PSIR 461 | Course Introduction and Application Information - Department of Political Science and International Relations

Course Name

Politics of Memory

Code	Semester	Theory (hour/week)	Application/Lab (hour/week)	Local Credits	ECTS
PSIR 461	Fall/Spring	3	0	3	6

Prerequisites	None
Course Language	English
Course Type	Elective
Course Level	First Cycle
Mode of Delivery	-
Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course	Discussion Group Work Lecture / Presentation
National Occupation Classification	-
Course Coordinator	Doç. Dr. Devrim SEZER
Course Lecturer(s)	Doç. Dr. Devrim SEZER
Assistant(s)	-

Course Objectives	The purpose of this course is twofold. First, it aims to introduce students to concepts and theories about memory politics. Second, it aims to explore the problem of coming to terms with dark pasts that involve historical injustices as in the cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, Holocaust, totalitarianism, and colonialism.
Learning Outcomes	The students who succeeded in this course; discuss the role of memory narratives in nation-building processes and democratic politics. analyze the political significance of different modes of forgetting and remembrance. evaluate contemporary political issues related to memory politics using a range of theoretical approaches. assess how civil society actors, civic initiatives, and artistic works contest official memory narratives. articulate ideas effectively through individual and group reports or presentations. develop sustainable and equitable solutions to current political challenges, grounded in theoretical approaches to memory politics.
Course Description	This course is designed to introduce students to the field of memory studies and memory politics. Particular attention is paid to concepts and theories about public memory and coming to terms with dark pasts. It primarily focuses on contentious historical injustices and episodes such as the Holocaust, totalitarianism and colonialism as well as instances of crimes against humanity and genocide. Furthermore, it explores the links between, on the one hand, different forms of forgetting and remembrance, and, on the other, past wrongs, nation-building processes, and democratic politics. It aims to provide students with conceptual and theoretical tools for exploring how nations and communities officially and/or publicly come to terms with legacies of extreme violence. Additionally, it explores the role of civil society activism in transforming memory narratives as well as the literary and artistic interventions (such as novels, artworks, architectural projects and monuments) into public memory. Materials are drawn primarily from scholarly literature in the fields of memory studies and political theory, but relevant contributions of several disciplines in the social sciences and humanities are also included in the course reading list. Despite its primarily theoretical and conceptual focus, the course involves several cases as empirical illustrations of theoretical approaches to memory politics.
Related Sustainable Development Goals

Course Category	Core Courses
	Major Area Courses	X
	Supportive Courses
	Media and Management Skills Courses
	Transferable Skill Courses

Week	Subjects	Related Preparation
1	Culture of Remembrance and Its Political Significance	Jay Winter, “Remembrance as a Human Right”, Foreword in Memory and Political Change, Aleida Assmann and Linda Shortt (eds.) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012), vii-xi. Duncan Bell, “Memory, Trauma and World Politics”, in Memory, Trauma and World Politics: Reflections on the Relationship between Past and Present, Duncan Bell (ed.) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006), 1-29.
2	From Memory Boom to Memory Turn	Jay Winter, “Notes on the Memory Boom: War, Remembrance and the Uses of the Past”, in Memory, Trauma and World Politics: Reflections on the Relationship between Past and Present, Duncan Bell (ed.) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006), 54-72. Pierre Nora, “Reasons for the Current Upsurge in Memory,” in The Collective Memory Reader, Jeffrey Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, Daniel Levy (eds.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 437-441. Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire”, Representations 26 (1989): 7-24.
3	European Memory Debates	Jürgen Habermas, “Apologetic Tendencies”, “On the Public Use of History”, in The Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians’ Debate (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1984), 209-240. Jan-Werner Müller, “The Power of Memory, the Memory of Power and the Power over Memory”, Introduction in Memory and Power in Post-War Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 1-35.
4	Historical Injustice and Ethics of Memory	Janna Thompson, “Apology, Historical Obligations and the Ethics of Memory”, Memory Studies 2 (2) (1989): 195-210. Claudia Card, “Genocide and Social Death”, Hypatia 18 (1) (2003): 63-79.
5	Guilt about the Past	Karl Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2001).
6	Political Responsibility	Hannah Arendt, “Collective Responsibility” in Responsibility and Judgment (New York: Schocken, 2003), 147-158. Iris M. Young, “Guilt versus Responsibility”, in Responsibility for Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 75-93.
7	Beyond Victims and Perpetrators	Michael Rothberg, The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators (Stanford University Press, 2019), 1-58.
8	MIDTERM
9	Dark Pasts I: Holocaust and Genocide	Raphael Lemkin, “Genocide”, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (The Lawbook Exchange, 2008), 79-95. Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 39-66.
10	Dark Pasts II: Colonialism and Nakba	Frantz Fanon, “Concerning Violence”, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press, 2005), 35-106. Bashir Bashir & Amos Goldberg, “Deliberating the Holocaust and the Nakba: Disruptive Empathy and Binationalism in Israel/Palestine”, Journal of Genocide Research 16 (1) (2014): 77-99.
11	From Forgetting to Remembrance	Paul Connerton, “Seven Types of Forgetting”, Memory Studies 1 (1) (2008): 59-71. Aleida Assmann, “Dialogic Memory”, in Dialogue as a Transdisciplinary Concept, Paul Mendes-Flohr (ed.) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), 199-214.
12	Cosmopolitan Memory and Agonistic Memory	Daniel Levy and Nathan Sznaider, “Memory Unbound: The Holocaust and the Formation of Cosmopolitan Memory”, European Journal of Social Theory, 5 (1) (2002): 87-106. Anna Cento Bull and Hans Lauge Hansen, “On Agonistic Memory”, Memory Studies 9 (4) (2016): 390-404.
13	Illiberal Memory	Gavriel Rosenfeld, “The Rise of Illiberal Memory”, Memory Studies 16 (4) (2023): 709-723.
14	Memory Activism in Germany, Israel, and Turkey	Jenny Wüstenberg, “Building Negative Memory: Civic Initiatives for Memorials to Nazi Terror”, in Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 127-176. Aleida Assmann, “One Land and Three Narratives: Palestinian Sites of Memory in Israel”, Memory Studies 11 (3) (2018): 287-300. Emre Gönlügür and Devrim Sezer, “Therapeutic Forgetting, Agonistic Remembrance: Conflicting Memories of Izmir’s Kültürpark and Contested Narratives in Contemporary Turkey”, Memory Studies 14 (2) (2021): 395-421. Onur Bakiner, “Truth, Justice, and Commemoration Initiatives in Turkey”, in The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Studies, Güneş Murat Tezcür (ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 1-22.
15	General Review
16	Final Exam

Course Notes/Textbooks

Aleida Assmann and Linda Shortt (eds.), Memory and Political Change (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012), ISBN: 978-0230302006.

Duncan Bell (ed.) Memory, Trauma and World Politics (Basinstoke: Palgrave, 2006), ISBN: 978-0230006560.

Jürgen Habermas, “Apologetic Tendencies”, “On the Public Use of History”, in The Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians’ Debate (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1984), ISBN: 978-0745614113.

Paul Mendes-Flohr (ed.), Dialogue as a Transdisciplinary Concept (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), ISBN: 9783110379150.

Jeffrey Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, Daniel Levy (eds.), The Collective Memory Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), ISBN: 978-0195337426.

Jan-Werner Müller, Memory and Power in Post-War Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), ISBN: 978-0521806107.

Karl Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2001), ISBN: 978-0823220694.

Hannah Arendt, Responsibility and Judgment (New York: Schocken, 2003), ISBN: 978-0805211627.

Iris M. Young, Responsibility for Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), ISBN: 9780195392388.

Michael Rothberg, The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators (Stanford University Press, 2019), ISBN: 9781503609600.

Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (The Lawbook Exchange, 2008), ISBN: 978-1584779018.

Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), ISBN: 978-0300093001

Frantz Fanon, “Concerning Violence”, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press, 2005), ISBN: 978-0802141323

Paul Mendes-Flohr (ed.) Dialogue as a Transdisciplinary Concept (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), ISBN: 9783110379150.

Güneş Murat Tezcür (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), ISBN: 9780190064891.

Jenny Wüstenberg, Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), ISBN: 9781107177468.

Suggested Readings/Materials

Semester Activities	Number	Weigthing
Participation	1	10
Laboratory / Application
Field Work
Quizzes / Studio Critiques
Portfolio
Homework / Assignments
Presentation / Jury	1	30
Project
Seminar / Workshop
Oral Exams
Midterm	1	30
Final Exam		30
Total

Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade	3	70
Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade	1	30
Total

Semester Activities	Number	Duration (Hours)	Workload
Theoretical Course Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours)	16		0
Laboratory / Application Hours (Including exam week: '.16.' x total hours)	16		0
Study Hours Out of Class	12	3	36
Field Work			0
Quizzes / Studio Critiques			0
Portfolio			0
Homework / Assignments			0
Presentation / Jury	1	25	25
Project			0
Seminar / Workshop			0
Oral Exam			0
Midterms	1	20	20
Final Exam		40	0
		Total	81

#	Program Competencies/Outcomes	* Contribution Level
#	Program Competencies/Outcomes	1	2	3	4	5
1	To be able to use the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired in the areas of Political Science and International Relations.	-	-	-	X	-
2	To be able to have the basic knowledge of, and make use of other disciplines which contribute to the areas of Political Science and International Relations.	X	-	-	-	-
3	To be able to distinguish the differences between classical and contemporary theories and to assess their relationship.	-	-	-	-	-
4	To be able to recognize regional and global issues, and develop sustainable solutions based on research.	-	X	-	-	-
5	To be able to assess the acquired knowledge and skills in the areas of Political Science and International Relations critically.	-	-	-	-	X
6	To be able to transfer ideas and proposals on issues in the areas of Political Science and International Relations to other people and institutions verbally and in writing.	X	-	-	-	-
7	To be able to identify the historical continuity and changes observed in the relations between the actors and institutions of national and international politics.	-	-	-	-	-
8	To be able to examine concepts, theories, and developments with scientific methods in the areas of Political Science and International Relations.	-	-	-	-	-
9	To be able to take responsibility as an individual and as a team member.	-	X	-	-	-
10	To be able to act in accordance with the scientific and ethical values in studies related to Political Science and International Relations.	-	-	-	-	-
11	To be able to collect data in the areas of Political Science and International Relations and communicate with colleagues in a foreign language ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1).	-	-	-	-	-
12	To be able to speak a second foreign language at a medium level of fluency efficiently.	-	-	-	-	-
13	To be able to relate the knowledge accumulated throughout human history to their field of experience.	-	-	-	-	-