The Transformative Capacity of Commemoration: Collective Identity, Intergroup Contact, and Sustained Mnmemonic Activism

• In Event: 1440 - Collective Memory

Abstract

Much attention has centered on the causes and composition of commemoration, yet research on commemorations’ causal consequences remains relatively unexplored. This research examines the relationship between commemorative events and sustained mnemonic activism through a comparative historical study of two seemingly similar mnemonic projects with divergent outcomes: the 25th and 40th-anniversary commemorations in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Drawing insights from the social psychological literature on intergroup contact and the sociological theories of social change clarifies how members of the 2004 commemoration task force came to develop a distinct collective identity across significant social divides through personal storytelling, a development that helped sustain local mnemonic activism beyond the commemoration itself. More generally, this research suggests that commemorative events can catalyze memory movements and that a commemoration’s transformative potential lies in its planning process.

Author

• Claire Whitlinger, Furman University