Critical Social Inquiry 0290 - Memory Work

How should we write the past from the standpoint of the next generation? What do we do with familial stories we've been told alongside intergenerational silences, half truths, and outright lies? What's the role of public histories and cultural mythologies in the way we remember and retell our personal past? What methods and forms do we need to approach a fragmented past that's often hiding from us, whether due to erasures of war, colonization, migration, or assimilation? What should we do with our own desire and nostalgia for the past, and how do we reclaim history without appropriating it? In this course, we will engage with memory work as a critical and creative methodology for making meaning of our personal and collective pasts. We will explore hybrid methods and forms of memory work, including the writings of Edwidge Danticat, Saidiya Hartman, Ruth Ozeki, Paisley Rekdal, Art Speigelman, and Dao Strom.

Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research This course is designed for upper level Div II and Div III students who are prepared to undertake their own intensive, semester-long memory work project. Students MUST attend the first class in order to keep their seat. In this course, students are expected to spend 6-8 hours outside of class time on work and preparation.