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Consumer research has focused on market-mediated efforts to memorialize the past, but this overshadows the issues that arise when consumers, as nonprofessionals, make the past consumable. Consumer-driven memorialization is defined as consumer engagement with traces of the past in memoryscapes of low market-mediation that creates a complex interplay of remembering and forgetting. Based on an ethnographic study of urban exploration, we theorize that consumer-driven memorialization comprises two practices of tracing and trace-making. Tracing involves consumer attempts to recover traces of the past, while trace-making involves consumer attempts to create traces for the future. Consumers enact multiple roles during consumer-driven memorialization: explorers experience the past, archaeologists materialize the past, artists aestheticize the past, and historians narrate the past. The theorization of consumer-driven memorialization offers three contributions. First, the dimensions of consumer-driven memorialization broaden understanding of what constitutes a consumable past in contexts of low market-mediation. Second, we explain how the ideological and material challenges that emerge in consumer-driven memorialization generate a complex interplay between remembering and forgetting. Third, we shed light on how consumer-driven memorialization is inscribed in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of Bangladesh nation and the 1971 War of Liberation has been a constant in Bangladeshi diasporas worldwide. This article attempts to find out how diasporic Bangladeshi populations in Britain memorialise Bangladesh's independence and the 1971 war and considers the work of these memories in connecting with the 'homeland' of the past and building new bridges to contemporary Bangladesh. Though this war has been a watershed moment in the history of Bangladesh, the impact of memories of 1971 on constructing the idea of Bangladesh in the Bangladeshi diaspora has not yet been rigorously studied. This article is a step to analyse the memorialising responses of the British Bangladeshi diaspora toward contemporary and historical notions of Bangladesh's independence and 1971. It investigates the commemoration and narrativisation of Bangladeshi independence in the British context as/through nostalgic memories and remembrances, as well as frames the possible future of such in these memorialisations of 1971. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent stabilization work at the Ludlow Massacre Site National Historic Landmark revealed new insights into memorialization activities over time. The site commemorates a battle between striking miners and the Colorado National Guard which culminated in the destruction of a striking miners 'tent colony by fire causing the deaths of two women and eleven children in a cellar. The United Mine Workers of America erected a monument and preserved that cellar in cement sometime after 1918. Unexpected finds encountered during preservation work on the cellar raise issues related to collective memory, memorialization, and scale. These finds offer new understandings of changes made at the site by the strikers and the UMWA since the massacre in 1914. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to provide an account on Albania’s encounter with international criminal justice, reflecting on the data collected under EU cost Action ca18228 and the States’ Scoping Survey. It looks at how Albania has engaged or not engaged with international criminal justice, in relevant provisions of domestic law, in its level of support and cooperation with international and hybrid courts, in domestic prosecutions of international crimes, and memorialisation activities. The findings suggest that the response to international crimes committed in Albania or abroad has been mixed. While little, if any accountability has been sought for the horrendous crimes during its communist past, Albania’s response to international crimes abroad in neighbouring Yugoslav territories was that of justice and accountability for those who committed crimes. The Kosovo War prompted a strategic shift in Albania’s approach, as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (ksc) faced criticism highlighting tensions between accountability and nationalistic sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the on-going memorialization practices of Mbuya Nehanda and Gukurahundi that are performed and contested in various discursive spaces in Zimbabwe. It analyses the media discourses surrounding two seminal commemorative events that occurred concurrently on 25 May 2021. Firstly, the government unveiled a statue of Nehanda, a liberation heroine, in the capital, Harare. On the same day, the Gukurahundi survivors erected a memorial plaque at Bhalagwe to commemorate the victims of a genocide that was orchestrated by the government in Matabeleland between 1983 and 1987. Drawing upon Rothberg's concept of multidirectional memory, we explore how these different histories are intertwined and entangled in public spaces as various mnemonic communities seek to assert and endorse their narratives of the past. Findings from on our analysis of news media reports demonstrate the entanglements, synergies and interconnectedness of Nehanda and Gukurahundi histories in various ways. On the one hand, Nehanda and Gukurahundi memories represent histories of victimization and injustices. On the other hand, they demonstrate the divergences and contestations surrounding national memory and identity politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern North Pacific gray whales are famed for their remarkable ecological history: from near extinction to recovery and from 'devil-fish' to 'friendly whale'. This article critically examines the origins and development of the narrative framing of gray whales' history as one in which the whales were long known as 'devil-fish', until they became 'friendly whales' in the 1970s. Drawing on archival sources from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, this article interrupts the premise of a smooth and linear transition from devil- fish to friendly whale. Instead, gray whale histories reveal much more complex and even contradictory human--whale encounters along the California coast. Throughout the time period examined, precursors of the familiar contemporary narrative of gray whale history emerged, each building on prior remembrances of gray whale pasts. More broadly, this article contributes to contemporary conversations in more-than-human historical studies about nonhuman agency, multispecies encounters, memory, and environmental histories of emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the mountain man as a historical icon that illuminates how settler memory reverberates in the Rocky Mountain West and helps construct regional expressions of conservative political identity. Kevin Bruyneel's analytic of settler memory describes a habitualized process of selective remembrance, 'forgetting,' and disavowal of settler-Indigenous relationships, where today's settlers benefit from legacies of dispossession, violence, and genocidal policies. Using Carbon County, Wyoming, as a case study, I analyze mountain man symbolism in two contemporary contexts: regional tourism marketing and mountain man rendezvous (MMR) reenactment gatherings. Both contexts elevate the mountain man as a symbol of resilience and noble identity. Just as the construct of whiteness has provided a psychological wage against socioeconomic deficits for many Americans, I argue, settler memory of the mountain man compensates for much that settlers experience but won't name, such as the role the U.S. state in removing Indigenous communities; the hardship of economic precarity in regions marked by boom-and-bust cycles and dependent on tourism; and the reality that government provides the greatest share of employment in the region. Adding mountain man symbolism to our understanding of settler memory expands scholars' understanding of settler colonialism's intertwinement with contemporary place-making and political identity construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has transformed how we construct collective memory, with increased opportunities for dispersed individuals and groups to participate in collective remembrance. With the ever-changing nature of social media practices, the field of critical memory studies begs for more research on the role of digital media in memory construction. Based on a critical rhetorical analysis of YouTube and Instagram archives, I examine how social media is used to remember Marielle Franco, a Brazilian black queer city councilwoman killed in 2018 by former police officers. Specifically, I argue that two communication strategies – mediating a resistant specter and mediating something-to-be-done – are articulated on social media in the construction of a haunting online presence of Marielle. I further suggest that this digital memorialization is consequential for how Brazil remembers the racial, gendered, and social injustices that inform Brazil's past, present, and possible future. The analysis contributes to previous literature on cultural memory by articulating the notion of haunting online presence as a heuristic tool to theorize about public mourning, digital memory, and activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Aposta is the property of Aposta and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the significant events of 1937 in the USSR was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the death of A. S. Pushkin, which contributed to attracting the attention of Soviet citizens to the life and work of the poet. The purpose of this work is to examine the process of organizing and holding Pushkin Days in settlements of the Omsk region. The choice of the region is connected with the coverage of a large territory, which was inhabited by different populations. The research is based on a number of unpublished documents from the funds of the Historical Archive of the Omsk region, as well as materials of the periodical press of the Omsk region for 1936–1937. In conclusion, it is noted that the celebration of the anniversary of the poet’s death significantly influenced the development of cultural life in the USSR, helped to attract the population to the problem of illiteracy, attracted the indigenous population of Siberia to participate in the event.

This article explores the way a family fashioned a memorial to a son 'taken by the war'. It focuses on the Robert's collection in Melbourne, Australia's largest bound collection of war time ephemera, and the making of what was called 'Frank's Memory Book'. It argues that families asserted ownership over their dead, crafting different modes of memorialization to authorized modes of remembrance, considers the way communities of mourners were brought together and highlights tensions between private loss and public memory. The making of ephemera is examined at length as is the part material culture plays in libraries and archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the conditions necessary for a narrative recounting of past events to become memorable and incorporated into collective memory. The analysis is focused on the role played by artistic remediations in creating such memorability. In Romania, as well as in other East Central European countries, the production of memorability and the management of the resulting collective memories are interlinked with the narratives of communism that dominate the memorialisation of the recent past. The article reviews several examples of acts of dissent, based on their representativeness and the existing literature, and question the memorability of dissident acts by considering the memory discourse on communism and the involvement of different agents of memory. It also interrogates the use of the Romanian secret police (Securitate) files in artistic productions, examining this acknowledgement of the role played by the Securitate in creating the narratives of the communist past. Two artistic productions based on reworkings of the Securitate files are analysed: a documentary theatre play staged by Gianina Cărbunariu, Uppercase Print (2013), and Radu Jude's 2020 film of the same title, both presenting the story of Mugur Călinescu. The article argues that these productions question mainstream frames of memory by revisiting the narratives and biographies created by the Securitate files and give new, artistically mediated voices to victims, perpetrators and collaborators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are Western journalists who are killed in the course of their work remembered? Using the biographies of journalists killed covering conflict, this article investigates the discursive repertoires through which the memorialization of journalists killed while reporting conflict is accomplished. The authors argue that such journalists are consistently constructed as humanitarian, cosmopolitan witnesses engaged in supererogatory moral projects involving justice and voice for those outside of these journalists' geopolitical home communities. This particular articulation appears to herald a recent shift in the memorialization of the journalistic dead, although it is continuous with longer discourses in fields such as photojournalism and its idea of the 'concerned photographer'. We speculate that this shift is consistent with material changes in the field – in particular, the precaritization of conflict reporting driving journalists into the material and social world of professional humanitarianism, whose discourses around the moral worth and cosmopolitan nature of the work have colonized the subfield of conflict reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholars have explored many aspects of the Lost Cause, few have focused on the presence of classical analogies in its many iterations. Citing Confederate monuments, memorial speeches, and other sources, this essay explores previously under-analyzed classical reception in Confederate memorialization. It argues that white Southerners invoked the ancient Spartans frequently to reinforce specific elements of the Lost Cause mythology. Comparing Confederate soldiers to Spartans, especially in the context of the Battle of Thermopylae, upheld a key Lost Cause belief in the superiority of the Confederate soldier while also deflecting blame for the Confederacy's military loss solely onto the factor of overwhelming US numbers and arms. Former Confederates also identified Confederate women as Spartan to emphasize their loyalty and sacrifice to the South during the war--another major aspect of the Lost Cause. By referencing the classical world in such a manner, postwar white Southerners continued a rich antebellum tradition of citing antiquity to defend conservative Southern values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium introduction reflects on themes of tradition and innovation in the work of Antonio ('Nino') Cassese. These themes were central to Cassese's own thinking, in ways drawn out by the three symposium articles on aspects of his life and work, and they play important roles in international law more broadly. In exploring these themes in a loosely biographical inquiry, the introduction also poses questions about the nature of biographical writing in international law and its relation to memorialization and historicization of law's recent past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politically grappling with history is a constructive act, one that relies on context, structure, and agency, and is also directed at the forging of cultural coherence. In light of the growing transnationalization of commemoration practices, political actors not only rely on national past but also appeal to historical foreign events in political domestic speech. This research focuses on Israel as a case study for theoretical expansion of the political encounter with history and the experience of alterity. Qualitative analysis of Israeli political rhetoric since the 2000s demonstrates how Israeli prime ministers primarily rely on domestic collective memories; when used, events of others are intended to create a sense of shared experience through comparison. 'Importation for comparison' is thus the apparatus reflecting how Israeli prime ministers comply with current needs put forth by internal and external challenges in a globalized world. Contributing to the ongoing discussion regarding the nature of identity, this research underlines how referencing to events from abroad is one of the prominent ways in which national self is evaluated, discussed, and negotiated, thus providing a better understanding of how Israeli society imagines itself in relation to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans and objects are deeply entangled through systems of knowledge, exchange, production and consumption. The entanglement is also emotional. Objects have symbolic power and therefore emotional charge. Insofar as the individual psyche can be a model for the collective one, thinking of the objects we each carry with us throughout life can be a helpful way to understand how objects acquire emotional significance beyond their original function, and how they are critical to identity and memory construction. This in part equates to say that what societies keep or do not keep, as well as how they keep it, is critical in defining how we deal with our past and therefore how we define both present and future. Conservators have been increasingly aware of this fact. Because of their emotional power, dealing with objects and how they shape memory can also help heal collective wounds. I argue that the emotional power of material objects could be more systematically harnessed by turning to the principles of Restorative Justice, an emerging social science that emphasizes interconnectedness within communities and societies. Restorative Justice is a useful lens through which to consider decision making in conservation, while conservation can contribute significantly to restorative efforts. Les êtres humains et les objets sont profondément enchevêtrés dans des systèmes de connaissance, d'échange, de production et de consommation. L'enchevêtrement est également d'ordre émotionnel. Les objets ont une puissance symbolique et portent donc une charge émotionnelle. Dans la mesure où la psyché individuelle peut être prise comme modèle de la psyché collective, réfléchir aux objets que nous côtoyons chacun au cours de notre vie peut aider à comprendre comment les objets acquièrent une valeur émotionnelle au-delà de leur usage originel, et comment ils sont déterminants dans la construction de l'identité et de la mémoire. Cela revient en partie à dire que ce que les sociétés choisissent ou non de conserver, ainsi que la manière dont elles le conservent, est déterminant pour préciser la manière dont nous nous confrontons à notre passé, et donc la manière dont nous concevons à la fois le présent et le futur. Les conservateurs-restaurateurs sont de plus en plus conscients de cela. Du fait de leur pouvoir émotionnel, s'occuper des objets et de la manière dont ils façonnent la mémoire peut aussi aider à guérir les blessures collectives. J'estime que le pouvoir émotionnel des objets pourrait être exploité de manière plus systématique en se rapprochant des principes de la justice restaurative, une science sociale émergente qui s'appuie sur l'interconnexion au sein des communautés et des sociétés. La justice restaurative offre un angle de vue utile pour aborder la prise de décisions en conservation-restauration, tandis que la conservation-restauration peut contribuer de manière significative au processus de réparation. Traduit par Louise Klein. Humanos e objetos estão profundamente envolvidos através de sistemas de conhecimento, troca, produção e consumo. O envolvimento também é emocional. Os objetos têm poder simbólico e, portanto, carga emocional. Na medida em que a psique individual pode ser um modelo para a psique coletiva, pensar nos objetos que cada um de nós carrega ao longo da vida pode ser uma forma útil de compreender como os objetos adquirem significado emocional para além da sua função original, e como são críticos para a identidade e construção da memória. Isto, em parte, equivale a dizer que o que as sociedades mantêm ou não, bem como a forma como o mantêm, é fundamental para definir a forma como lidamos com o nosso passado e, portanto, como definimos tanto o presente como o futuro. Os conservadores têm estado cada vez mais conscientes deste fato. Devido ao seu poder emocional, lidar com objetos e como eles moldam a memória também pode ajudar a curar feridas coletivas. Defendo que o poder emocional dos objetos materiais poderia ser aproveitado de forma mais sistemática recorrendo aos princípios da Justiça Restaurativa, uma ciência social emergente que enfatiza a interligação dentro das comunidades e sociedades. A Justiça Restaurativa é uma lente útil através da qual se pode considerar a tomada de decisões na Conservação, enquanto a Conservação pode contribuir significativamente para os esforços restaurativos. Traduzido por Caroline Lodi e Francisco Vieira. Los seres humanos y los objetos están profundamente entrelazados a través de sistemas de conocimiento, intercambio, producción y consumo. El vínculo es también emocional. Los objetos tienen poder simbólico y por tanto, carga emocional. En la medida en que la psique individual puede ser un modelo para la colectiva, pensar en los objetos que cada uno llevamos con nosotros a lo largo de la vida puede ser una forma útil de entender cómo los objetos adquieren un significado emocional más allá de su función original y cómo son fundamentales para la construcción de la identidad y la memoria. Esto equivale en parte a decir que lo que las sociedades guardan o no, así como la forma en que lo guardan, es fundamental para definir cómo afrontamos nuestro pasado y por tanto, cómo definimos el presente y el futuro. Los conservadores son cada vez más conscientes de este hecho. Debido a su poder emocional, ocuparse de los objetos y de cómo configuran la memoria también puede ayudar a curar heridas colectivas. Sostengo que el poder emocional de los objetos materiales podría aprovecharse de forma más sistemática recurriendo a los principios de la Justicia Restaurativa, una ciencia social emergente que hace hincapié en la interconexión dentro de las comunidades y las sociedades. La Justicia Restaurativa es una lente útil a través de la cual considerar la toma de decisiones en la conservación, mientras que la conservación puede contribuir significativamente a los esfuerzos reparadores. Traducción y revisión inicial por Ramón Sánchez y Vera de la Cruz; revisión final por Amparo Rueda e Irene Delaveris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2023 marked 130 years since the first Polish seasonal workers, the so-called beet girls (roepiger), arrived on the islands of Lolland-Falster, as the first group of Polish immigrants in Denmark. In 1940, a monument called "Roepiger" was erected in the market square of Sakskøbing and became part of human memory. But who this Danish sculpture depicts, and why, continues to be variously interpreted to this day. Social memory supports distances between the two cultures, differences in memory policies and attitudes in public diplomacy. Certain meanings were attached to the sculpture by the local Danish community, others by Poles living in Denmark, and still others by Polish and Danish officials. Finally, the personal memory of the sculpture's author, Gottfried Eickhoff, about its genesis should be taken into account. The article argues that the plaque, which was funded by Polish diplomacy and affixed to the monument's pedestal during interstate ceremonies in 2015, constitutes an appropriation. The market in Sakskøbing was given the status of a Polish memorial, passing over the coexistence of different forms of memory in cultural circuits, as characterized in Aleida Asmann's theory of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of walking and storytelling as a mode of memory-making in Belfast's City Centre, a 'shared space' that has largely been emptied of reminders of the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland known as the 'Troubles'. Memorialization remains a divisive and contentious process in Northern Ireland with two opposing narrative traditions and a lack of shared collective memory. In the absence of state-led and officialized memorials to the 'Troubles', I explore how urban heritage can be expressed in motion, through spatial stories told by place-based professionals (urban planners, architects, heritage practitioners, arts and community groups) in the City Centre. In particular, I employ David Lloyd's idea of 'melancholy survivals' to describe the ways in which memories of conflict persist in the narratives we tell and in the small physical residues scattered throughout the City Centre, which we encounter through walking and spatial stories. I argue that walking go-along interviews with place-based professionals elicits storytelling that evokes a mobile mode of memorialization. I begin by discussing the context of memorialization in Belfast's City Centre, its role during the 'Troubles', and its subsequent urban redevelopment as a 'shared space'. I then map out critical discussions around my methodological framework, which considers spatial storytelling, geographies of affect and walking methods as ways to engage urban heritage in cities that have experienced conflict. This is followed by observations from the walking go-along interviews, which include stories of physical residues, the psychosomatic legacies of conflict and ways the difficult memories factor into narratives in Belfast's City Centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of people view their pets as family members and the death of a pet often induces a grief reaction of comparable severity to the loss of a significant human relationship. Yet, despite similar levels of grief, the death of a pet typically does not involve similar rituals that allow owners to express their grief. This study was designed to better understand how people memorialize their pets through the use of continuing bonds (CB) expressions, as well as their choices pertaining to after-death body care, decisions related to taking time off work following the death, the impact of their religious beliefs on memorialization choices, and how their veterinarian responded to the death. An online, anonymous, cross-sectional survey was distributed to pet owners who had experienced the loss of a companion animal, resulting in 517 responses, most of whom were White (86%), female (91%) and resided in the United States (87%). We found that choices regarding the expression of CB in response to pet death are similar to those witnessed after human loss. This study is one of the first to identify the wide array of pet owners' choices regarding memorialization and emphasizes the importance of recognizing individual choices. These results suggest that it is essential that those grieving the death of their pet be supported and reassured that there is no right or wrong way to grieve, with all options recognized as legitimate in the experience and expression of one's grief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, the global dimensions of institutional child sexual abuse have become increasingly apparent. In some countries this has had a profound impact locally. In Australia, one such place has been the storied town of Ballarat. Throughout Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Ballarat became a significant focus of the Inquiry. As local abuse became clearer, colourful ribbons began appearing at sites throughout the town. This article investigates the meaning of such a response, and its role in relation to survivor testimony. Transforming into a movement that persists to this day, the effect is to reconsolidate a community's 'difficult heritage' of institutional abuse into a more celebrated story of rebellion and protest. The originality of the article stems from the contribution it makes to understanding community-level responses to institutional abuse, and the role of ritual in the formation of collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memorialisation in settler-colonial nations such as Australia is intensely political. It creates public symbols of people and events those in authority consider important and worthy of remembrance. Counter-narratives of various marginalised others are silenced through processes of collective forgetting. In Australia, this forgetting has meant that colonial histories of exploration and discovery have been commemorated through ubiquitous explorer memorials. But these memorials represent a very selective account of settler-colonial history firmly based in the colonial fiction of terra nullius or empty land used to justify the British claim to Australia. This fiction is now being actively countered by social protests focused on memorials to explorers and colonial administrators. Furthermore, a trend to memorialise and commemorate the massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as part of the colonisation process is overturning the myth that Australia was peacefully settled. In fact, truth-speaking is now recognised by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians as an integral part of the reconciliation process. However, the truths spoken as part of the shared memorialisation of Aboriginal massacre sites by the Australian reconciliation movement are only partial, and may serve to perpetuate rather than interrupt what has historically been a resounding silence about colonial dispossession and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves as an introduction to a discussion on cultural practices relating to death in late medieval Iberia. It contends that an intersectional approach is necessary to study this topic because, while all humans die, the way they are buried, memorialized, and remembered is tied to factors such as culture, religion, class, wealth, gender, tradition, legal practices, medical knowledge, technology, and historical context. The second part of this introduction offers an overview of the articles that form this special issue, the goal of which is to gender death in order to better appreciate how late medieval women prepared for it, and how they were commemorated by those they left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective procedural memory is a group's memory of how to do things, as opposed to a group's memory of facts. It enables groups to mount effective responses to periodic events (e.g., natural hazards) and to sustain collective projects (e.g., combatting climate change). This article presents an account of collective procedural memory called the Ability Conception. The Ability Conception has various advantages over other accounts of collective procedural memory, such as those appealing to collective know-how and collective identity. It also demonstrates new applications for collective procedural memory. I develop three in this article: to social epistemology, to the ethics of memorialization, and to a pattern of group vulnerability to recurring hazardous events that I call the saeculum effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a dual analysis of commemoration in Wales and Trinidad that extends outwards from a monument in the Welsh town of Carmarthen to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton, the most senior officer to die at the battle of Waterloo and an aggressive imperialist who has since been accused of committing crimes against humanity in the name of the British Empire. Using torture and public executions to control the enslaved population of Trinidad during his term as military Governor of Trinidad between 1797 and 1803, Picton accumulated great personal wealth through ownership of slaves and plantations. The article seeks to extend emerging scholarly analysis of commemorative activism and, specifically, the application of memorial publics to a contemporary Caribbean context. Archival research on the history of the Picton monument from regional archives in Carmarthen and national archive collections in Aberystwyth is connected to data from contemporary interviews with activists and public officials in Wales and Trinidad and Tobago as well as detail from public surveys, audits, and policy reviews concerning commemoration in the public realm. Despite wavering public support since its first iteration in 1828, Carmarthen's Picton monument has endured to become an important social arena for reckoning with British colonial violence as demands for its removal in Wales has helped initiate Picton-related decolonising efforts in Trinidad and Tobago producing memorial publics that are variously confined and extended. • Develops an historical geography of a monument to Thomas Picton in Carmarthen. • Provides a dual analysis of commemoration in Wales and Trinidad. • Extends the concept of memorial public. • Details how memorial publics are confined and expanded in commensurate efforts to decolonise public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The column monument in Istanbul's Gülhane Park, commonly known by its colloquial name "column of the Goths," bears a well-known inscription on its pedestal which states that this monument was dedicated to Fortuna Redux on the occasion of a Roman victory over the Goths. The monument, however, has not attracted much scholarly attention, probably because no consensus has yet been reached regarding its date. An inspection of the inscription in Gülhane Park and a fresh analysis of its text suggest that the emperor Constantine erected the "column of the Goths" in the context of the formal dedication of his new capital in 330 as a memorial for his victory over the Goths in 328 or 329. The monument highlights Constantinople's extraordinary political nature as more than just another imperial residence in the style of the tetrarchy. It bears witness to the emperor's efforts to give Constantinople the status of a second Rome as well as his determination, above all else, to establish his city as the home of triumphant victories. Moreover, the monument's dedication to Fortuna Redux, is another token of Constantine's at least partially ambiguous religious policy, which allowed traditional symbols to be visible in his new capital of Constantinople. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der Beitrag zeigt und untersucht Erinnerungspraktiken in Gesellschaft, Presse und Social Media im Kontext des rassistischen und extrem rechten Brandanschlags in Solingen im Jahr 1993. Zunächst wird der Brandanschlag in historische und gesellschaftspolitische Kontexte eingeordnet, um dann Einblick zu gewähren in lokales Erinnern und die bis heute andauernden Kämpfe für die Aufrechterhaltung der Erinnerung an die fünf Opfer. Dann geht es um die mediale Repräsentation von Erinnerungspraktiken. Zunächst werden Medientexte mit Fokus auf das Erinnern und Gedenken in der Presseberichterstattung untersucht. Die sich anschließende Hashtaganalyse auf Instagram arbeitet dominierende Hashtags und Posts im Zeitverlauf punktuell heraus. Sichtbar wird, dass das Erinnern an den Solinger Brandanschlag mittlerweile auch in digitalen Räumen stattfindet. The article shows and examines practices of remembrance in society, the press and social media in the context of the racist and extreme right-wing arson attack in Solingen in 1993. Initially, the arson attack is contextualized within historical and socio-political frameworks. Subsequently, insight is provided into local remembrance and the ongoing struggles to maintain the memory of the five victims. It then examines the media representation of remembrance practices, beginning with an analysis of media texts focused on remembrance and commemoration in press coverage. The following hashtag analysis on Instagram selectively identifies dominant hashtags and posts over time. It becomes clear that remembrance of the Solingen arson attack now also takes place in digital spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radical left culture and heritage—understood as incarnations of leftist artefacts and praxis both past and present—have taken risks in challenging hegemonic machinations often when it is unpopular to do so. To the ire of hegemons, leftist projects across the globe have marshalled places, spaces, and technologies into sites of empowerment and struggle utilising 'small' and 'big' acts of resistance and critical interventions to champion social justice—sometimes successfully, and at other times, less so. However, the preservation of projects' artefacts, praxis, and memory work has been anything but straightforward, owing primarily to institutional politics and infrastructural and resourcing issues. Taking The Freedom Archives (FA) as a case study, this article explores how FA is preserving the distinctive political education programme that underpinned the iconic liberation struggle in Guinea-Bissau that kickstarted the seismic, global decolonisation project in the late 1950s. The article argues that FA could substantially enhance the preservation and memorialisation of that programme in the Metaverse—if this materialises as a fully open, interoperable, and highly immersive space (1) unfettered by hegemonic regulation, and (2) characterised by 'strategic witnessing', 'radical recordkeeping', and user agency. In doing so, FA would serve as an exemplar for leftist projects globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the vernacular memory of the 1940s-era Ruzagayura famine was deployed to critique the contemporary Covid-19-induced hunger crisis in Rwanda. It methodologically advances memory studies scholarship by emphasising the importance of textual analyses of oral histories, poetry, proverbs and panegyrics, especially when transmitted on social media. This crucial revision can begin to redress the Eurocentric knowledge production approaches prevalent in memory studies. Transgenerational vernacular memories run parallel to, in relation with, and in competition with Rwanda's official memorialisation of historical crises. While the Ruzagayura famine and related narratives are forgotten in the official rewriting of history, they re-emerge and find new life online to be transmitted across generations and geographies. I consider how 'born-digital' youth revitalise oral histories of the famine as a form of resistance against official policy, and how powerful actors attempt to suppress these narratives. Thus, this paper contributes to broader literatures on resistance and memory politics in Rwanda and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Persian Famine of 1917–1919 is one of the greatest calamities in the history of Iran. While some scholarly work has explored the causes and dynamics of the famine, less attention has been paid to its memorialisation. This paper aims to understand how the Great Persian Famine is remembered – or not – in public and personal spheres in Iran. Discussing the historical events that have been silenced, neglected or publicly recognised and commemorated before and after the Islamic Revolution, the paper focusses on the processes that hinder public and private memorialising of hunger violence. Drawing on existing literature, personal diaries, artistic representations, and interviews with persons whose parents or grandparents experienced the Great Persian Famine, we discuss why it has not figured prominently in the national historiography or commemorative practices, except during a brief period (2008–2013) when it found its way into the prevailing political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Famine theory has overlooked the role of memory in constituting the social meaning of famine. This seminal collection of papers restores the cross-disciplinary study of famines, foregrounding social anthropology, history and comparative politics, in the question of how famines are understood by those in the afflicted societies, and how memories and meanings are shaped by social and political context. The collection plays an important role in focussing attention on transitional justice mechanisms for starvation crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although famines have historically claimed millions of lives, they are rarely publicly remembered through monuments, commemorative events or museums. This article investigates the apparent silence around famine memory by asking if there is something about famines that makes them less 'commemorable' than other mass-atrocities, and in which circumstances famines become the object of public memorialisation. Bringing together a rather fragmented literature on famine memory, the article outlines seven ways that famine memorialisation is impeded or made possible. First, it draws attention to the divisiveness of famines and their lack of clearly defined heroes and perpetrators. Second, shame and culpability shape how individuals and states talk – or keep quiet – about hunger victims. Third, earlier commemorative traditions and other traumatic events can inspire or crowd out famine memory. Fourth, for famines to be officially remembered, a break with the past tends to be necessary. The article also, fifth, discusses how famine memory can be used to construct national unity, or, sixth, instrumentalised in domestic and international politics. Finally, it highlights the role of activism and memory projects from below. While famines may not easily lend themselves to public commemoration, political contestation, nation-building or civil society initiatives can enable their memorialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 'Grande Seca' of 1877, the deadliest famine recorded in Brazil, the government installed so-called concentration camps to prevent famine migrants from the dry Northeastern backlands from reaching Fortaleza, capital of the Ceará state in 1915 and 1932. Officially, the camps were depicted as relief centres, but their inhumane conditions earned them the nickname of 'death camps'. After their closure, the camps and their famine victims fell into oblivion. Recently, however, both government and civil society actors have taken initiatives to commemorate them. In 2019, the Patu Concentration Camp (the only one for which physical remains can still be found) and the Walk of the Drought (a religious pilgrimage) were officially recognised as heritage sites. This article introduces the research by emphasising how famines are rarely publicly commemorated and describes investigation initiatives that contribute to breaking the silence around famine victims in Brazil. To conclude, the article refers to background literature, document analysis and interviews to discuss the efforts that have been put into public memorialisation so far, as a means to overcome the marginalisation of the memories of peasants from the Northeastern backlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of social media in the memorialisation of the Biafra famine. It argues that given the absence of Biafra famine narratives in the official post-Civil War memory spaces in Nigeria, social media has emerged as a site where silence and hegemonic discourses around the Biafra famine are disrupted, contested and unmoored. Thus, the study contributes to the contemporary debates on digital media and memorialisation of mass atrocities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the entrance to City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana, a monument to Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard rose twenty-seven feet over the citizens of New Orleans until 2017, when the sculpture was removed from its pedestal. Following the removal, Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked: "why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame... all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans." This landscape of empty pedestals was confronted by Paula Wilson that fall. Rather than erect a material monument that would directly replace the fallen General Beauregard, Wilson turned to her own body. Before the sun rose early one morning, she climbed atop the empty pedestal and began dancing in a performance titled "Living Monument." This paper analyzes Wilson's performance and its documentation as radical acts of refusing the logics of monumentality. In examining this work, I consider how performance as a mode of memorialization completely destabilizes the monumental presentation of a static history, thus offering a new grammar by which to think through modes of revolution and redress in the symbolic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filipino revolutionary Apolinario Mabini's incarceration in Asan Beach on Guam from 1901–1903 continues to have political implications today, as evidenced by Chamorro-led pushback against Filipino-sponsored Mabini memorials in the village of Asan. Much of this debate is centered around differences between Chamorro and Filipino memories about Asan, which stems from the US empire's containment of their relations. Through applying an abolitionist geographical critique to US Naval archives and oral history interviews of Chamorros and Filipinos in Guam, this article unpacks the role that US militarization's carceral logics play in transforming Mabini's memory into a marker of containment for Chamorros, Filipinos, and Guam's landscapes and waterscapes. In centering an Indigenous and Filipino feminist reading of colonial archives and Chamorro–Filipino relations, I identify moments when Chamorros and Filipinos have (re)mapped alternative modes of relation beyond the containment of Chamorros' ties to place and the US military's reliance on Filipinos as a source of labor for militarized infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout Central and Eastern Europe, various governments supported the creation of memorial museums of political violence during state socialism. While much scholarly attention has been given to Hungary's House of Terror and the Baltic museums of occupations, this article examines the contrasting situation in Southeastern Europe, where state actors were generally absent and which witnessed relatively belated and overwhelmingly bottom-up processes. The article analyses the particularity of political prisons as 'difficult heritage'. It scrutinizes the commonalities and entanglements between the memorialization of political prisons in three Southeastern European countries marked by distinctive trajectories both during and after communism: Albania (Spaç), Romania (Sighet and Piteşti), and Croatia (Goli Otok). The article shows how in the absence of state-level policies to address transitional justice, activism surrounding difficult heritage memorialization has aimed to fill the gap. It also argues that the relationship between site memorialization in Southeastern Europe and the wider European models is doubly constitutive: first, the memorialization of Sighet in 1990s Romania borrowed approaches from Western European Holocaust memorialization, then shaped a European wide set of best practices; second, a wave of new memorial initiatives after 2010 in Southeastern Europe was connected to the Europeanization of memory and transnational engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the development of Jarman's imagination of medieval reliquary devotion as a practice of queer mourning and memorialization between 1981 and ca. 1993: from draft scripts for the unrealized film Bob-up-a-Down to Blue (1993) and his last hospital journals. In Jarman's works, the reliquary appears not merely as image but also in active use, evidenced in his assemblage paintings and his garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness. Jarman's reliquaries are analyzed in their archival contexts, drawing on medieval and modern repositories. These reliquaries are considered in relation to Jarman's own canonization by both the queer community and the artistic establishment. Before and after his canonization by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in 1991, Jarman was deeply engaged with medieval mystical and medical representations of relics. Working amidst devastating losses and in the knowledge of his own approaching death, Jarman created reliquaries to challenge the denial of public mourning during the AIDS crisis. Jarman's archives emerge as inescapably plural, even within one repository. Like Jarman's imagined reliquary, these archives are made of jewels and ashes, the aesthetic and bodily remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]