Saturday 19th February 2011, 11am - 4pm
The Court Room, Senate House, University of London

Speakers:
Lucy Bond, Goldsmiths: 'Learning to Remember: the politicisation of the 9/11 curriculum in American schools'

Andy Pearce, Holocaust Educational Trust: 'Educating to remember, or remembering to educate: the transnationalisation of Holocaust education and the expansion of memory'

Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway: Title TBC.

To be followed by panel discussion

Chair: Jessica Rapson, Goldsmiths

Memory and history are intrinsically linked, and many of the events upon which memory scholars focus raise crucial epistemological and pedagogical issues over practices of teaching and learning about the past. Such questions of knowledge and transmission are also intrinsic to places designated as 'sites of memory', not least memorials and museums, which are often designed to fulfil related functions of commemoration and pedagogy. Indeed, at such sites, it is difficult - and quite possibly not desirable - to separate the remits of remembrance and education. The way events are represented to learners, both in curriculums and public spaces, arguably contributes to the formation of new cultural memories for groups and individuals, leading to greater awareness of and investment in the past and its relationship to the present and future.

This seminar aims to interrogate interactions between memory and education, considering the broader implications of this relationship for those involved in the attempt to make the past relevant to an expanding field of learners. In focusing on particular events and histories, including the Nazi Holocaust of World War II and the 2001 terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Centre, as well as interrogating the wider intersection of the fields of memory and education in both institutional and informal settings, speakers will examine the role of different organisations and texts in shaping the memory of new generations and cultures of learners. Considering both practical and critical issues, the seminar will provide a platform for productive conversations about the way history is both confronted and elided throughout memory's complex relationship with education.

For more information or queries please contact Jessica Rapson enp02jr@gold.ac.uk