Memory Studies: Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Remembering

Catalog description

This course positions memory at the intersections of the past, present, and future, inviting us to think critically about how we engage with remembering, forgetting, and the spaces in between. As we learn about Memory Studies, we’ll explore how gender and sexuality shape what is remembered, what is forgotten, which pasts are preserved, claimed and celebrated—and which are not. From digital memory projects to family albums and to ghosts that linger in feminist archives, we’ll trace how memory becomes a site of struggle, desire, and belonging. Together, we’ll engage with works such as Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, digital platforms like Queering the Map, and Anamarija Horvat’s works on queer memory and film. Along the way, we’ll consider concepts such as intergenerational transmission of memory, haunting, and archives of resistance—asking, ultimately: What does remembering otherwise look and feel like?