This project explores the role of state-sponsored memory sites, such as museums and memorials, in transmitting memories of conflict and educating for peacebuilding in Colombia. Memory sites are examples of non-formal spaces of education where memories are intentionally constructed and transmitted. In the context of school visits, these sites are used as pedagogical tools in connection to the formal education system. Building on sociological approaches to memory-building and the role of the state to analyze how memories are institutionalized and used for pedagogical purposes beyond the school, this project contributes to a broader view of education for peacebuilding. I highlight the voices of students who visit memory sites to better understand how youth interpret memory pedagogies and how processes of memory-building shape youth’s expectations for the future.
To understand the role of memory sites in disseminating memories of conflict, shaping interactions with the state, and mediating youth’s expectations about peace, I conducted a mixed-methods, embedded multiple-case study of two memory sites and four high schools, two embedded in each site. I incorporate observations, surveys, focus groups, and interviews with students, as well as interviews with teachers, site staff, and key informants in Bogotá and Medellín. Bringing together data from multiple stakeholders and across regions and timeframes, this project offers a uniquely comprehensive view of the intersection between formal and non-formal education in a transitional context.
I argue that memory sites offer a window into the memorias, violencias, and paces [memories, violences, and peaces – all plural] that coexist in a transitional context. I build this argument through four interconnected pieces. First, memory sites materialize the dispute over the construction of “the collective” – that is, the narratives, discourses, and spaces about a collective past and future. Second, memory sites do not simply transmit memories of the past; they also engage youth in memory-making practices, implicitly teaching them how to participate in memory work. Third, memory-making in the liminal space between conflict and peace goes beyond the transmission of knowledge to include the transmission of emotions, silences, and activism.
Finally, youth grapple with situating themselves within a past and present of violence and a future of (im)possible peace. In the end, memory sites have the potential to help youth situate themselves as historical and social actors whose personal and familial histories are embedded in a broader history of conflict and peacebuilding in Colombia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/7hbd-5267 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Mantilla Blanco, Paula Liliana |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds