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HI: Resident Lecture Series, Bradford Vivian

HI: Resident Lecture Series, Bradford Vivian

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

This presentation develops conceptual arguments that frame my research-in-progress on social, political, and moral invocations of children in recent U.S. public memory. My 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? This presentation provides provisional responses to those questions with brief illustrations from the various case studies that my larger project analyzes. 

This event will take place online via Zoom. Register here to access the link to Livestream.

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