Course description
The course focuses on one of new ways of memory studies – material measurement of cultural memory and the processes of its transformation. There are several units in the course, every unit discusses one type of objects containing data. 1. Memory apart from writing: landscape, cartography and imagination of the nation, egyptian temple and ritual (J. Assmann). The past of big objects: the cities and their reconstruction – between expert knowledge and memory of the citizens. Memory of things: nostalgia as a topic of historical research, use of archaeological data in political debates, living history and reconstruction of “great battles” as a social phenomenon. Museums and historical policy of the state: project and research work of Russian and European museums. 2. Invention of writing and transformation of memory practices: memory and canon, text as a mediator of memory. Archive as a place of memory. Amnesia phenomenon as a problem of memory studies. Digital History and electronic archives. Private archive and its transformation during the media age. Memory on-line: Wikipedia, You Tube, social networks. Questions for discussion include: How do material objects participate in construction of history, memory and amnesia? How do they influence the genesis and types of commemoration practices? What is the role of new media in this process?

Teaching Methods
This course is a workshop designed to encourage creative teamwork, daring experiments and crazy projects. This workshop involves a kind of disengagement from ones’ own research plans in favor of co-creation. Starting from the third week, we will devote the last 40 minutes of every workshop to the analysis of the memory media discussed in the class as applied to the topic chosen for the whole semester.
Example: if we have been discussing the memory of Fyodor Dostoevsky in Russia for the whole semester, then, in a lesson about memory landscapes, we can talk about the F.M. Dostoevsky’s Parents Memorial House-Museum; about monuments: how people take photos against the background of the writer’s grave in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg; about a popular culture story: a character from the anime ‘Bungou Stray Dogs’.
During the second week, the group should coordinate a cross-cutting topic / topics for the whole semester with the teacher, guided by their own interests, as well as the availability of materials for analysis.

Student Requirements & Assessment of the Course
Each seminar is led by two attendants. The task of leader 1 is to organize a discussion on the proposed texts: they think through the general course of the discussion, prepares additional materials, etc. Each of the seminar participants prepares two questions for discussion in advance and sends them to the seminar leader and the teacher at the latest one day before the lesson. The questions should relate to the main topics of the materials discussed and the problems of argument and method. They should be analytical in nature: the main thing here is not what the author writes, but how they argue. Good questions do not imply yes or no answers. They avoid phrases: “Do you agree that …” and “Does this mean that …” Instead, good questions begin with “how,” “why,” “in what sense,” “for what purpose.” They initiate further discussion.
Leader 2 selects materials for analysis at the workshop, as well as thinks out a plan for their analysis, focusing on the texts proposed for discussion in the first part of the lesson. Materials are sent to all participants at least one day before the lesson. Collective creativity of two leaders is highly desirable.
After the lesson, leader 1 prepares a written statement at least 3000 characters long. It can be a detailed answer to one of the questions proposed by the group; reflections on all the texts read; an analysis of the discussion; a criticism of the questions posed; or their own proposal. The statement is sent to the entire group a day before the next lesson. A new lesson begins with a discussion of the sent statement. Leader 2 prepares a review of the results of the workshop in the amount of at least 5000 characters. They may either put down the interpretations proposed by the group or offer their own analysis of the sources discussed.
The final class will be fully devoted to summing up the results of the collective project. The group can make a general overview of all the discussions held, noting the successes and failures; suggest additional sources for interpretation, etc. or focus on one or two most interesting cases discussed earlier.
The last 30 minutes of the lesson will be devoted to writing an individual written assignment - an abstract of the article which could be the result of a collective project (3-5 thousand characters).

Evaluation methods
Leadership 1: 30%
Leadership 2: 30%
In-class participation: 20%
Final assignment: 20%

Deadlines
Regular deadlines for VIU spring semester apply.

Syllabus
Week 1: A. Introduction
Review of course plan and goals; key questions and themes in the study of media and memory; ideas for semester topic

Week 1: B. Lecture. Memory studies. Media Studies. Key concepts.
Recommended further reading:
Garde-Hansen, Joanne. Media and Memory, Edinburgh University Press, 2011. 13-30

Week 2. A. Lecture Media and memory: new approach or dead end?
Recommended further reading:
Berensmeyer I. From Media Anthropology to Media Ecology // Travelling concepts for the study of culture. Ed. Neumann B., Nuenning A. Berlin, Boston, De Gruyter, 321-335.
Zierold M. Memory and Media Cultures // Cultural Memory Studies : An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook. Walter de Gruyter, 2008, 399 – 408.
Hoskins A. Media, Memory, Metaphor: Remembering and the Connective Turn // Parallax, 2011, 17:4, 19-31.

Week 2: B. Lecture. Memory dynamics: premediation, remediation, hypermediation
Recommended further reading:
Erll A., Rigney A. Introduction: Cultural Memory and its Dynamics // Media and Cultural Memory Walter de Gruyter, 2009, 1-5.
Erill A. Remembering across Time, Space, and Cultures: Premediation, Remediation and the “Indian Mutiny” // Media and Cultural Memory Walter de Gruyter, 2009, 109-138.

Week 3: A. Seminar. Landscapes of memory
Reading:
Dwyer, O. J. and Alderman, D. H.: Memorial landscapes: analytic questions and metaphors, GeoJournal, 73, 165–178, 2008.
https://berlinarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dwyer-and-alderman-2008.pdf
Maus, G. (2015). Landscapes of memory: A practice theory approach to geographies of memory. Geographica Helvetica, 70(3), 215-223.

Week 3: B. Landscapes of memory. Examples
Reading:
Jordan, Jennifer A. “Landscapes of European Memory: Biodiversity and Collective Remembrance.” History and Memory, vol. 22, no. 2, 2010, pp. 5–33
Schramm, Katharina. “Introduction: Landscapes of Violence: Memory and Sacred Space.” History and Memory, vol. 23, no. 1, 2011, pp. 5–22.

Week 4. A. Memory and the City
Reading:
Capdepón, Ulrike. "Challenging the Symbolic Representation of the Franco Dictatorship: The Street Name Controversy in Madrid." History & Memory, vol. 32 no. 1, 2020, p. 100-130.
Jonathan Bach The Berlin Wall after the Berlin Wall: Site into sight // Memory Studies 2016, Vol. 9(1), 48–62.

Week 4. A. Memory and the Architecture
Reading:
Thomas Fisher What Memory? Whose Memory? In. Memory and Architecture, edited by Eleni Bastéa, and a, Eleni Bast, University of New Mexico Press, 2004. 283-293.
CAREL BERTRAM Housing Early the Symbolic Republican Universe Turkey Architecture, Memory, and in “the Felt Real” Memory and Architecture, edited by Eleni Bastéa, and a, Eleni Bast, University of New Mexico Press, 2004. 165-191

Week 5. A. Seminar. Materiality of memory
Reading:
Lindsey A Freeman, Benjamin Nienass, Rachel Daniell Memory|Materiality|Sensuality // Memory Studies 2016, Vol. 9(1), 3–12.
Lisa Rosén Rasmussen Touching materiality: Presenting the past of everyday school life // Memory Studies 5(2), 114–130.

Week 5: B. Seminar Games with History – 1
Reading:
De Groot Historical re-enactment// Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture. 2016.
Maghan O’Brien Backhous Re-enacting the Wars of the Roses: History and Identity // People and their Pasts. PublicHistoryRoday. 2009. P. 113-130

Week 6: A. Seminar. Archives and Social Memory
Reading:
Archives and Social Memory// Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory : Essays from the Sawyer Seminar. Blouin, Francis Xavier, Rosenberg, William G. University of Michigan Press, 2011, 169-181, 193-206
Sternfeld J. Archival Theory and Digital Historiography: Selection, Search, and Metadata as Archival Processes for Assessing Historical Contextualization // The American Archivist
Vol. 74, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2011), 544-575

Week 6: B. Seminar. Mediators of Family Memory
Reading:
De Groot J. Genealogy and family history // Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture. 2016.

Pohn-Lauggas M. Memory in the shadow of a family history of resistance: A case study of the significance of collective memories for intergenerational memory in Austrian families. Memory Studies. 2021;14(2):180-196.

Week 7: A. Seminar. Photography as Memory Media
Reading:
Hilmar T. Storyboards of remembrance: Representations of the past in visitors’ photography at Auschwitz // Memory Studies 2016, Vol. 9(4), 455–470.
Brink С. Secular Icons: Looking at Photographs from Nazi Concentration Camps, // History and Memory 15:1(Spring/Summer 2000), 135-150.
Towards a Concept of Connected Memory: The Photo Album Goes Mobile // Garde-Hansen, Joanne. Media and Memory, Edinburgh University Press, 2011.

Week 7: B Seminar. Postmemory / Post-memory?
Reading:
Hirsch M Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning, and Post-Memory // Discourse, 1992. Vol. 15, No. 2. (Winter 1992-93), 3-29.
Hirsch M. The Generation of Postmemory // Poetics Today 29:1 (Spring 2008), 103-128

Week 8: A. Seminar. TV as Memory Media
Reading:
Hoskins A. Television and the Collapse of Memory // Time and Society, Vol. 13. No. 1. (2004), pp. 109-127
Kitch C. Placing journalism inside memory – and memory studies // Memory studies. 2008. №. 3. pp. 311-320.
Zelizer B. Cold War redux and the news: Islamic State and the US through each other’s eyes // Critical Studies in Media Communication. 2018. Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 8–23

Week 8 B: Seminar. Voicing the Past
Reading:
Voicing the Past: BBC Radio 4 and the Aberfan Disaster of 1963 // Garde-Hansen, Joanne. Media and Memory, Edinburgh University Press, 2011
Higgins M. Imagining and Addressing the Nation on Irish Talk Radio // Irelands of the Mind : Memory and Identity in Modern Irish Culture, edited by Richard C. Allen, and Stephen Regan, Cambridge Scholars Publisher, 2008.

Midterm break

Week 9: Lecture. Digital Memory
Recommended further reading:
De Groot Digital History // Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture. 2016. Pp. 87-104/
Digital Memories: The Democratisation of Archives // Garde-Hansen, Joanne. Media and Memory, Edinburgh University Press, 2011. 70-88.

Week 9: B. Seminar. Digital Memory
Reading:
Hoskins A. Digital Network Memory // Media and Cultural Memory Walter de Gruyter, 2009.
Schwarz O. The past next door: Neighborly relations with digital memory-artifacts // Memory Studies 2014, Vol 7(1) 7–21
Downloading and Playing an Explicit and Implicit Past // Lizardi R. Mediated Nostalgia : Individual Memory and Contemporary Mass Media, Lexington Books, 2014.

Week 10 A. Seminar. Memory and Social Media
Reading:
Birkner T, Donk A. Collective memory and social media: Fostering a new historical consciousness in the digital age? Memory Studies. 2020;13(4):367-383.
Douglas K. Youth, trauma and memorialisation: The selfie as witnessing. Memory Studies. 2020;13(4):384-399.

Week 10: B. Seminar Locating “Placeless” Memories
Reading:
Halstead H. Cyberplace: From fantasies of placelessness to connective emplacement. Memory Studies. 2021;14(3):561-571.
Hjorth L. The place of data: Mobile media, loss and data in life, death and afterlife. Memory Studies. 2021;14(3):592-605.
Wieser L. Placeless and barrier-free? Connecting place memories online within an unequal society. Memory Studies. 2021;14(3):650-662.

Week 11 A. Games with History - 2
Reading:
De Groot History games // Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture. 2016.
Gernot H. Repeating history? The computer game as historiographic device // Zvereva, Vera. Memory, Conflict and New Media : Web Wars in Post-Socialist States, edited by Ellen Rutten, and Julie Fedor, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013.

Week 11: B Digital Memory of Soviet Past
Reading:
Bernstein S. Remembering war, remaining Soviet: Digital commemoration of World War II in Putin’s Russia // Memory Studies 2016, Vol. 9(4) 422–436
Kaprāns M. Hegemonic representations of the past and digital agency: Giving meaning to “The Soviet Story” on social networking sites // Memory Studies 2016, Vol. 9(2) 156–172

Week 12 A: Seminar Final discussion
Week 12 B: Seminar Final discussion + in-class final assignment