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In Commemoration of Our Dear Colleague and Friend

Challenging traditional understandings of the past, the toppling of statues of prominent historical figures high-lights the ongoing negotiation of collectives with their pasts and the importance of commemoration practices in meaning-making processes. In Israel, this phenomenon is complex and nuanced, despite its appearance as a lack of concern with revisiting the past. Accordingly, this research examines current practices of decommemoration in Israel as a unique tool of social and political protest. Drawing upon qualitative and multi-method studies that combine text analysis, in-depth interviews, participant observations, and archival work, we suggest a hierarchical typology of de-commemoration—desecration, reframing, and planned obsolescence—establishing how each practice renegotiates with the present through alteration of the form of commemorated material. Questioning previous understanding regarding the prominence of the past, and building on the unique Israeli case, analysis demonstrates how practices of de-commemoration are influenced by the transnational climate of change, consciously adhering to the need to realign commemorated pasts in line with the conflicts of the present. Commemoration and de-commemoration thus complement and build on one another, constituting the civil religion of any given collective. Contributing to current discussions regarding the normative attributions of collective memory, we show how nothing is set in stone.

In this paper, we propose to review some of the national commemorations thatbelong to the nineteenth century. Based on the experience of teaching a degree subject in the History Professorate of the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, we intend to analyze the link between the historical account and the school act. We believe that the event can be resignified as a moment of visibility of relegated actors, phenomena and concepts. Based on this assumption, we aim to analyze three key aspects that are developed in the sections of this paper. First, we examine how certain ephemeris are established, and the role of historians in this process. Then, we critically evaluate both the anniversaries and the educational purpose of the teaching of history in secondary education. Finally, through concrete cases, we observe how the commemorations of these dates can offer new perspectives and meanings.

Dark events are frequently analyzed in terms of their social and political contexts and this is especially true in the case of dark commemorative events, linked to national tragedies, wars, and other conflicts. Countries stage national commemorative events to create and sustain national myths. The way that these are designed and held, combining multiple elements into a narrative form, can be understood as a process of nationalist storytelling. This research note argues that while previous research into these events has drawn on theories of collective memory, viewing them from a storytelling perspective suggests that alternative approaches of competitive or multidirectional memory can provide insightful explanations of the often-contested role they play in national myths and contemporary social and political conflicts.

Collective memory quite naturally brings to mind notions of mnemonic speech and representation. In this article, however, we propose that collective silences be thought of as a rich and promising arena through which to understand how groups deal with their collective pasts. In so doing, we explore two types of silence: overt silence and covert silence, and suggest that each may be used to enhance either memory or forgetting. We illustrate our conceptual scheme using data on the commemoration of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Collective commemoration in response to war or disaster is widespread across time and cultures. It is assumed to support those affected by the disruptive event to cope with their experiences. However, the actual relationship between commemoration and mental health outcomes is complicated and evidence of healing effects remains elusive. By applying a scoping review approach, this article maps empirical studies that focus on commemoration from a psychological perspective. Within five electronic databases, 415 unique articles were identified, of which 26 met the predetermined inclusion criteria, i.e. presenting empirical data on the subject of war or large-scale violence and commemoration in relation to posttraumatic stress (PTS) and grief reactions. The data were extracted and analysed according to the five steps of a systematic scoping review. Results varied, with both negative and positive effects of commemoration on PTS and grief reactions being reported. Based on these findings we propose an evidence-informed model that distinguishes different aspects influencing the linkage between commemoration and PTS and grief reactions. The following aspects are distinguished: contextual factors, including political and cultural context, individual characteristics and facilitating mechanism, including expression, recognition, support, meaning-making and personal memories. The proposed model needs to be tested and validated by further quantitative research. This will allow social workers and policy makers to make well-informed decisions about commemorative events that may benefit fractured communities as well as individuals.

This paper aims to analyse actors and meanings that, either from civil society or from the State, were displayed around the possible memories of the Stroessner-Era. It studies the memory conflicts in the social dynamics through the commemorations of the fall of the stronist regime on February 2nd and 3rd (1989). During this period of thirty years, four historical cycles were established and concluded that there is a shift from the discourse of “national reconciliation” to one whose main line is the demand for justice regarding human rights’ violation.

2021 represents for Mexico the opportunity to reevaluate the history of its nation state, which emerged two hundred years ago, but also to recover and submit to review ancient characters that have been considered as \"consumers\", and who, for better or worse, played a prominent role in the later stage of Independence War. This essay offers a short review of the historical production in the bicentenary year organized by academic and governmental institutions, and analyzes as well the official discourse with which the regime carried out the whole pandemic commemoration.