SEH Using commemorative practices

2012

The term 'heritage' has had different meanings throughout time and in various languages (Grijzenhout, 2007). In this study, the word 'heritage' refers to traces of the past that are considered valuable in the present and for the future by a particular group of people. The distinction between traces and heritage emphasises the dynamic character of heritage, as will be discussed in the next section. The pupils in my case studies may not necessarily consider the particular historical traces presented in the heritage projects to be heritage. I use the term 'traces' in a broad sense, referring to 'the physical survivals of the past and to the non-institutionalised and less tangible' (Hamer, 2005, p. 159). Although I make a distinction between material and immaterial traces and heritage, this division must not be interpreted as a sharp contrast. Immaterial heritage is often passed down to future generations through a material object or in a material form, whereas material heritage is recognised as heritage when it is perceived as expressing the values of current societies or communities. It is only through immaterial meanings that material heritage can be interpreted and understood (Munjeri, 2004). Examples of material heritage are paintings, documents, clothes, jewellery, edifices and monuments. Immaterial heritage includes languages, stories, traditions, religions, music, values and ideas. In addition to this differentiation between material and immaterial heritage, a geographical distinction is made between local, regional, national and international heritage. In some cases, world heritage is also considered a category, as demonstrated by the UNESCO World Heritage List. The collection and preservation of that which no longer reproduces itself in reality became increasingly popular in the late nineteenth century and expanded considerably from the 1950s onward. In addition to the conservation of objects in museums and archives, this 'musealisation' included the preservation of monuments, cityscapes, landscapes, traditions and folklore (De Jong, 2001). The creation of sites of remembrance, as extensively reviewed by Pierre Nora et al. (1984-1992), was also part of this trend of musealisation. In historiography, attention shifted to the everyday appearances of engagement with the past, such as the history of museums and collective sites of remembrance in the 1980s (Grever, 2001). Along with the formation of a European community and unity, a search began for a common cultural heritage, which had to be carefully protected and preserved (Grijzenhout, 2007). Through this preservation of the past, the past was recreated as well, as described by Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983) with their concept of the 'invention of tradition'. Intensified by the increasing use and reach of the mass media, history and heritage have gradually regained a place in politics, public debate and leisure time during recent decades (De Groot, 2009). In many countries, there is also a renewed interest in the ways pupils are taught

2007

This article discusses the projections of the politics of memory in two post-colonial locations as Argentina and South Africa, specially taking the Museum of Memory (former ESMA) in Argentina, the Voortrekker Monument in South Africa, and two recent state ceremonies dealing with memory in these two countries. There are salient studies on how monuments and memorials were linked directly to the "commemoration" of national events, to fix a precise referent on the triad nation/origin/destiny. In our past century, all over the world we have had traumatic events that shocked the proper definitions of communities and social bodies. In that sense, we also have studies about how the "monumentalization" conjuring up historical traumas implies a specific reading on the "redefinition" of the imagined community-reconfiguration of nation. What happens when the nation-state is the "warrant" of historical reposition/recomposition after traumatic events? In postcolonial societies the pedagogic projection of nation was a substantial part of public politics of memory to create "new" senses of communities. In that sense, the memorial/statue/museum is not significant by itself, but in its agencied reading and in its enacted disposition towards power and representation.

Title of PhD thesis: Sensitive History under Negotiation: Pupils' Historical Imagination and Attribution of Significance while Engaged in Heritage Projects (awarded ‘Best PhD thesis of the year 2014’ by the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities). Although little is known about the ways in which pupils learn history during museum visits, people have many expectations of it. This mixed methods multiple case study examined pupils’ learning about sensitive history, specifically the history of slavery and WWII, while engaged in heritage projects including a museum visit. The study focused on the ways in which pupils imagine a particular history and attribute significance to this history. The data were collected using questionnaires, individual interviews and observations of pupil group work and museum educators. The study revealed that the heritage projects enriched the pupils’ images of the past and made them more concrete. Also, many pupils were stimulated to empathise with the people from the past. However, they had little attention for the historical context of these people and they had difficulty to take other perspectives than their own present-day perspective. The heritage projects provided insight in the different ways in which significance is attributed to the past in current Dutch society. The projects enabled the pupils to explore their own ideas regarding significance and how these were related to their identity. However, the possibility to find the heritage unimportant remained undiscussed, although many pupils found this an interesting perspective and did not necessarily attach great importance to the preservation of the heritage. This empirical study contributes to theories regarding the learning of history and creates an empirical basis for a discussion about the constraints and benefits of learning history in heritage projects. The insights of this study can inform pedagogies of history teachers and museum educators.

Howard Journal of Communications , 2024

In this essay I utilize Natalia Molina’s (2014) definition of racialized script to interrogate how and to what extent AMNH’s efforts in 2019 to “flip” the racialized script of the TR equestrian statue with the temporary Addressing the Statue exhibit attempts to mitigate public perceptions of the statue being a blatant expression of racial dominance. This mitigation is done through the rhetorical recontextualization of the statue through the exhibit as a problematic but necessary history. Here I discuss why such actions are piecemeal efforts on the part of the AMNH, and how the museum’s choices to maintain other problematic displays inside the museum counter-productively embraces the commemorative absence of the TR equestrian statue (Maxson, 2019)—continuing to circulate the same problematic narratives the museum claims to detest. This analysis adds to our ability to continue asking, “How do we deal with our problematic history?” This question aids us in understanding the potential implications associated with preserving and circulating histories that promote discriminatory perspectives and reinforce hegemonic ideals by masquerading as a “necessary” or “entitled” history.

Set: Research Information for Teachers, 2011

Historical significance and sites of memory MicH a el H a r cour t, Gr eGor F oun ta in a nD M a r K sHeeH a n This article critiques a recent professional development course for history teachers that explored how students could use memorials and heritage sites to engage with the concept of significance and how this could contribute to them developing expertise in historical thinking. The course challenged teachers to consider historical significance in terms of disciplinary characteristics (as opposed to memory-history), to move away from the teacher transmission/storytelling model and to incorporate the key competencies in their teaching. The authors argue that the disciplinary frameworks discussed in this paper are important in developing historical thinking among young people, although there is more work required to develop an approach to engaging with historical significance that not only reflects the disciplinary features of the subject but also includes the bicultural dimension of 21st century New Zealand.

Culture & Psychology, 2013

Discourse plays a crucial role in determining how both persons and communities shape social reality and attribute meaning to experience . This potential is mostly evident when the contended object of discourse is history itself, which is a peculiar area of the cultural mind. Hence, the discursive management of the collective tends to generate interpretations which in turn might mould personal and social identities. Sharing the spirit of the ''innovations'' brought about by cultural psychology (Valsiner, 2009), the present paper is intended to highlight how institutional and public discourses communicate different degrees of responsibility for the history of their own national group and, at the same time, how individuals construe historical identities with different degrees of guilt towards past events. Through a qualitative approach-the ''diatextual analysis'' -this paper proposes to investigate the rhetorical strategies adopted on occasion of some important commemorative events by the institutional spokesmen, as well as by the public opinion, to elaborate both positive and negative histories of their ingroup.

2021

Memory and Heritage provides a broad and deep overview into the prevalent debates, cases, and methods within the transdisciplinary fields of memory and heritage studies while allowing students to apply these processes to a collaborative and individualized case. While the course draws primarily from geographic thought, the inherent transdisciplinary nature of geography links the importance of place, space, and landscape with similar considerations of memory and heritage across the social sciences and humanities. Increasingly pervasive in a world cognizant of our troubled engagement with fascism, colonialism, and mass violence, is our understanding of the political and economic conditioning of what was previously thought to be banal cultural representations. Likewise, the significance of heritage to communities post-violence and post-industrialization presents enticing economic solutions to their troubled social and environmental past. This course will explore current considerations of memory work, state-building, post-industrial heritage, and performativity. We will also work alongside a local heritage organization on a collaborative project.

rci.mirovni-institut.si

In this article we will try to point out the differences between historical and individual memory. This distinction is found in memorial culture as one of the major media which assists the institutionalization of individual memories. We will see how history continually uses individual memories and puts them in the service of dominant ideology. At the same time, the rhetoric of government and educational system shapes collective memory and promotes specific versions of the past. Monumentalization of individual memories will be discussed as a first step in the politics of forgetting.

Berghahn Books, 2022

2016