SOC 324
Memory and Identity Spring 2015
Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
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Class Details

Our sense of self is inextricably tied to our understanding of our past, both as individuals and as members of society. This sense of origins, however, is far from natural; it itself has its origins in the debates and politics of the time, and evolves under an array of influences. This course analyzes discourses of collective and individual identity and the mechanisms involved in the formulation of the individuals’ sense of their place in the world. Topics include: media of memory, politics of commemoration, nostalgia and selective forgetting, narratives of trauma and of a “golden age,” the invention of tradition, and battles over remembrance and heritage, such as the dispute over the ownership of Parthenon Marbles between Greece and the UK, or over the proper way to commemorate the victims of 9/11 in the US or the victims of Stalin¿s purges in the post-Soviet space. This course fulfills the EDI requirement because it explores the diversity of the ways in which communities imagine and engage with their past, and puts struggles over memory in the context of groups’ struggles for power and visibility.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 15
Class#: 3165
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: extensive class participation, several short papers, and a final research project with class presentation
Prerequisites: none
Distributions: Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative

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