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Contested memories and painful pasts regularly re-appear in the Europan public sphere on transnational, national, and regional levels. The war in Ukraine as well as the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel and Israel fighting back, but also the recent experience with global pandemics have instigated a new wave of memory themes and disputes. Various memory narratives have been lately activated for numerous purposes, explaining warfare, justifying various politics, attempting to explain ongoing events, bolstering identities, and mobilizing for political positioning or activism. In this sense, the course will focus specifically on memories of care, and welfare in a broad sense both disciplinary (including, e.g., history, sociology, psychology, literature, arts, and heritage) and topics-wise (such as well-being now and then, Balkans, Holocaust, current wars) asking why we need memory and memory studies, and what kinds of roles does memory play in contemporary Europe.
Last update: Králová Kateřina, prof. PhDr., Ph.D., M.A. (07.01.2025)
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The course introduces the main concept and approaches within memory studies relating them to reflect on care and welfare. Drawing on case studies from different European countries and regions, the course explores different ways of remembering Europe’s complicated past and investigates how these forms of remembering influence life, politics and culture across contemporary Europe. The aim of this course is to historicize the organization of care and welfare at national and transnational levels, to examine the transformative processes that have shaped the landscape of care in Europe and beyond, and to study the memories associated with these institutions, as well as the (collective) memory making processes that are fostered within them. The course will take place in a virtual format with online lectures and seminars taught by top academic experts in the field of Memory Studies from 4EU+ partner universities and the COST Action Slow Memory. Each session, except the Introduction and Wrap-up which are solely for students enrolled in the class, consists of an expert talk and Q&A and is a live stream. The recordings serve exclusively as an internal project archive. Last update: Šmidrkal Václav, PhDr., Ph.D. (03.04.2025)
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Assessments: Active participation in all sessions online: 50 % Students are expected to attend each session at its full length. They can miss one class without prior justification and one additional class with relevant justification (illness, serious personal reasons, attendance of an extraordinary event related to the study program). A higher number of missed classes can be the reason for failing the course. During the seminar, students should actively input thoughts from personal reflections and reading.
Argumentative essay: 50 % 2,500-3,000 words on a subject related to the course, including a bibliography (consisting of at least 8 scholarly publications) and proper references either in Harvard or Chicago style. Essay to be submitted via Moodle by May 31, 2025.
Grading: A: 100-91%; B: 90-81%; C: 80-71%; D: 70-61%; E: 60-51%; F (failed): 50% or less Note: It is necessary to achieve at least 50% in both main activities, the exam and the presentation.
Last update: Králová Kateřina, prof. PhDr., Ph.D., M.A. (07.01.2025)
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Online seminar Last update: Králová Kateřina, prof. PhDr., Ph.D., M.A. (07.01.2025)
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Preliminary course plan, one online session per week (80 minutes):
ATTENTION: This course is starting only in March 2025!
You may also find the syllabus with the descriptions of each case study in course's Moodle.
Session 2. 12.03.2025. Remembering (De)industrialization: Conversations with European Trade Unionists
Session 3. 19.03.2025. Immemorable Past: Remediating Prehistoric Humanity Through Hyperrealistic Paleoart
Session 4. 26.03.2025. Kitsch, Nostalgia, and the Post-Communist Exotic: Turning Communist History into a Carnivalesque Spectacle in Museums
Session 5. 02.04.2025. Is the current war in Ukraine having an impact on memory studies?
Session 6. 09.04.2025. Margins of Memory: Cultures and Politics of Non-Hegemonic Remembrance
Session 7. 16.04.2025. Reading War, Making Memory: Mnemonic Migration and Literature about the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina (TBC)
Session 8. 23.04.2025. "I survived the Nazis, I will survive the Rashists": Ukrainian discourse on the current war and the collective memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust
Session 9. 30.04.2025. Fostering slow memory practices in a mental health day centre
Session 10. 07.05.2025. Memory through Ordinary Objects
Session 11. 14.05.2025. Concluding Session
Last update: Šmidrkal Václav, PhDr., Ph.D. (25.03.2025)
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Initial recommendations for course participants: English at least B1/B2 Last update: Králová Kateřina, prof. PhDr., Ph.D., M.A. (07.01.2025)
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