Memory Studies 

About: Memory Studies is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Collective memory & Politics. It has an ISSN identifier of 1750-6980. Over the lifetime, 887 publications have been published receiving 11162 citations.

Seven types of forgetting

Abstract: Much of the debate on cultural memory has been shaped by the view, commonly held if not universal, that remembering and commemorating is usually a virtue and that forgetting is necessarily a failing. But this assumption is not self-evidently true. This article seeks, therefore, to disentangle the different types of acts that cluster together under the single term `to forget'. I suggest that we can distinguish at least seven types: repressive erasure; prescriptive forgetting; forgetting that is constitutive in the formation of a new identity; structural amnesia; forgetting as annulment; forgetting as planned obsolescence; forgetting as humiliated silence.

Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations

Abstract: In the present contribution, we examine the link between societal crisis situations and belief in conspiracy theories. Contrary to common assumptions, belief in conspiracy theories has been prevalent throughout human history. We first illustrate historical incidents suggesting that societal crisis situations-defined as impactful and rapid societal change that calls established power structures, norms of conduct, or even the existence of specific people or groups into question-have stimulated belief in conspiracy theories. We then review the psychological literature to explain why this is the case. Evidence suggests that the aversive feelings that people experience when in crisis-fear, uncertainty, and the feeling of being out of control-stimulate a motivation to make sense of the situation, increasing the likelihood of perceiving conspiracies in social situations. We then explain that after being formed, conspiracy theories can become historical narratives that may spread through cultural transmission. We conclude that conspiracy theories originate particularly in crisis situations and may form the basis for how people subsequently remember and mentally represent a historical event.

Remembering and reminiscing: How individual lives are constructed in family narratives

Abstract: Stories we tell about our lives very much define who we are as individuals, within particular families, cultures and historical periods. In this article, I review psychological research that demonstrates how autobiographical memories are created and re-created in daily interactions in which we share our stories with others, and how this process is modulated by individual, gendered and cultural models of self expressed in everyday family reminiscing. I focus on two critical developmental periods: the preschool years when autobiography is just beginning to emerge; and adolescence when autobiographical memories begin to coalesce into an overarching life narrative that defines self, others and values. I show how individual differences in the ways in which families reminisce are related to individual autobiographical narratives. Importantly, just as our individual narratives are shaped by cultural and historical models of selves and lives, individuals come to shape their culture and their historical moment by ...

Why memory's work on journalism does not reflect journalism's work on memory

Abstract: This article discusses the symbiotic, though uneven, relationship linking scholarship on journalism and memory. Though work on collective memory has yet to recognize the centrality of journalism as an institution of mnemonic record, memory creeps into journalistic relay so often that it renders journalism's memory work both widespread and multi-faceted. This renders journalism a key agent of memory work, even if journalists themselves are averse to admitting it as part of what they do and even if memory scholars have not yet given journalism its due.

Creating a new discipline of memory studies

Abstract: The multidisciplinary field of memory studies combines intellectual strands from many domains, including (but not limited to) anthropology, education, literature, history, philosophy, psychology and sociology. Our article has four parts. We first consider definitions of memory and note that the single term itself is not particularly useful. Rather, scholars must specify the type or variety of memory under investigation. Second, we consider the breadth of memory studies and briefly survey disciplines in addition to those listed above that may prove interested parties to the new field. Third, we argue that the field of memory studies is just emerging, and that its proper development will require creation of a systematic set of methodological tools (qualitative and quantitative) that may be borrowed from various social sciences and adapted to new purposes. Finally, we describe two undergraduate programs in memory studies that have been developed at Washington University in St. Louis, USA and that might be us...