Seminar "The Politics of Memory in Mainland Southeast Asia"

This course aims at analyzing how public memory in Thailand and other countries in mainland Southeast Asia is linked to politics. We study sites of memory such as memorials, museums and other places of remembrance and the respective contexts in which they were constructed. Pierre Nora's well-known idea of lieux de mémoire, the thought that memory is manifesting itself in particular places is helpful to examine how places are made and how they are imagined in different geographical settings and over different periods of time. Images of material objects, photographs and cartography are elements worth exploring in this context. One key issue is: How can heritage be produced and reconstructed in the face of the challenges of destruction, violence and political aspirations? Another of investigation concern territorial claims derived from the earlier dissemination of cultural characteristics and the emotional sensitivity of UNESCO World Heritage politics.

This course is compulsory for students of the Master program "Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia". It is also offered and recommended to interested PhD students as well as to BA students who have a special interest in this topic and want to take this course in the frame of the Fachspezifischer Wahlbereich.