Recently, much research has been done on memory and the way it functions, circulates, and is mobilized. This research has generally highlighted memory’s positive aspects, construing it as an effective tool for change, healing, understanding, and education. With collective memory in particular, the past is seen as a way to learn lessons and build a better future. While this has inspired new and innovative ways of dealing with memory’s various forms, scholars have tended to focus too often on memory’s positive and empowering aspects, downplaying or disregarding its negative ones.
Every act of remembering also implies selective forgetting and reconstruction of the past, often according to present political or cultural needs. This conference addresses some of the limits to theories and practices of memory, focusing on how the uses and abuses of memory are often intimately tied together.
Andreas Huyssen (Columbia University, German and Comparative Literature) will deliver the keynote address, "Memory and Human Rights," at 2:00 p.m. Other conference speakers include Daniel Levy, Elazar Barkan, Diana Taylor, Jeffrey Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, Louis Bickford, Cynthia Milton, Jack Saul, Alex Hinton, and William Hirst.
New York City, NY; NYC