Memory Politics and Activist Memory - Dr. Dovilė Budrytė
Dr. Dovilė Budrytė, Georgia Gwinnett College, in an interview on memory politics. This interview is part of the interview series " Expert Voices on Memory Politics" realized with the financial support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Kanada and Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.
The interviews were recorded during the October 2022 conference "Addressing the Past - Shaping the Future".
Dr. Dovilė Budrytė discusses the concept of ‘activist memory’ under the umbrella of memory politics. She identifies activist memory as education about past trauma which is beneficial for supporting and promoting human rights. However, Dr. Budrytė stresses that focusing on our own community's suffering is in fact exclusive and narrow. There is a need to understand trauma beyond the borders of one’s own community. Lithuania has recently seen increased attention to the Roma genocide. Of particular interest is the cooperation between Roma and Jewish communities, where both parties have shown genuine attempts at understanding each other’s traumatic experiences. This example demonstrates how it is possible to transcend the borders of one’s own community. It is this feeling of human vulnerability that is essential for the promotion of human rights. Dr. Budrytė also explains how structural changes during times of crisis reignite memory (politics). New traumas, such as the current war in Ukraine, bring up memories from the past.
EUCAnet (Europe Canada Network) is a hub for experts primarily located in Canada that work on European and Canadian current issues from a transatlantic perspective. These experts offer commentary and expertise and are available for media interviews and public talks. We are a public outreach platform – that makes scholarly knowledge available and meaningful to the public in times when the need for evidence based knowledge and public debate is crucial. Our goal is to foster the Canada Europe Transatlantic Dialogue with the aim of supporting the process of informing public policy making.
Focus on : European Studies, Transatlantic Studies, Global Studies, Issues of Democracy, Populism, Memory Politics, Migration.
Official Site: http://www.eucanet.org
