Objects recovered from sites of mass atrocities have a special significance today.  This is because we live in what University College Dublin Professor Lea David labels as a human rights memorialization culture.  Central to this culture is the conviction that we should face difficult histories, we should remember human rights abuses, and victims should be…

Sociocultural trauma experienced by nations isn’t just the result of unimaginable crimes and horrors.  It is the repeated betrayals that make it impossible to mourn, to find meaning in the past, and to move forward.  According to Tony Robben, Utrecht University professor emeritus of anthropology, this is what happened in Argentina.  The military dictatorship that…

The duty to remember has become a moral imperative in today’s memory culture.  But reporter and political analyst David Rieff argues that this belief is often misinformed and misplaced.  In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and its Ironies, Rieff argues that sometimes forgetting is the better choice.  This is especially true because conflicts often have…

Partition cast a shadow over the island of Ireland that stretched across the 20th century.  Less well known, however, is the fallout caused by the division of the Protestant population in Northern Ireland, a region known as Ulster.  Of the 9 historic Ulster counties, only 6 remained in the United Kingdom. What became known as…

The Great Patriotic War, shorthand for the war against Nazi Germany, has become the focal point of Russian nationalism under Vladimir Putin.  Memories of the war bolster the legitimacy of Putin’s grip on power while offering Russians a feel good narrative about their national past.  Rather than reducing the celebration of the Great Patriotic War…

From Spain to the Baltic States Europe is littered with sites connected to the personal lives of former dictators.  Birthplaces, childhood homes, summer and winter residences, mausoleums and tombs these sites of dictators can be powerful poles of attraction for extremists, nostalgists, and dark tourists.  They can also offer opportunities to bolster democratic systems by…

The National Rifle Association, known simply as the NRA, is commonly regarded as one of the most powerful lobbies in the United States. If much needed gun reform never sees the light of day, the power of the NRA to influence lawmakers and shape legislation is often held to blame.  In On Target: Gun Culture,…

The greatest democracy in history, a beacon of freedom, a selfless force of good in the world, these are all elements of American exceptionalism.  These are the ways Americans see their nation, its relationship to others, and its place in the world. But what happens when a sudden and unexpected catastrophe threatens this identity?  This…

In June 2004 a thirty-member multiracial task force known as the Philadelphia Coalition stood on the stage of the Neshoba County Coliseum before a crowd of a thousand people.  What was unique about the Philadelphia Coalition wasn’t that whites finally joined Neshoba County blacks in commemorating the lives and deaths of three young civil rights…

How can a wounded land become a source of healing, rejuvenation and renewal?  How can a former death strip become a lifeline connecting a painful past to the promise of the future?  Bates College Environmental Studies Professor Sonja Pieck explains how this is precisely what is happening with Germany’s Green Belt.  The Green Belt is…