PLTC332

What is at stake when monuments are built or taken down? How do different societies decide what to remember from their past, and what to forget? This course explores the politics of public memory. It examines how the stories that groups tell themselves about themselves help construct, justify, or contest relations of power within the group or between themselves and others. It also asks how such memories can be used to overcome the traumas and conflicts of the past. Specific cases are drawn from a variety of different countries, including the United States.