Fall 2026
Historical Memory and the Politics of Memory
Dates: September 03, 2026 – December 17, 2026Day/Time: Thursday 11:10 AM - 2:10 PM EDT
Level: 400-Level
Certificate: Global Humanities, Global Studies, Human Rights
Global Humanities certificate requirement: Global story- and history-telling (stories and storytelling traditions). Global thought (philosophical traditions).
Global Studies certificate requirement: Elective.
Human Rights certificate requirement: Elective.
Instructor: Yurii Latysh, Smolny Beyond Borders
This course is dedicated to historical memory as part of national identity. Today, the state, using the means of appropriate policy and management, is an influential actor of national memory. The course involves a comparative analysis of politics of history and memory. We will analyse the Memory Turn, finding out why the influence of the past on our lives is important and why that influence is growing.
For course participants, a background in the social sciences and humanities is an advantage. The course provides for the study of theoretical aspects of historical and collective memory (concepts of Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, Aleida Assmann). Different segments of the course focus on models of memory politics in Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, North and Latin America, Israel, China and other regions. We will also look at the categories of collective guilt and responsibility using the example of post-Nazi Germany. Participants should have a good command of English in order to read scholarly texts fluently.
As a result of this course, participants will learn to analyse national historical myths as components of national and security policies, to recognise the manipulation of the past, the causes of memory wars, etc.