From M*Straße to Rhodes Must Fall: Postcolonial memory: global theory and local practice - Single View

ATTENTION: course facilitator is absent during the first two weeks. The first session will take place on 29th October!

Please follow the "comment" link above for more information on comments, course readings, course requirements and grading.

As Germany is slowly waking up from its “colonial amnesia,” what are the debates that shake up the collective perception of Berlin, Germany and Europe as postcolonial spaces? What cultures of memory can be re-adapted to address this violent past, be it in the urban landscape or in institutions like museums or universities? How do artistic productions enable transnational vectors of memory that include the voices of descendants of the colonised? This course will start locally with traces of colonialism in Potsdam and Berlin (with an excursion) and open up toward national and transnational memory cultures that engage with the colonial past through performance, poetics and politics. Different avenues in memory studies will be introduced inductively to provide students with a theoretical corpus that will help in understand these particular practices of remembrance.

Please be aware that the course will address violent histories such as war and genocide, but also emotional topics such as racism, positionality and intersectional discrimination. The students are therefore encouraged to inform the course facilitator of anything they think worth mentioning (e.g. psychological sensitivity, positionality, ethics, personal experience with such issues).

Deutsch Historisches Museum (2016). German Colonialism – Fragments Past and Present. Exhibition Catalogue. Darmstadt: Stiftung Deutsch Historisches Museum & WBG.

Rothberg, Michael (2011). "From Gaza to Warsaw: Mapping Multidirectional Memory." Criticism 53:4, pp 523-48.

Huyssen, Andreas. 2003. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Nyamnjoh, Francis (2017). #RhodesMustFall: Nibbling at Resilient Colonialism in South Africa. Mankon, Bamenda: Langaa Publishing.

Shigwedha, Vilho Amukwaya (2018). "The Homecoming of Ovaherero and Nama Skulls: Overriding Politics and Injustices." Human Remains and Violence 4 (2): 67-89

Cole, Joshua (2003). ”Remembering the Battle of Paris: 17 October 1961 in French and Algerian Memory.” French Politics, Culture and Society, 21:3, pp. 21-50.

 and others...

• Attendance, preparation and participation ALL STUDENTS are expected to attend classes regularly and be well-prepared for an in-depth discussion of our set readings. They are expected to contribute once with a max. 2-page handout based on readings for a session.

• In course assessment: Students enrolled in Seminar 1 will be asked to submit an annotated reflection (800 words) on a discussion subject addressed during the course by 15th February (Testat not graded). Students enrolled in Seminar 2 will be asked to submit an annotated reflection (800 words) on a discussion subject addressed during the course by 15th February (Modulprüfung graded).

• - Final assessment: Students who signed up for AM-BK-b (9 LP with Portfolioprüfung) have two options:
  OPTION 1: submit a long essay (Hausarbeit) of 4-5,000 words (13-16 pages, 1,5 spacing) by 1st April 2020. If they wish, a slot can be allocated for students eager to present their ideas during the course and get feedback from the group and the course facilitator (5 min presentation, direct and indirect feedback).
  OPTION 2: Develop a memory project: through a medium (video, photo, artwork, brochure, performance, advertisement…), a student remembers a moment, events, a particular feature of colonial history, or people implicated in this history. The students are invited to connect their project with current local cultural and political debates on racism, genocide and museum collections. Next to it, students must write a reflection on the project, engaging with self-positioning and challenges encountered (1,500 to 2000 words, with a short bibliography).
  The course facilitator will provide an assessment grid that will lay bare what is roughly expected of these projects.