The Transnationalisation of Memory Activism

Abstract

This panel that analyses the question of how memory activism "travels" - is exported and/or imported and reappropriated in different contexts. Existing literature on memory and identity has focused more on the transmission or diffusion of memory narratives or commemorative forms than on memory activism so far. Very few scholars look at memory entrepreneurs, their strategies and sources of inspiration that are often transnational in character. The contributions to this panel are trying to address this gap in the existing literature by drawing from memory studies and combining it with social movement research. The aim of the panel is manifold: to explain the process of diffusion, map the actors involved (individuals, institutions, social movements, media) in this process and scrutinize the outcome of these reappropriations (are they successful? do they always work as planned? why?) The five contributors examine these issues from different disciplinary and theoretical angles and employ various methodological approaches. By gathering scholars from different universities in Spain, France, the US, Cyprus and the UK with different disciplinary backgrounds (political science, anthropology, history, sociology, cultural studies) and from different generations, the panel examines the topic from the widest possible angle.

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