|
MIT
Department of Political Science
This page was last
modified on
January 21, 2003
© Massachusetts Institute of Technology
|
Agenda and Overview
Overview
The study of collective memory continues to be in
flux. This workshop aims to help clarify and deepen the understanding
of one crucial aspect
of this issue--the memory of war. Does memory of events involving violence,
domination, and death operate like memories of other events or is there
something qualitatively different about the memory of war?
The workshop will address the role of texts, narratives, symbols, and psychological
mechanisms in translating and transforming the experience of war into collective
memory. It will also address how the memory of war and violence affects political
outcomes in terms of reconciliation and reduction in conflict.
The approach of the workshop is interdisciplinary and comparative. The first
panel begins with ethnographers; the second moves into the work of political
scientists who have used ethnographic methods; the third is composed of psychologists
and specialists in education; the fourth is comprised of political scientists
concentrating in the field of international relations; the fifth contains two
scholars interested in larger issues of justice and truth-telling. The final
and sixth panel is meant to generate debate and summarize the common understandings,
as well as the differences, among the diverse set of participants. The substantive
cases include Eastern Europe, Italy, Central America, East Asia, and the Middle
East.
The Memory of War workshop is sponsored and generously
funded by the Center for International
Studies at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
The Workshop will be held in Building E38. The agenda
is listed below:
Schedule
Friday January 24
9:30: Continental Breakfast in Building
E-38
10:00: Introductory Comments:
Roger Petersen
10:15-11:45: Mechanisms of War
Memory I - Ethnographic
Approaches
Francesca Cappelletto, Department
of Psychology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Verona,
Italy: Public memories and personal stories: Recalling
the Nazi-fascist massacres
Longina Jakubowska, Department
of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam: Memory-Making Among
Gentry in Poland
11:45-1:00 Lunch, served at Building
E-38
1:00-2:30: Mechanisms of War Memory
II - Political Scientists
Using Ethnographic
Methods
Elisabeth Wood, Department
of Politics, New York University: Ethnographic Research in the
Shadow of Civil War: Explaining Insurgent Collective
Action in El Salvador
Roger Petersen, Political Science
Department, MIT: Reconstructing Life from Violent
Eras: A Comparison of Émigré and
Native Narratives
2:30-2:45: Break
2:45-4:30: Remembering War
James Wertsch, Department of
Education and International Studies Program, Washington University
in St. Louis: Filling in the Blank Spots
in History: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Russian Collective
Memory
Peeter Tulviste, Chair of Department
of Psychology, Rector of Tartu University, Estonia: Tracking
your Neighbors' Memory Processes
Elena Ivanova, Chair of the
Department of Psychology at Kharkiv National University, Ukraine,
and currently at the United States Holocaust
Museum: To Remember or Not? The Memory of the Holocaust as
a Part of the War Memory
7:00 Dinner, participants to be
picked up at the hotel
9:30 Continental Breakfast served at
Building E38
10:00-11:45: Reconciliation - Can
the ways we remember make a political difference?
Steve Van Evera, Professor,
Political Science Department, MIT: Memory and the Israel-Palestinian
Conflict: Time for New Narrative
Yinan He, Ph.D candidate, Political
Science Department, MIT: National Mythmaking and the Problems
of History in Sino-Japanese Relations
Jennifer Lind, Ph. D candidate,
Political Science Department, MIT: Apologies and Threat Reduction
in Postwar Europe
11:45-1:00: Lunch, served at E-38
1:00-3:00:
The Politics of Memory: Telling the “Truth
David Mendeloff, Political Science
Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa: Is Truth-Telling Necessary
for Post-Conflict Peacebuilding?
An Assessment of the Literature
Melissa Nobles, Political Science,
MIT: To Apologize or Not to Apologize?: Historical
Facts and Political Claims in Australia, Canada, and the
United States
Jon Elster, Political Science, Columbia University: Memory and
Transitional Justice
3:00 –3:30 Break
3:30-5:00: Summing Up, Raising Questions
Thomas Berger, Professor in International
Relations at Boston University
David Art, Political Science, MIT
7:00 Dinner, participants to be
picked up at hotel
|
