Rethinking Memory, Representation and Human Rights

Events over recent decades – from 9/11 and the global War on Terror, to the COVID pandemic and growing calls for racial justice, to the international rise of right-wing populism and a retreat from democracy – have revealed the global interdependence, fragility and inequity within and between our cultures and societies, as growing demands for structural equity and racial justice have come up against exclusive nationalism, sectarianism and the politics of blame and conspiracy. This confluence of events and processes gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate many of the structures and norms related to memory, representation and human rights. This book series analyses and documents the role of memory sites in this changed and changing world.

Our contemporary time presents challenges and opportunities to memory sites, understood broadly to include museums and memorials, as well as heritage sites, atrocity sites, peace sites, online spaces, and other spaces in which memory manifests. This series offers a forum for rethinking memory, representation and human rights in public spaces. It explores the potential of memory sites to disrupt official narratives and build solidarity within and between communities, on the one hand, and on the other, to preserve and strengthen the status quo and reinforce populist and nationalist narratives. Situated in a space between the overlapping fields of museum, memory, trauma, and genocide studies, this critical series re-examines different constellations and manifestations of memory, representation and human rights, exploring a range of influences on our present relationships to the past, from politics to global discourses and designs for memory making.