Memorial Sites

Acts of remembering through media and visual culture.

Pierre Nora’s Lieux de Memóire (1984) pioneered the study of cultures of memory that are built around the so-called “memorial sites”. This approach marked a significant shift from the prevalence of time to space within the historical enquiry. Simultaneously, interrogating images has also become crucial for remembering and representing these historical sites. The growing interest in the socialisation of these sites is part of the global rise of memory studies that have prompted a “mnemologic turn” in cultural studies from late 20th century to early 21st century.

Image of a visitor looking at photos of the Hiroshima nuclear event displayed on a light-board, wall.
A view of a room and display in the Hiroshima memorial museum. The sign on the left of the image says "Hiroshima History" in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. The room is filled with glass display cabinets of images and text telling the story of Hiroshima.
Hiroshima History room, The Hiroshima Memorial Site. Image credit: Marcos Centeno.

This seminar series proposes to examine critically the narratives that have been articulated around places where the collective memory of certain societies and communities as well as the global imaginary is anchored. Our emphasis is the narratives that can be found in film, media and visual culture in general. Scholars from a variety of research fields including Memory Studies, Tourism Studies, Trauma Studies, Genocide Studies, Perpetrator Studies, Film and Media Studies, Archaeology of Images, Museology and Conservation are encouraged to contribute and discuss the visual representation, appropriation and reinterpretation of memorial sites.

Programme

Theoretical frameworks I

Seminar online. Registration required. Register here.
Friday 24 February, 4-5pm, UTC 
Discussant: Rebekah Cupitt (Birkbeck, University of London)

  • Algorithmic Memory: Digital Media and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Joel McKim (Birkbeck, University of London)

Theoretical frameworks II: Echoes of the Holocaust in Asia

Seminar online. Registration required. Register here

Tuesday 7 March, 10am-12pm, UTC 
Discussant: Professor Astrid Erll (Founder of Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform, Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • The Long Journey from the atrocity paradigm to cultural heritage: Discovering S-21 Building Tuol Sleng, Professor Vicente Sánchez-Biosca (PI Repecri, University of Valencia)
  • The Holocaust in a Chinese Mirror – reflections on Shanghai’s Jewish Refugees Museum, Professor Edward Vickers (UNESCO Chair on Education for Peace, Social Justice and Global Citizenship, Kyushu University, Japan)

Case studies I: Transnational Memories in East Asia

TRANSNATIONAL MEMORY OF THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR

Seminar online. Registration required. Register here
Thursday 30 March, 3:00-5pm, UTC
Discussant: Marcos Centeno (University of Valencia. Birkbeck, University of London)

  • Reading the Transformations of Chinese War of Resistance Museums in the Xi Jinping Era through the Visual Analysis, Marketa Bajgerova (ERC Project “Globalized Memorial Museums”, Austrian Academy of Science and University of Vienna)
  • Investigating Photography Albums of Japanese Soldiers in North-East China. Methodological and Epistemological Challenges, Jasmin Ruckert (Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf)

MEMORIAL SITES IN KOREA

Thursday 30 March, 3:00-5pm, UTC
Discussant: Owen Miller (SOAS, University of London)

  • The Korean War through Women’s Eyes: Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities, Suzy Kim (Rutgers University)
  • Jeju 4.3 – Postmemory Aesthetics of Museal Images, Hyun Seon Lee (SOAS, University of London)

Case studies II: Memorial Sites in Post-communist Europe

Friday 12 May, 4-5:30pm
Discussant: Piotr Cieplak (University of Sussex)

  • Globalized Memorial Museums – Victim Hierarchies and Travelling Musealization Trends, Ljiljana Radonić (PI ERC project “Globalised Memorial Museums”, Vice-director of the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
  • Forensic Reframings of Museums and Memorial Sites at the former Nazi Camps, Zuzanna Dziuban (ERC project Globalized Memorial Museums, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
  • Lidice – From “Ground Zero” to the Present, Ivo Plsek (Masaryk University)

    Register for this seminar here or via this link

Case studies II: Memorial Sites in Post-fascist Southern Europe

Thursday 15 June, TBC
Discussant: Mari-Paz Balibrea (CILAVS, Birkbeck, University of London) 

  • The second life of difficult heritage. Visual re-enunciations of fascist architecture between political mobilizations and pop-culture representations, Francesco Mazzucchelli (TraMe – Center for the Semiotic Study of Memory, University of Bologna)
  • Memory in The Making: La Barranca And The Mujeres De Negro Through Their Images, Zoé de Kerangat (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
  • Democratic visions for a conflictive heritage. The cinematographic ‘counter-memory’ of the Valley of the Fallen (1978-2016), Maria C. Puche-Ruiz & María José Romero-Ternero (Universidad de Sevilla)
  • Identification and analysis of sites of memory in the city of Seville. Dissemination and heritage interpretation strategies, Maria C. Puche-Ruiz, Pilar Díaz-Cuevas & Alfonso Fernández-Tabales (Universidad de Sevilla)

    Register for this seminar here or via this link

Oganised by Dr.Marcos Centeno (University of Valencia.
Birkbeck, University of London).
Seminar in partnership with the following research groups and projects:
Repercri (Contemporary Representations of Perpetrators of Mass Crimes),
Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform,
TRAME (Center for the Semiotic Study of Memory),
Perpetrator Studies Network
CITur (Cinema Imaginary and Tourism)