I examine the origins of the anti-totalitarian collective memory pervading Central and Eastern Europe by tracking the genesis and development of the region’s ubiquitous and state-sponsored memory institutes. I deploy field analysis, prosopography and in-depth interviews to reveal how these hybrid institutes generate a potent anti-communist symbolic repertoire by overseeing alliances and exchanges across political, historiographic and Eurocratic fields. Memory institutes ensure this hegemony fundamentally via two mechanisms: The scientific validation of their activities by way of scholarly co-optation, and its regional legitimation through incursions into European arenas. I conclude that memory institutes are ultimately a key element of post-communist political competition, responsible for creating a durable symbolic advantage for the right’s conservative identity politics.

Based on an ethnography conducted between 2013-2015 within a religious community in Brazil, this thesis investigates the meanings of a growing worldwide religious movement fusing beliefs and identity claims deriving from Judaism and Charismatic Evangelicalism. Unlike Messianic Judaism, where Jewish-born people identified as believers in Jesus remain faithful to their Jewish traditions while observing Charismatic Evangelical practices or Christian Zionism, Evangelicals who emphasise the theological and eschatological importance of Jews living in Israel, this thesis addresses a different dimension of this trend. Focusing particularly on women's conversion narratives, this study investigates the reasons why Charismatic Evangelical Brazilians are actively embracing a version of Judaism that requires them to follow the strict dress codes and purity laws of Orthodox Jews while believing in Jesus as the Messiah. My analysis concluded that the emergence of these communities should be understood as a revival aiming to restore some Charismatic Evangelical practices. Pointing to the moral permissiveness, materialism, individualism, and petitionary rhetoric enforced in their former Charismatic Evangelical churches-influenced by Neo-Pentecostal tenets-they embrace an austere religious style characterised by self- cultivation centred in Jewish ritual and ethos. This pious revival also involves recovering a collective past. References to a hidden Jewish heritage and a 'return' to Judaism are mobilised for justifying the community's strict adherence to Jewish practices. Drawing upon a socio-cultural and gender-sensitive analysis, this study examines the historical, religious and subjective reasons behind this emerging 'Judaising' trend in Charismatic Evangelicalism. This thesis also engages with the literature of religious conversion, morality, cultural change and debates examining hybridisation processes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-176). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

In der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit wird untersucht, welchen Einfluss kollektive Erinnerung und offizielle Geschichtsschreibung auf die Bildung kollektiver Identitäten haben und speziell auf Israel bezogen, wie und ob aus der Erinnerungskultur an die Shoah Handlungsmotivationen im gegenwärtigen Konflikt abgeleitet und diese mit Bezug auf die Shoah legitimiert werden. Der Focus im theoretischen Bereich der Arbeit liegt in erster Linie auf der Entstehung kultureller Gedächtnisse und kollektiver Identitäten speziell auf den Dynamiken, die sie in Großkollektiven wie Nationen entwickeln, in denen mehrere Erinnerungsdiskurse und Gruppenidentitäten der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Integration bedürfen. Des weiteren wird der Frage nachgegangen in welchem Verhältnis moderne Geschichtswissenschaft und kollektive Erinnerung zueinander stehen. Ist eine echte Trennung von Geschichtswissenschaft und kollektiver Erinnerung in der gelebten Realität einer Gruppe überhaupt möglich, vor allem, wenn ihr Gegenstand eine zentrale Rolle im kulturellen Gedächtnis des Kollektivs einnimmt und exponiert zur Identitätskonstruktion herangezogen wird, wie die Shoah in Israel? Hier schließt sich die Rezeption der Entwicklung der Shoah-Erinnerung in Israel von der Gründung des Staates bis heute an. Untersucht wird hier, welchen Stellenwert die Erinnerung an die Shoah zu den verschiedenen Zeiten im Selbstbild der jüdischen Israelis einnahm und warum sie immer wieder Eingang in tagespolitische Diskurse und Entscheidungen fand. Kommt es in Zeiten der äußeren Bedrohung durch Selbstmordanschläge oder andere außen- und innenpolitischen Unsicherheitssituationen zu einer verstärkten Projektion der Shoah-Erinnerung auf die Gegenwart? Dieser Frage wird im dritten Teil der Arbeit an Hand einer Zeitungsanalyse nachgegangen. / This diploma thesis analyses the impact of the collective remembrance and the official historiography on the collective memory. The specific question concerning Israel is asking if the actions in the ongoing conflict are derived and motivated from the cultural remembrance of the Shoah and how are these actions legitimized in reference to the Shoah. The theoretical focus of this paper lies in the genesis of the cultural commemorations and collective identities, specifically on the dynamics that have developed in large groups such as in nations, where different discourses of remembrance and group-identities require integration to society as a whole. Furthermore the question how historical science and collective memory relate to one another is pursued. Is it possible that there is a definite distinction between the historiography and the collective memory of the living group’s reality, particularly when the subject plays a major roll in the cultural recommendation of the collective society, such as the Shoah in modern Israel? This is followed by an analysis of how the remembrance of the Shoah has developed in Israel from its foundation as a state to modern times. The specific subject of interest here is the relative importance of how the remembrance of the Shoah has affected the self-perception of Jewish Israelis and why it consistently penetrates current political affairs and their decisions. Can there be found an increased projection of the Shoah remembrance in the present in situations of inner- and outer political interference, for example by suicide-bombings or in times of external and internal uncertainty? This question is pursued in the last part of this paper through newspaper analysis.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Canada sought “desirable” immigrants to “settle” the Northwest. At the same time, nearly eight thousand members of the Dukhobori (commonly transliterated as “Doukhobors” and translated as “Spirit Wrestlers”) sought refuge from escalating religious persecution perpetrated by Russian church and state authorities. Initially, the Doukhobors’ immigration to Canada in 1899 seemed to satisfy the needs of host and newcomer alike. Both parties soon realized, however, that the Doukhobors’ transition would prove more difficult than anticipated. The Doukhobors’ collective memory of persecution negatively influenced their perception of state interventions in their private affairs. In addition, their expectation that they would be able to preserve their ethno-religious identity on their own terms clashed with Canadian expectations that they would soon integrate into the Canadian mainstream. This study focuses on the historical evolution of the “Doukhobor problem” in Russia and in Canada. It argues that the “problem,” commonly misunderstood by political and legal authorities as a law-and-order issue, was actually an extended identity struggle, both among Doukhobors of opposed factions, and between Doukhobors and state authorities in Russia and in Canada who insisted on conformity to social, economic, legal, and political “norms.” It uses the Doukhobors’ historical experience in Canada to showcase a wide spectrum of possible “newcomer” responses to the Canadian “host” society, drawing attention to subtleties which may be missed in the study of less extreme cases. Using orally articulated collective memory narratives and print journalism sources to access Doukhobor and Canadian identity perceptions, this study argues that newcomers’ impact on Canadian identity definitions predated the multicultural shift of the late 1960s and early 1970s. By pointing out the way in which immigrants such as the Doukhobors did, or did not, conform to (Anglo-) Canadian “norms” in public discourse, Canadians articulated their national identity perceptions in the early decades of the twentieth century. This study concludes that the “Doukhobor problem” could only be solved when the contested identity narratives and collective memories which were at the root of the Doukhobors’ discontent were publicly addressed in “truth and reconciliation” style symposia called in the 1970s and 1980s.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Canada sought “desirable” immigrants to “settle” the Northwest. At the same time, nearly eight thousand members of the Dukhobori (commonly transliterated as “Doukhobors” and translated as “Spirit Wrestlers”) sought refuge from escalating religious persecution perpetrated by Russian church and state authorities. Initially, the Doukhobors’ immigration to Canada in 1899 seemed to satisfy the needs of host and newcomer alike. Both parties soon realized, however, that the Doukhobors’ transition would prove more difficult than anticipated. The Doukhobors’ collective memory of persecution negatively influenced their perception of state interventions in their private affairs. In addition, their expectation that they would be able to preserve their ethno-religious identity on their own terms clashed with Canadian expectations that they would soon integrate into the Canadian mainstream. This study focuses on the historical evolution of the “Doukhobor problem” in Russia and in Canada. It argues that the “problem,” commonly misunderstood by political and legal authorities as a law-and-order issue, was actually an extended identity struggle, both among Doukhobors of opposed factions, and between Doukhobors and state authorities in Russia and in Canada who insisted on conformity to social, economic, legal, and political “norms.” It uses the Doukhobors’ historical experience in Canada to showcase a wide spectrum of possible “newcomer” responses to the Canadian “host” society, drawing attention to subtleties which may be missed in the study of less extreme cases. Using orally articulated collective memory narratives and print journalism sources to access Doukhobor and Canadian identity perceptions, this study argues that newcomers’ impact on Canadian identity definitions predated the multicultural shift of the late 1960s and early 1970s. By pointing out the way in which immigrants such as the Doukhobors did, or did not, conform to (Anglo-) Canadian “norms” in public discourse, Canadians articulated their national identity perceptions in the early decades of the twentieth century. This study concludes that the “Doukhobor problem” could only be solved when the contested identity narratives and collective memories which were at the root of the Doukhobors’ discontent were publicly addressed in “truth and reconciliation” style symposia called in the 1970s and 1980s.

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. " ~Franz Kafka This thesis deals with a subject matter which may be considered by some to be undesirable and taboo; that is, the architecture of capital punishment, torture and death. While the content is at times difficult, this book attempts to go beyond initial reactions of support or distaste for the practice of execution. It instead attempts to bring to light the importance of the representation of these events, brought to light by the strength of modern collective thought on the issue, through an architectural discourse. Through space and ritual capital punishment entered into the minds of the people, and through space and ritual the practice can be withdrawn. But should it vanish, or is a continued representation important, and even necessary? My purpose is not to force an opinion, one way or the other, onto anyone. My intention is merely to raise the question in the mind of the reader of this work.

The thickening line crafted as a ‘temporary’ border thirteen years ago during the Dayton Peace Agreement –dividing Bosnia into Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosniaks and Croats- is gaining an unsettling permanence in present-day Bosnia. As each of the three ethnic groups attempts to maintain their autonomy, they unwillingly share the divided country, while tangling the question of Bosnian identity into a perplexing web of religious and nationalistic ties. This thesis traces Bosnian history with a story of a singular building, the National Library. The library’s physical and programmatic changes parallel Bosnian political transformation through time. The destruction of the library during the siege of Sarajevo on many levels symbolizes the destruction of multicultural Bosnia as well. This thesis proposes a re-conceptualization of the Bosnian National Library as a new building where a dialogue between the segregated ethnic groups could to emerge through the use of a common shared secular space. This space will act as a point of cultural overlap that negates the idea of purity and homogeneity. Instead, through the building programme and its relationship with the city, the library will welcome diversity and encourage dialogue in order to attempt a dissolution of the boundaries between the group of inclusion and the “other”.

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. " ~Franz Kafka This thesis deals with a subject matter which may be considered by some to be undesirable and taboo; that is, the architecture of capital punishment, torture and death. While the content is at times difficult, this book attempts to go beyond initial reactions of support or distaste for the practice of execution. It instead attempts to bring to light the importance of the representation of these events, brought to light by the strength of modern collective thought on the issue, through an architectural discourse. Through space and ritual capital punishment entered into the minds of the people, and through space and ritual the practice can be withdrawn. But should it vanish, or is a continued representation important, and even necessary? My purpose is not to force an opinion, one way or the other, onto anyone. My intention is merely to raise the question in the mind of the reader of this work.

The thickening line crafted as a ‘temporary’ border thirteen years ago during the Dayton Peace Agreement –dividing Bosnia into Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosniaks and Croats- is gaining an unsettling permanence in present-day Bosnia. As each of the three ethnic groups attempts to maintain their autonomy, they unwillingly share the divided country, while tangling the question of Bosnian identity into a perplexing web of religious and nationalistic ties. This thesis traces Bosnian history with a story of a singular building, the National Library. The library’s physical and programmatic changes parallel Bosnian political transformation through time. The destruction of the library during the siege of Sarajevo on many levels symbolizes the destruction of multicultural Bosnia as well. This thesis proposes a re-conceptualization of the Bosnian National Library as a new building where a dialogue between the segregated ethnic groups could to emerge through the use of a common shared secular space. This space will act as a point of cultural overlap that negates the idea of purity and homogeneity. Instead, through the building programme and its relationship with the city, the library will welcome diversity and encourage dialogue in order to attempt a dissolution of the boundaries between the group of inclusion and the “other”.