Course Objectives 

· The module (a half-unit) will examine the latest concepts and approaches to the study of cultural memory. The focus will be on the relevancy and application of these concepts, including theory and method, case-study and ethical issues, will be placed in critical dialogue with other (inter-) disciplinary discourses including cultural heritage, museology, cultural studies, health humanities, anthropology, philosophy and to material and visual culture studies.

· Emphasis will be placed on drawing out the variety of ‘memory cultures’ and the convergences and divergences of memory-work and cultural transmission through time and cross culturally. As such we critically explore ‘western’ approaches to cultural memory while challenging and opening these up to other approaches/ modalities/ paradigms.

· Our key objective is to investigate the philosophical, intellectual and ethical issues at stake in order not only to critically apprehend dominant power-laden ‘regimes of memory’ but to map memory/ heritage/ identity/ place-making, personhood, belonging/ exclusion ‘on the margins’ and to harness the subversive potentials located within memory discourse and in related critiques vis-à-vis social justice.

· Specific connectivities between memory and topics such as the muses, arts of memory/ forgetting, oblivion, the making/ re-making of self, the production of memory, place, wellbeing – issues of trauma, illbeing, normalcy, madness and therapeutic value are critically examined. As such memory and heritage are thus recontextualisation within a larger cultural field via an in-depth analysis of core issues relating to cultural transmission, identity-work and to the intersubjective and diverse corporeal, material, visual and spiritual-intellectual practices defining this critical domain.  

Aims 

Students studying this course should:

· Gain a critical knowledge of cultural memory as theory, methodology, content and ethics.

· Relate memory-studies sources and literature to the broader critical intellectual fields.

· Cover topics relevant to practical and ethical issues and which open-up new directions for future research.

· Be able to grasp the complexities of memory-work and its intimate relationships to heritage and cultural transmission.

· Be able to articulate the intimacies between memory and the core question of ‘what it is to be human?’ and to related themes of consciousness, creativity, human/ non-human, wellbeing/ illbeing, spirit/object, haunting/ futurology, self/group realization and social justice/ virtue.

· Be able to consider the future of memory and the limits of current categories and definitions as a means of understanding and engaging with new and alternative paradigms and ethical turns.

Learning Outcomes 

On successful completion of this course a student should:

· Pursue critical heritage perspectives vis-à-vis diverse ‘memory cultures’.

· Gain critical knowledge of the key issues and debates that define cultural memory studies.

· Be conversant in the ethical and practical implications and applications of cultural memory studies, i.e. including verbal discussion and debate.

· Develop a critical understanding of the use of cultural memory studies for new situations.

· Be able to critically engage with information in written work and via presentation skills.

Teaching Methods 

This module is taught through a combination of pre-recorded PowerPoint presentations and guided seminar discussions. Students will be made aware of the essential readings and must read these in preparation for each individual session. There are 2 readings per week/session. Students will also be asked to engage in weekly creative tasks including contributing each week to creating a collective ‘Mind Palace’. [To be more fully detailed in seminar sessions]

 

Further information is available here https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/study/graduate-taught/courses/cultural-memory