Course desctiption
What are the rituals you perform to commemorate your family's or community's history? What stories do these rituals tell about the past, and how are those stories passed down from one generation to the next? What are the historical events officially celebrated in your country? Who are the heroes honored in its school textbooks, national holidays, and public monuments? Who gets to decide?
In this course, we will explore the interrelationship between history, collective memory and forgetting, examining the ways that historical narratives are shaped within different sociopolitical contexts. Engaging with anthropological concepts, we will look at case studies from across the globe that show how certain stories are prioritized over others, how and why they change, and how they become codified as monuments, insignias, rituals, and traditions.

We will examine:
how historical events are interpreted or reinterpreted to fit a political goal<
what different systems of power encourage us to remember, and what they hope we forget
how displaced communities create collective memories and identities, honor their pasts, and cultivate a sense of belonging away from home
how wars or other catastrophes are remembered by the different groups involved<
how history is commodified for public consumption (e.g. period fiction, tourist attractions, historical reenactments, etc.)

In addition to examining "official" versions of history shaped by national governments, we will also look at the role of archives, museums, and popular media in mediating collective memories. How might films, novels, songs, comic books, and curated exhibits reinforce or challenge official histories or propose alternative ones?
Students will be encouraged to draw on their own memories and histories as they engage with course concepts and each other throughout the semester. For their first group project, students will interview one other to collect oral histories of their families and ethnic, national, or religious communities. They will then use drawings, collages, or other visual media to tell their stories, through the creation of comic strips or graphic novels.

In a second group project, students will research alternative representations of a chosen historical period or event: for example, how the history of a colonized country is described in pre- and post-independence literature; how World War II is depicted in a Hollywood film, a German textbook, or a Holocaust museum; or how Chinese nationalism was promoted during communism and post communism.
As a class, we will visit local museums (Palazzo Ducale, Museo Storico Navale, Museo Ebraico de Venezia), research urban myths and popular culture about Venice, and look for ways in which memory is otherwise constructed and transmitted in the city's day-to-day.

Course Units

• Approaches to memory and collective memory

• Family and community histories

• National remembrance (invented traditions, memorials, monuments)

• Museums as sites of contested memory

• History in fiction, photography, and popular media

• Remembering Venice

Learning outcomes
Identify the concepts and debates surrounding the relationship of history and memory. Understand collective memory and forgetting as shaped by dynamic, value-laden processes that are open to contestation. Practice basic interviewing skills for a classmate's oral history and collaborate in creating a comic book-style version of their personal story. Apply theoretical concepts to case studies.

Pedagogy
Course prioritizes active learning strategies that engage students in collaborative knowledge construction. Short readings on theory are complemented by structured discussions, group projects, field trips, and films. Students produce individual presentations on chosen readings, collect one another's oral histories, and work collaboratively on a case study.

Assessment

25% - Class discussions, workshops, field trips, film viewings.
10% - Individual presentation
20% - Oral histories and comic book of family myths and rituals
25% - Group project: official and alternative memories of a chosen historical event/site/period
20% - Group study on Venetian history and memory-making

Last updated: April 2, 2026