In recent years, memory has become one of the most widely debated issues in the social sciences. While modernity focused largely on the future, how do we explain the enormous preoccupation with the past in the postmodern era? This course will pose some answers to this question. Beginning with a look at the way memory operates, the course will review major debates on memory in diverse fields such as psychology, sociology, and history. It will then focus on particular themes, including memory's relationship to place, identity, trauma, narrative, commemoration, media and the body. The course will rely on a number of case studies, including studies of memory in Turkey.
