The commemoration of the past plays a central role in the personal-private and collective public work of culture. Traumatic memory has especially attracted attention in academic discourse as well as in everyday popular culture and mental health settings. Despite this growing interest, there have been few anthropological and ethnographic studies undertaken to explore the processes and practices of personal and collective trauma-related memory work. In order to explore underlying themes relating to the anthropology of memory, traumatic memory and commemoration, the course will examine the following key concepts: representation, history, genocidal trauma, personal and collective memory, testimony and witness, and survivor-hood. Holocaust memory and commemoration will be explored as a contemporary case study of Israeli trauma-related memory work.

Course Syllabus