Acting as an audiovisual vector of catharsis, film has proved an innovative and effective tool in the process of reconstructing collective memory in the aftermath of traumatic events. This thesis focuses on the emergence of filmmakers and their movies in the post-dictatorial periods in Argentina and Chile as both nations sought to confront their violent pasts. A general overview of the process of memory construction is included to provide background for the subsequent analysis of film as a vector of collective memory following trauma. An examination and comparison of various films produced for both domestic and international audiences detail each country’s engagement with the political and cinematic process of dealing with ideas of truth, memory, and identity. Central themes include the reconstruction of the identity of the desaparecidos and the challenges of producing films of a faithful, factual, reconstructive nature that also result in commercial success and appeal.

This dissertation traces the concept of national memory through the five architectural spaces that have housed the dead body of Mustafa Kemal Atat&uuml / rk: the bedroom in Dolmabah&ccedil / e Palace, Istanbul, where he died on 10 November 1938 / the catafalque in the Grand Ceremonial Hall of Dolmabah&ccedil / e Palace used between 16-19 November 1938 / the official funeral stage in Ankara designed by Bruno Taut and used between 20-21 November 1938 / the temporary tomb in The Ethnographic Museum, Ankara / and Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / s mausoleum, Anitkabir, in use since 10 November 1953. The dissertation firstly narrates the construction of a Turkish collective memory by means of architectural representation and politicization and secondly the physical and ideological maintenance of this memory by means of additions and subtractions to these spaces.

In Turkey, one of the main problems of architecture and urban design seem to be the rapid transformation of physical environments, street experiences, and consequently the transformation of collective memory. One consequence of this basic problem can be the loss of the meaning of urban space. This calls for an historical examination of salient features of urban space that compose the collective memory. In this respect, this thesis aims to explore the changing physical characteristics of the boulevards through examining the transformation of collective memory. To provide empirical evidence for this, the thesis will study the transformation of collective memory of inhabitants from different age groups about the Atat&uuml / rk Boulevard, by exploring the changing salient features of urban space and human experiences in space through a period of the last 60 years.

Face2Face is a photographic project realized by JR, an undercover photographer and Marco, a technology consultant, in 2007 in the Middle East context. It consisted of taking the portraits of Israeli and Palestinian people who were doing the same job, printing them in huge formats and putting them on various unavoidable places in Israeli and Palestinian cities. The project was based on the idea that Israeli and Palestinian people were so much similar to each other, as if they were &lsquo / twin brothers raised in different families&rsquo / but that they were not aware of that. Therefore, the artists decided to provide them with images of the other side which would make people be surprised, laugh, stop for a while and think about the other side once again. The artists hoped that such a reworking of the ideas about the other side would hopefully motivate people to enter into dialogue with each other, which would eventually end up in peaceful co-existence. This thesis sets this photographic project as its starting point. It focuses upon its conceptualization of dialogue, which is based on the idea of seeing the other from a new perspective, and compares it with Mikhail Bakhtin&rsquo / s concept of dialogue and Emmanuel Levinas&rsquo / s concept of face-to-face, which are based on the idea of disrupting the self. It then criticizes the project for its neglect of various dimensions which shape Israeli and Palestinian identities, such as diaspora, nostalgia and home and of the heavy burden of the past on these two communities&rsquo / present. As a result, the thesis focuses upon the concept of collective memory at length and then discusses photography at the service of collective memory. Another section is devoted to the analysis of Israeli and Palestinian collective memories. The photographic project Face2Face is discussed all throughout the thesis in terms of its failure to spot the crucial dimensions in Israeli-Palestinian context, no matter how well intended it was.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until September 1, 2012. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-254)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until September 1, 2012. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-254)

This report explores the role of documentary art in the constitution of collective memory in Greensboro, North Carolina, between the years 1999 and 2004. In that city on November 3, 1979, Ku Klux Klan and Nazis killed five labor organizers in broad daylight. Television news crews, on site to cover the anti-Klan march scheduled for that day, captured the killings on film. In spite of this evidence, all-white juries twice acquitted the Klan/Nazis of any wrongdoing. In the weeks and months that followed the massacre, city officials and mainstream media sought to disassociate Greensboro from the event, generating a master narrative that portrayed both the Klan/Nazis and labor organizers as outsiders, and the city as an innocent bystander. This narrative covered up the fact that the Greensboro police had extensive prior knowledge about the potential for violence, and yet were mysteriously absent when the Klan/Nazis arrived on the scene. In a third trial—a civil suit brought against the city by survivors of the shooting—Klan and police were found jointly liable for wrongful death. Twenty-five years later, the massacre and its aftermath served as the impetus for the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States. In the years leading up to the Commission, six artists—including the author—made or presented artwork in Greensboro about the killings. Importantly, none of the artists were from Greensboro or had any direct connection to the massacre. However, through their creative processes and final artworks, they made an implicit claim about the political relevance of remembering and engaging with the full history of November 3, 1979. Collectively, the art spanned a variety of mediums, including theater, paintings, music, and dance. Through interviews with the artists, archival research, and qualitative analysis, this report argues that the artists helped to generate the potential for an expanded, poly-vocal collective memory of the massacre. They did this through practices of citation and translation—converting the archive of factual history into aesthetic and material forms—that made the events of November 3, 1979 available to community members for encounter and interpretation in the present. / text

This research has identified elements of the social memory of librarianship from the last half of the twentieth century by collecting and examining thirty-four oral history interviews of librarians at the end of their careers. These professional life stories trace an important arc through the history of library and information science. Many of these librarians began their careers prior to the use of any form of computer technology in libraries. This cohort ushered in a wave of technological innovations that has revolutionized the access to information. These oral history interviews are part of the Capturing Our Stories Oral History Program of Retiring/Retired Librarians sponsored by the American Library Association and the School of Information at the University of Texas. The social memory includes regret and nostalgia for the librarianship practiced at the beginning of their careers, excitement and wonder about how technology has fundamentally changed the profession, and perspectives on the popular stereotype associated with their careers. / text

In the late 1970's Japanese Americans began organizing to demand redress from the United States government in both symbolic and material form; they asked for an apology and reparations. In 1981 a Congressional commission, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), was formed to investigate Japanese American Internment and give recommendations to Congress for further actions. The Commission held public hearings in Los Angeles, California and 9 other cities across the United States. More than 150 individuals gave testimony at the Los Angeles hearings alone. Many were Japanese Americans who had never spoken publicly about their experiences. On March 8, 2011, I performed a solo performance entitled What We Could Carry that wove together text and historical narratives from the archives of the Los Angeles redress hearings with auto-ethnographic interpretations of Japanese American memory. This written thesis is a reflection on the methods, theories, and implications of my performance. I locate my performance as scholarship within performance studies and place my work in conversation with other scholars such as Joseph Roach. In Chapter One I argue that Roach’s concept of surrogation can be extended to include embodied witnessing as a constitutive role in performing collective memory. In Chapter Two I document and analyze my research and creative processes as an embodied experience. Lastly, in Chapter Three I consider both successes and failures of my solo performance. / text

The aim of this study is to examine how and in what way users of the public participate and affect the archival information that is to be preserved for the future through the examination of three archival projects involving public participation. The study seeks to examine if participation of the public could lead to increased democracy and diversity of information in the archives. The study will be performed through the examination of three participatory archives all tied to traditional archival institutions. The study is based on the theoretical framework of Benn and Gaus and their notions of public and private which they discuss using the key words access, agency and interest. The study also takes into consideration Laura Millar’s theories of social memory as a means for the public good. Through a user perspective web resources tied to the projects are analyzed as well as defining documents of the archival institutions responsible of the projects. The findings are then discussed in a broader perspective using the three keywords access, agency and interest. The aim is to examine to what degree the projects allow participation through a comparative analysis of the chosen projects.  The study suggests that whereas the projects aims to create access to all members of society, the chosen structures of the projects make up limitations for participation for some groups of society, affecting their opportunity to participate. Limitations of the projects, such as language, make up barriers for participation creating private spheres inside the public of the projects studied. The thesis stresses the need for the existence of a multitude of different participation projects with different forms of participation in order to properly fulfill the needs and interests of the public in the archives. This is a two years master’s thesis in archival science.