We are postponing this event in light of COVID-19. We hope to reschedule in the fall and will share additional information as it becomes available.

The Subject of Children in U.S. Public Memory: Citizenship, Empathy, and Trauma

This presentation develops conceptual arguments that frame Dr. Vivian's research-in-progress on social, political, and moral invocations of children in recent U.S. public memory. His core research questions rely on the double meaning of the term "subject." Why do contemporary practices of public memory frequently posit children as prominent subjects of remembrance--in the sense of that which is remembered? Why are children commonly invoked as important testimonial subjects--as agents who appear to best communicate the lessons of the collectively remembered past? And how do these different senses of children as subjects of memory intersect in efforts to derive meaning from historic traumas?