Reflective Essay on Memory & Violence Course

This course has been an important opener to the impact of violence to communities and
the kind of discourse it shapes throughout history. Most countries have grown and developed
through violence, which shapes a large part of how communities identify. For instance, World
War I and II certainly shaped many social, economic, and political aspects of countries that were
involved. One of the most incidences of violence, 9/11, changed the American society and
significantly influenced how citizens interacted with each other. This course has opened my
thinking to many instances of violence through history that affect the current world as we know
it. Although some people would be quick to say nations easily forget violence and move on, the
concept of remembrance is an important aspect of individuals and communities at large. I had
not come across the phase “politics of remembrance” before starting this course. I did not really
understand the extent of what it means to grow through violence and the impact it has on current
and future generation. In retrospect, important lens through which I interacted with the material
in class have been the global issues of memory and understanding the relevance of studies of
memory and violence to the discourse on the lasting impacts.
One of the most important takeaways in this class has been the idea that politics of
remembrance is not just about the past but the present and future on a global scale. I think the
only time I felt I had interacted with the impact of violence in a nation’s history is through
memorials. Societies that are emerging from conflict usually face challenges attempting to repair
the broken elements of the society. I have realized that this course is an important contribution to
helping communities examine the past and address issues that affect the contemporary world.
Almost every country deals with memories of atrocities in similar ways, especially through
commemoration of sites to establish a form of political legitimacy over the famous lesson of
“never again”. While this is important, I feel that the hyped attention towards memorialization
has become a valued integral part of the society’s core after violence. Although such symbols of
memorialization are supposed to convey retribution and forgiveness, and forgetting while
keeping in mind the weight of such incidences, I would argue that few people understand the
importance of humanities studies in politics of remembrance.
This class has also helped me understand that the politics of just memory with regard to
crimes that have been committed in the past depend on certain elements that most of the time are
beyond the capacity of human reason. For example, there are many explanations to why the
genocide in Rwanda happened. Over the course this class, I have realized that it is important to
find a balance between the obsession with attempting to explain the past and finding ways
through which people can forget. This requires a deep understanding of memory and forgetting,
history, and emphasizing the limits of these concepts in terms of moral and ethical implications.

Such knowledge is not only important for political scientists but also in studying the
psychological impacts on victims’ lives as well as the community at large. This awareness bring
to mind the question of how much the psychological and mental well-being of victims of
violence is taken into account when governments come up with strategies that are meant to
address the aftermath of violence in communities.
Moreover, this course has also helped me realize that most governments and influential
institutions have conveyed the perception that the contemporary era is the age of
commemoration. This means that the ever present effort to document and reconstruct the past as
soon as possible is seen as an important effort in preserving the element of humanity in a way
that informs future decisions.