Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of the article is to debate the role of memory in reconciliation processes in the contemporaneity. Focusing on the paradox forgetting x remembering, we argue that many of the social reconciliation processes developed nowadays are put into practice without questioning what memories to preserve and what are the motivations of those who develop the memory discourse.Finally, we consider the importance of forgetting and analyse in which circunstances it would be important to help the reconciliation processes to produce a sustainable peace.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper examines how the phrasing, organization, and placement of memorials to Italy's WWII dead both reflected and contributed to Italians' postwar memory and identity as victims of war. Victimhood offered (and served as) an alternative / parallel postfascist, postwar memory, more universally available than the generally acknowledged memories of Resistance, self-liberation, and "Italiani brava gente". Victimhood was more problematic than the memory of Resistance or the myth of self-liberation, however. From the beginning of the process, in the immediate postwar days, Italians argued bitterly at the local level over which deaths were to be memorialized. Oftentimes the very placcement of a postwar memorial was controversial, as were the questions of just who "deserved" memorial placques and stones, who would be included, and who would "share" the collective memory. Current debate centers around Italy's reluctance to come to terms with its fascist and wartime past, as evidenced by Italy's selective memory of Resistance, Liberation, and general national "goodness". The debate should also consider the role victimhood played in absolving Italians of their fascist past and wartime guilt.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper proposes a theory of decision-making based on how humans process information, and operationalizes the theory using a simulation model. Decision are affected by the surrounding ecology, information stored in memory, and the hypotheses chosen to access information in the surround ecology and memory. This theory draws on and extends existing cognitive simulation models to show that judgments, along with observed heuristics, biases and affect can be predicted probabilistically using models of memory processes. To operationalize this theory, the MEMORIS (Memory-based Ecological Model Of Relationship Interactions between States) simulation was developed, and the prototype used to model judgments of European states during the period 1885-1915, with results confirming expectations of theory and matching the historical record.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: As a society, how can we remember a “forgotten war?” The two World Wars and the Vietnam Conflict have long overshadowed the Korean War, and in its “forgotten” status, the Korean War’s importance has underrated. The Korean War is often referred to as the Forgotten War in American history; however, it is the purpose of this paper to discuss the extent to which the collective memory of the Korea War is still developing. By briefly reviewing the history of the Korean War, the war’s place in popular culture, and the relevance of the Korean War to contemporary politics and society, this paper contends that the Korean War is emerging as a war that should be both more celebrated and better understood within American society.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper addresses the politics of colorblindness in comparative perspective as its meaning has changed over the course of the past half century. Drawing on the cases of South Africa and the United States, I argue against the case "against race" (Gilroy, 2000). Although in the past colorblindness served as an effective rallying cry for the abolition of Jim Crow and the demise of apartheid, the very same principle serves in the post-segregation context to stall transformation of the racial order in the direction of greater equality. It is an irony that the principle of colorblindness that so effectively mobilized opposition to the institutionally racist order in both national contexts mutates at the very moment of apparent victory into one that radically limits the anti-racist imagination. In this context, "remembering race" becomes an insurgent action in search of a new metaphysics.
The paper draws on a range of secondary source materials related to transitional racial discourses and politics, critical race theory, whiteness studies, and debates about new forms of racism. In addition, primary material is presented in the context of the U.S. from public submissions to Congress on the topic of proposed apologies for slavery (N=518), as well as original research on right-wing colorblind discourse. In the context of South Africa, primary material is presented from public submissions to the Human Rights Commission on the topic of racism and antiracism collected as part of the debate on reconciliation and nation-building (N=154).