H-239 Memory and Urban Space since the End of World War II

School:	Social Sciences
Academic Unit:	Social Anthropology and History
Level of studies:	Undergraduate
Course code:	H-239	Semester:	2st
Course Title:	Memory and Urban Space since the End of World War II
Independent teaching activities	Weekly teaching hours		Credits
Lectures	3		5
Course type:	General Background
Prerequisite courses:	None
Language of instruction and examinations:	Greek
Is the course offered to erasmus students:	Νο
Course website (Url):	https://en.sah.aegean.gr/course/h-239/

(2) LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learning outcomes: By the completion of the course students are expected to:
• become familiarized with the significance of space in the production of social and collective memory
• look with a critical eye the relationship between space and the politics of memory
• envisage the production of memory in relation to their neighborhood and town
• understand that memory representations in public space, such as monuments, which often become contested places of memory
• use space as an analytical category of historical research
• understand the significance of space in the formation of historical culture

General Competences: Students are required to study and analyze complicate and heterogeneous material from different kinds of sources to develop and pursue research ideas for use in the class.
The course requires individual initiative and efforts for all participant students who come to understand the complexity of the relationship between public memory and urban space.
The course encourages interdisciplinary thinking and uses influences in theory and methodology from different disciplines (history, social anthropology, geography, architecture, planning)
Students develop knowledge and sensibilities about the contemporary public memory in European and American cities.

(3) SYLLABUS

The course aims at bringing to the fore the complex and multilevel relationship between memory and urban space through the examination of the politics of memory that render memory visible in public space (sites of memory, memorials, sculptures, street and squares naming, museums, performances, actions of Public History). Our attention is mainly focused on Europe and the United States, in the Post WW II era. In this framework, the Greek case holds an important place. The key idea of our approach is that public memory is historically constructed and for that reason is always open to new interpretations, replacement and vandalism according to the ideological priorities of successive regimes, the claims of social groups for public memory as well as the undergone social, economic and cultural transformations. We are going to examine the material representations of memory in relation to the kind of each political authority as well as the tropes of representation, the conflicts over the mnemonic construction of space due to the competing interpretations of the past, the spatiality of memory in correlation with the everyday individual routine and experience of space, the exclusion of social groups from the public representations of memory, and finally the interrelation between memory and space in the construction of national, ethnic, political, gender, race and class identities. We are also interested in the ways Public History could support citizens’ involvement in a dynamic relationship with the urban past, giving to them the opportunity to become producers of memory, in the scale of their neighborhood and town.

(4) TEACHING and LEARNING METHODS – EVALUATION

Delivery:	Face-to face
Use of information and communications technology :	Extensive use of visual material, power point, and the internet. Students have access to the page of the seminar in eclass.
Teaching methods:	Activity	Semester workload
	Lectures	40
	Study of multimedia material	10
	Autonomous study of bibliography	20
	Preparation for final exams	60
	Final Examination	3

	Course total:	133
Student performance evaluation:	Student evaluation is based on participation in the class, presentation and final exams.

(5) ATTACHED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Αθανασίου Αθηνά, «Το μαύρο στην πλατεία: Χαρτογραφώντας την απαγορευμένη μνήμη», στο Κώστας Γιαννακόπουλος, Γιάννης Γιαννιτσιώτης (επιμ.), Αμφισβητούμενοι χώροι στην πόλη. Χωρικές προσεγγίσεις του πολιτισμού, εκδ. Αλεξάνδρεια, Αθήνα 2010, σ. 227-266.
Βαν Μπούσχοτεν Ρίκη κ.ά, Η μνήμη αφηγείται την πόλη. Προφορική ιστορία και μνήμη του αστικού χώρου, Πλέθρον, Αθήνα 2015
Γιαννιτσιώτης Γιάννης, «Ο Άρης Βελουχιώτης επιστρέφει στη Λαμία. Διαμάχες γύρω από έναν μνημονικό τόπο», στο Κώστας Γιαννακόπουλος, Γιάννης Γιαννιτσιώτης (επιμ.), Αμφισβητούμενοι χώροι στην πόλη. Χωρικές προσεγγίσεις του πολιτισμού, εκδ. Αλεξάνδρεια, Αθήνα 2010, σ. 267-314.
Capdepón Ulrike, “Challenging the Symbolic Representation of the Franco Dictatorship: The Street Name Controversy in Madrid”, History & Memory, 32/1 (2020), pp. 100-130.
da Silva Catela Ludmila, “Staged memories: Conflicts and tensions in Argentine public memory sites”, Memory Studies 8/1 (2014), σ. 9-21.
Δρουμπούκη Άννα Μαρία, Μνημεία της λήθης. Ίχνη του Β΄ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου στην Ελλάδα και στην Ευρώπη, Πόλις, Αθήνα 2014.
Foote Kenneth E., Maoz Azaryahu, “Toward a geography of memory: Geographical dimensions of public memory and commemoration”, Journal of Political and Military Sociology 35/1 2007, σ. 125-144.
Halbwachs Maurice, Η συλλογική μνήμη (επιστημονική επιμέλεια-πρόλογος: Άννα Μαντόγλου – μτφρ. Τίνα Πλυτά), εκδ. Παπαζήση, Αθήνα 2013.
Mooney-Melvin Patricia, “Engaging the Neighborhood: The East Rogers Park Neighborhood History Project and the Possibilities and Challenges of Community Based Initiatives”, Journal of Urban History 40/3 (2014), σ. 462-478.
Φλάισερ Χάγκεν, Οι πόλεμοι της μνήμης, Νεφέλη, Αθήνα 2008.
Φωκαϊδης Πέτρος – Αλεξάνδρα Χρονάκη (επιμ.), Θέσεις της μνήμης, νήσος Αθήνα 2016.