Students are required to:
(i) regularly and actively participate in the seminars,
(ii) prepare comments and questions for each seminar, addressing topics discussed in the assigned literature,
(iii) write final paper on a thematically relevant subject.
Guidelines for the final paper
Students write a final essay on a subject of their own choice. The essay can focus on a conceptual analysis (like, e.g., cultural trauma, counter-memory, post-colonial memory, etc.), a specific sort of practice, objects, institutions (like, e.g., history textbooks, new vs. old historical museums, retro documentaries, war memorials etc.) or a single concrete empirical case (memory event or object, public controversy, etc.). Students have to consult their choice as well as the selected relevant sources (literature) with one of the teachers before they start working on their final essays, in any case before December 15, 2021.
Basic formal requirements:
- The paper should be about 1500 words long
- The argument must consult (be grounded in) at least 4 thematically relevant academic sources (journal articles, book chapters, books)
- The paper is due January 31, 2022
- Revised versions (if necessary) are due February 13, 2022
- Students upload their papers in the respective folder in the Information System, and they notify their consultant about the upload via e-mail at the very same time
- Each paper will be evaluated within five days after the e-mail notification.
Learning outcomes
Upon the completion of the course, students will have acquired a basic knowledge of the cultural-sociological approach(es) in studying collective memory. They will be acquainted with basic analytical concepts in the field and their relevance in accounting sociologically for concrete empirical examples. The ability to see, understand and interpret various forms of the collective memory work and its social functions in different sorts of practices, events, institutional environments, objects, etc. is the main competence that the course nurtures.