-- Performing Social Forgetting in a Post-Conflict Landscape: The Case of Cyprus

10 Sep 2014

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-- Performing Social Forgetting in a Post-Conflict Landscape: The Case of Cyprus

Wednesday, September 10, 2014, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Presenter: Rabia Harmansah, PhD Candidate
Location: 3106 Posvar Hall, Anthropology Lounge
Announced by: Center for Russian and East European Studies
In conjunction with: Department of Anthropology
Working in both the Greek/Southern and the Turkish/Northern parts of Cyprus, Rabia Hamansah conducted ethnographic research on six Orthodox Christian and Muslim religious sites for two years in order to investigate how a formerly shared religious landscape contributed to the ways in which collective remembering and forgetting is practiced by Greek and Turkish Cypriots; and how a religious and cultural heritage was destroyed, manipulated, accommodated, and reimagined during periods of conflict. She analyzes the "art of forgetting" as a central device to investigate the selective construction of the past and collective memory through human interactions within the commemorative religious landscape. Social forgetting is not only a negation, neglect, failure of remembering, or unintended social amnesia; but also a positive process through which a certain kind of knowledge of the past is produced deliberately and actively.

Event Date: 
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Institution(s): 
Sponsored By: 
Center for Russian and East European Studies
Location: 
3106 Posvar Hall, Anthropology Lounge
Target Audience: 
Higher Education
Presenter Type: 
Graduate Student