europe
Barbara Törnquist-Plewa
56. Post-German Spaces
Kornelia Kończal
Part V: Sites and Practices
Editors: Kaitlin M. Murphy and Kerry Whigham
Introduction: Memory Activism as Embodied Practice
Kaitlin M. Murphy and Kerry Whigham
57. Memory Sites
Kerry Whigham
58. Mapping Memory
Kaitlin M. Murphy
59. Activist Voices: Nomadic Monuments – Interview with Aida Šehović
Kerry Whigham
60. Museums and "Curatorial Activism"
Erica Lehrer
61. Tours and Tourism
Virág Molnár, Karolina Koziura, and Franziska König-Paratore
62. Performance
Leticia Robles-Moreno
63. Reenactment
Brigette Walters
64. Activist Voices: The 1965 Events in Indonesia
Baskara Wardaya
65. #memoryactivism and Online Commemoration
Orli Fridman
66. Digital Campaigns, Forums, and Archives
Emilie Pine
67. Literary Memory Activism
Astrid Erll
68. Anniversaries and National Holidays
Rosanne Kennedy
69. Activist Voices: Art
Anna Di Lellio
70. Exhumations
Marije Hristova
Part VI: Normative Dilemmas
Editor: Benjamin Nienass
Introduction: Democratizing the Past?
Benjamin Nienass
71. Memory and Illiberalism
Julian Göpffarth
72. Memory, Pluralism and White Supremacy
P.J. Brendese
73. Memory Activism and the Global Production of Knowledge
Ruramisai Charumbira
74. Between Conflict and Consensus
Benjamin Nienass
75. Between Ownership and Appropriation
Jonathan Bach
76. Between Agency and Suspension
Irit Dekel
77. Activist Voices: From Civil Revolt to Established Institutions
Thomas Lutz
78. Activist Voices: Memory Activism with and against the State – Interview with Sergio Beltrán-García
Alexandra Délano Alonso and Benjamin Nienass
Editor(s)
Biography
Yifat Gutman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York (2012). Her research focuses on memory activism and political change in and after ethnonational conflict.
Jenny Wüstenberg is Professor of History and Memory Studies and the Director of the Centre for Public History, Heritage and Memory at Nottingham Trent University. She is Co-Founder and Co-President (2016–2022) of the Memory Studies Association, as well as the Chair of the COST Action CA20105 on Slow Memory (2021–2025).
Reviews
"More than a roadmap to memory activism or an account of its revitalizing effects on Memory Studies, this Handbook offers an illuminating set of reflections on the import and reach of activist memory projects across the globe and across the political spectrum. Here, scholars and activists alike will find essential examples, caveats, provocative questions, and forms of inspiration for the work ahead."
Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University, USA
"Key issues and debates in the field of memory studies are presented here from a pioneering vantage point – that of memory activism. The experiences and dilemmas covered in this Handbook come from across the globe and offer multiple mirrors in which to reflect on and enrich one’s own findings and perspectives. A must for researchers, practitioners, and activists!"
Elizabeth Jelin, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales (IDES-CONICET), Argentina
"Late to develop, the attention to memory is quickly spreading in social movement studies. This Handbook of Memory Activism offers a most relevant contribution on how mnemonic and political changes are connected, and on the arenas, the actors, and the places of memory practices ‘in action’. It comprehensively demonstrates how memories of past struggles affect contentious politics and democratic developments more broadly."
Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy