Memory Across Generations: Reflections From School Visits to Memory Sites (Poster 46)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Exploring students’ reflections on their visits to memory sites, this presentation analyzes how youth engage with intergenerational memories of the armed conflict in Colombia. Memory sites, such as museums and memorials, offer an interesting window into intergenerational conversations about violence and how to transform it, as they bring together multiple educational actors spanning different generations and contexts. Intergenerational conversations are crucial to peacebuilding processes because narrating familial memories holds the power to negotiate shifts in people’s worldviews and engage different generations in meaning-making mechanisms to identify as interlocutors of the same story (Drozdzewski et al., 2016; Halbwachs, 1952/1992; Hirsch, 1997; Tschuggnall & Welzer, 2002).

To better understand how memories and meanings of conflict are constructed and transmitted across generations, I explore student interactions at memory sites, as well as their post-visit reflections on their experience. I draw on observations of school visits to two memory sites in Bogotá and Medellín, focus group discussions about the visits, and in-depth individual interviews with students, teachers, and guides. Findings suggest that these visits can shape intergenerational transmission of memories in at least three ways: they work as memory catalysts, sparking post-visit conversations with family; they bring personal experiences into the public sphere by offering an atmosphere where memory is shared; and they can help youth connect the dots to make sense of their personal and familial memories. Ultimately, memory sites can help to connect public and private histories and spark demands for truth and reconciliation.

Author

• Paula Mantilla-Blanco, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author