Challenging the meaning of the past from below: A typology for comparative research on memory activists

Abstract

Memory activists have recently received more scholarly and public attention, but the concept lacks conceptual clarity. In this article, we articulate an analytical framework for studying memory activists, proposing a relatively narrow definition: “Memory activists” strategically commemorate the past to challenge (or protect) dominant views on the past and the institutions that represent them. Their goal is mnemonic change or to resist change. We locate scholarship on memory activists at the intersection of memory studies and social movement studies. We introduce a typology for comparative analysis of memory activism according to activist roles, temporality, and modes of interaction with other actors in memory politics, and illustrate this with a diverse set of empirical examples. We contend that the analytical utility of the concept of the “memory activist” is premised on its value-neutrality, and in particular, its application to both pro and anti-democratic cases of activism.

Digital remembrance: Honouring Srebrenica genocide victims via #ŠtoTeNema

“…The typology of memory activists (Gutman and Wüstenberg 2021) indicates ŠTO TE NEMA team and people using #ŠtoTeNema as entangled agents and pluralists, mostly seeing the past as an ended process. Their relational roles in realised interventions define them as entangled agents.…”

“…Their relational roles in realised interventions define them as entangled agents. ŠTO TE NEMA team is not directly related to the Srebrenica genocide; however, they come from Bosnia and were affected by the war (i.e., 'see themselves connected to their 'heritage' (Gutman and Wüstenberg 2021), thus bear responsibility to talk about it and inform the world. The same goes for their followers who embrace #ŠtoTeNema: only one tweet came from the victim (a young person whose uncle was killed during the genocide), and all the others seem not to be directly connected with the genocide.…”

Trans theoretical approaches to memory and relatedness: Potentials and suggestions at the intersections of transgender studies and queer studies

“…Looking at other layers of “trans” in transnational, transcultural, transgenerational transmission of memories can also open a critical space to talk about pedagogies and politics of higher education. As Yifat Gutman and Jenny Wüstenberg (2022) observe, “collective memory is a site of political struggle where different stakeholders compete for legitimacy for their interpretations of the past” (p. 949). Without a doubt, these political struggles render certain identities, ways of being, becoming, and relating impossible and possible in the present by referring to the infrastructures of the “normal.” Within this context, trans identities are experiencing specific forms of violence that require attention in the everyday dynamics of our classrooms.…”

Heritage from below in Latin America: Urban protests and the struggle for Human Rights

“…In this line, and in connection with the recent protest movements, some researchers have considered mobilisations as a key space for memory and memorialisation (Berger et al, 2021;Gutman & Wüstenberg, 2021;Gutman, 2017). On one hand, social movements have become the centre of projects that study new spaces and collectivities for the transmission of the past.…”