The course portfolio is composed of 5 courses; depending on their professional background, participants can choose to take either 4 courses (which they will choose from the 5 possible options) or all 5 courses offered.
Politics of Memory - 5 ECTS
Teacher Valérie Rosoux
The course pursues two complementary goals. First, it tends to give a clear picture of the theoretical approaches to memory politics. In this regard, the course underlines analytical tools to understand the articulation between the “weight of the past” and the political “use of the past”. Second, the course questions the concrete practices that are at the intersection between politics and memory. To do so, each section of the course examines specific tensions, dilemmas, or even contradictions faced by practitioners in the aftermath of international and intercommunity conflicts (be they official representatives, NGO workers involved in conflict resolution or transitional justice, or representatives of victims’ associations).
Sociological Approaches to Memory - 4 ECTS
Teacher Sandra Rios Oyola
Social memory is a powerful tool for shaping national identities, for building antagonisms between actors as well as for strengthening reconciliation after conflict. This course offers tools for critically understanding how social memory is constructed, transmitted or silenced. It uses a sociological perspective to study the main debates, fundamental concepts and theories on social remembering, such as theories of social trauma; narratives of social memory and the social construction of silence, denial and forgetting. The aim of this course is to study how narratives of social memory are constructed. There is a distinctive characteristic in the sociological approach to the study of memory, which is framed in a specific type of theories, methods and research questions. This approach will be studied in the first part of this course. The second part of the course will delve into some of the main theories of social remembering. Finally, the third part of the course will present concrete historical examples that will be used to highlight some of the theories and concepts studied in this course.
Memory: Philosophy, Religion, Culture - 4 ECTS
Teacher Stipe Odak
The course takes an interdisciplinary path and discusses philosophical, religious, and cultural aspects of memory. In that sense, it analyzes the role of memory in human cognition and understanding, as well as its use in religious rituals, construction of values and beliefs. Students will acquire skills to detect the importance of memory in different contexts and to make meaningful comparisons while respecting disciplinary and discursive specificities.
Memory from a Psychological Perspective - 3 ECTS
Teachers Pierre Bouchat et Aline Cordonnier
The aim of this course is to better understand how memory is defined from a psychological perspective and evaluate how it impacts the individual and the collective. The course will be divided into two main sections. In the first section, we will discuss how cognitive scientists have defined the different kinds and processes of memory. We will examine the principal memory models, discuss the flaws of individual memory and their adaptive advantages before reviewing what cognitive science can bring to the study of collective memory. In the second section, we will introduce the students to the importance of a contextualized approach to memory as done by social psychologists. A lesson will be specifically dedicated to the generational approach to collective memory. Another chapter will investigate the dynamic relationship between collective memory and social identity. Next, we will discuss the links between historical facts and the development of collective memories. Finally, we will focus on the role of commemorations in the shaping of memories and attitudes.
The interdisciplinarity of Memory: TFE Accompanying Seminar - 4 ECTS
In order to accompany students in the realization of the end-of-study work, the seminar proposes to take a closer look at the interdisciplinarity of memory studies. The course is built on two axes: in the first axis, all the professors from the certificate discuss a single case study and address relevant questions pertaining to their field with regards to this case. This section will help students understand how to look at a single case study through different perspectives and how these approaches complement each other. The second axis widens the perspective. It offers a look at historical and legal issues and proposes five guest lectures by historians and legal experts on specific memory issues.