This dissertation explores the process of meaning transformation in digital participatory culture by examining the replication, mutation and circulation that iconic news images undergo in cyberspace through Internet memes. With triangulation of visual historical analysis, visual rhetorical analysis and iconographic tracking, the project argues that members of remix culture weaponize the digital derivatives of the famous images through manipulation to renegotiate history, dispense social justice in the absence of other recourse and engage in political activism. Such transformations, as this project shows, are likely to weaken the rhetorical powers of iconic images to define collective memory, a role they have played for decades. With the use of Internet memes, members of the public can now re-remember history outside the iconic accounts, producing their own interpretations of events that contribute to public discourse. Internet memes that exist alongside their iconic visual counterparts democratize the process of meaning making and remembering in remix culture, promoting polyvocality in favor of singular versions of the past. Such fragmentation of master narratives highlights the changing role of iconic pictures in the process of signification thanks to technology. Keywords: Iconic images, Internet memes, signification, digital participatory culture, collective memory.

In this thesis I examine the reproduction of nationalism and white supremacy within Confederate monument removal (CMR) storytelling, and the ways collective identity and emotions are implicated within these reproductions. Using reader generated CMR narratives published in a Southern newspaper, the Augusta Chronicle, I conduct narrative analysis in order to identify key story elements, moral arguments, and cultural codes present in the public CMR debate. Findings indicate that two sharply contested narratives emerge during this debate, one calling for the protection of Confederate monuments and one calling for the removal of Confederate monuments. Further, though these contested stories produce opposing moral value judgements of Confederate monuments, they rely on similar cultural and emotion codes, frames, and rhetorical moves which reproduce nationalism and white supremacy. Through reifying national mythologies, constructing individuals as citizens, rhetorically isolating racism and slavery, and reproducing racialized capitalism, CMR narratives on both sides of the debate become sites where nationalism and white supremacy are perpetuated. These findings indicate that there is an important relationship between collective memory and cultural meaning-making processes related to identity and emotions. Further, findings also suggest that collective memory narratives, particularly contested or oppositional narratives, are important sites facilitating continuity in hegemonic systems. Because of their key role in perpetuating nationalism and white supremacy, it is possible that collective memory narratives may also be spaces where the interruption of hegemonic systems can also be facilitated.

This thesis explores the legacy of the Herero-Nama genocide that occurred in 1904 to 1908 by examining the descendant’s narrative in contrast to the preeminent state narrative. I investigate both these narratives from the emic perspective of the Herero people in Namibia, who today are a minority group. By following the narrative, I discover the fundamental emplotments and multidimensionality in the genocide narrative imperative which are tribal democracy, nationhood and ancestral land. My informants imply that the genocide is a neglected and buried memory in contemporary Namibia, and I apply theoretical concepts such as Werbner’s immediate memory and anti-memory, but also Trouillot’s notion of silencing to understand in what way the state narrative is being amplified by the ruling government, subsequently silencing the genocide. At the same time, I also want to see how the genocide narrative is being maintained in a milieu of silencing forces. The genocide is still a sensitive topic among the descendants who feel that the dignity of their ancestors has been tarnished throughout the 20th century. In Herero religion ancestor spirits hold an utterly pivotal role as mediators between the living and god.

Masters of Art / At a lecture presented in London on June 5, 1994, Jacques Derrida discussed the complexities of the meaning of the archive. He described the duality in meaning of the word archive-in terms of temporality and spatiality-as a place of "commencement" and as the place "where men and gods command" or the ''place from which order is given". As the place of commencement, "there where things commence" the archive is more ambivalent. It houses, what could best be described as 'traces" of particular objects of the past in the form of documents. These documents were produced in the past and are subjective constructions with their own histories of negotiations and contestations. As such, the archive represents the end of instability, or the outcome of negotiations and contestations over knowledge. Yet as sources of evidence the archive also represents the moment of ending instability, of creating stasis and the fixing of meaning and knowledge.

Something is happening to our cultural heritage. The longer time gose by, the faster the clock of preservation of the future of cultural buildings is ticking. Just like any old building, there comes a time when renovation is a must. Renovation is seen as something positive, but what happens when you mix the concept of renovation with words like cultural heritage? For all lod buildings specifically, and even som for an historic, suddenly it can become unacceptable. In ths study, the renovation and modernization of cultural heritage will be put to the test. Is change together with modernization something negative or is it the new way to go, not only to preserve cultural heritage and its historical impact on society but also preservation ot for future generations? This study has its focus on Fredrikskyrkan in the city of Karlskrona. This church went through a dramatic renovation and modernization between 2016-2018 and is now a multifunctional church where not only chourch activities are held. The reason why this particular church has been used in this study is because the altar and pews were chosen to be removed and large dramatic changes made people in general disagree with the new look. Through the course of the study, we will delve into how the modernization was motivated and how it has affected Fredrikskyrkan as a cultural heritage object, based on interview, data material, submitted texts from newspapers together with previous research focusing on, modernization and church cultural heritage Together with theories such as collective memories and the meaning of authenticity, the study will try to answer the question: What the motives were for the renovation and whether modernization and restoration can be linked to notions of preservation and modernization. The conclution shows that a balance that must exist between cultural heritage and new thinking of modernization. In connection with the renovation of Fredrikskyrkan, the concept of authenticity and collective memories was put to the test.

In considering the Israel-Palestine conflict, focus has remained on conventional major issues: borders, settlements, Jerusalem, Palestinian refugee rights and water. Should there be one binational state, or two states for two peoples? Yet this is a conflict that is sustained by factors more profound than the dispute over limited resources or competing nationalisms. The parties’ narratives, continually rehearsed, speak of a cataclysmic event or chain of events, a collective trauma, which has created such deep suffering and disruption that the rehearsers remain ‘frozen’ amid the overarching context of political violence. This study offers a critical analysis of the concept of collective trauma together with the role of commemorative practices, including core contemporary canonical days of memory, and asks to what extent they may hinder progress in the resolution of an intractable conflict, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict. Without addressing the powerful traumatic current that underpins a chronic conflict, no amount of top-down formal peace-making is likely to be sustainable.

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Public-private partnerships have become an important aspect of public administration theory and practice both in the United States and internationally. The National Archives and Records Administration, in partnership with private support foundations, administers 13 individual presidential libraries that make up the Presidential Library System. These privately constructed, publicly supported archives not only preserve official presidential records, but through their museum displays, also offer visitors a glimpse into the life and times of specific presidents. Although many consider these partnerships vital for the continued success of the Presidential Library System, relatively little is known about them. This qualitative case study explores the nature and extent of the public-private partnerships in the Presidential Library System, focusing on libraries established following the Presidential Records Act of 1978. Key themes related to the nature of these simultaneously mandated and voluntary relationships are their informal governance, decentralized administration, and increased reliance on private resources. This research has implications for both theory and practice of public-private partnerships in general as well as those supporting sites of collective memory such as archives, museums, monuments, and memorials. / Ph. D.