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Articles on Collective memory

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Activists in Newark, N.J., offer tours that teach visitors about the city’s legacy of industrial pollution and environmental racism. Charles Rotkin/Corbis via Getty Images

The importance of shining a light on hidden toxic histories

Societies celebrate heroes and commemorate tragedies. But why is there so little public acknowledgment of environmental disasters?
Andy Rain/EPA/AAP

Why do we mourn people we don’t know?

Grieving the queen’s passing can be different to grieving the loss of someone we were close to. It’s also complicated by politics, colonialism and the contest about who she really was.
Muslim refugees sit on the roof of an overcrowded coach railway train near New Delhi, trying to leave India after the 1947 Partition. AP Photo

5 books and films that tell the story of the trauma of the Partition of India and its aftermath

On the 75th anniversary of India’s partition, scholars from the US, Canada, France, UK and Australia write about their favorite book or film that best explains the trauma of a violent division.
America’s political leaders rushed the nation into war just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, just like ancient Greeks and Romans did in response to similar traumatic events. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

At the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ancient Greece and Rome can tell us a lot about the links between collective trauma and going to war

Ancient Athenians and Romans also let shared mass tragedies propel justifications for going to war – even when it wasn’t clear what that violence would solve.
People are warned that what they post on the internet will live forever. But that’s not really the case. 3alexd/E+ via Getty Images

The Internet Archive has been fighting for 25 years to keep what’s on the web from disappearing – and you can help

Portions of the internet disappear every day. Preservation of this historical record requires a proactive approach by archivists and everyday citizens.
Workers lower a a statue of Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, onto a truck as a crowd watches in Kingston, Ont., June 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

Commemoration controversies in classrooms: Canadian history teachers disagree about making ethical judgments

A survey of history teachers in Canada showed the prevalence of the myth of objectivity among history teachers.
It takes roughly 90 years for the living memory of an event to disappear. Anurag Papolu/The Conversation via AP Images

As collective memory fades, so will our ability to prepare for the next pandemic

A global pandemic might be at the forefront of everyone’s minds. But we can’t assume that future threats will get the attention they deserve from people living in an information-saturated world.
An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is arrested by Israeli security forces for resisting efforts to shut down a synagogue in the Me’a She’arim neighborhood in Jerusalem, April 17, 2020. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Jewish history explains why some ultra-Orthodox communities defy coronavirus restrictions

Persecution is central to Jewish collective memory. So when armed police entered ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem to close synagogues due to COVID-19, some residents reacted with fear and suspicion.
Memory can serve as a heavy reminder of the past. Indigenous people gather in Shubenacadie, N.S., in June 2008 to remember the residents of a former residential school and the abuses they suffered. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mike Dembeck

The importance of personal memory on Remembrance Day

Memories can be powerful tools to address humanity’s most difficult political, sociological and environmental problems
Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference, 1945. Wikipedia

Who won the war? We did, says everyone

New research suggests people from Germany, Russia, the UK and US all think their own country was the most important in World War II.
Community murals can rekindle an area’s shared memories and sense of identity. Photo: Martin Purcell. Reproduced with permission

How murals helped turn a declining community around

Over the past 15 years, community groups in a rundown inner-city district have created public murals as part of a successful process of reversing decades of stagnation.
Selma director and co-writer Ava DuVernay has crafted a new and important vision of an oft-examined era in our nation’s history. Stanley Wolfson/Library of Congress

Selma blurs line between past and present

Hollywood films that depict American history deeply influence our sense of national identity. Films that portray Civil Rights and Black Freedom history are particularly important. Beyond entertaining moviegoers…
Sharing stories around the dinner table fosters greater self-esteem and resilience in young people. Howard Chalkley

‘Remember when we…?’ Why sharing memories is soul food

Families and friends share memories all the time; “You’ll never guess…”, “How was your day?”, and “Do you remember when…” are rich daily fodder. Sharing memories is not only a good way to debrief and reminisce…

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