Stages of Memory - Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces Between

Stages of Memory
Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces Between

Honorary doctorate lecture by James E. Young

Når: 15. nov. 2018
Tidspunkt: 11:00
Slutter: 15. nov. 2018
Time: 12:00
Where: Dokkhuset Scene

How do we articulate a void without filling it in? How can we formalize irreparable loss without seeming to repair it? These questions are at the center of professor James E. Young’s work with memorial sites and exhibitions.

Professor Young has been called on from around the world, for New York City's 9/11 Memorial, at exhibits devoted to the arts of Holocaust memory, and throughout Norway's memorial process for the murders at Utøya, to help guide the grief stricken and survivors in how to mark their losses.

James E. Young has been collaborating closely with NTNU researchers in advising the memorial process at Utøya (Hegnhuset) and for the July 22 Center, and now he’s awarded an honorary doctoral degree at NTNU.

He will give a public lecture at Dokkhuset Thursday 15 November at 11 AM, where he will address what he calls the "stages of memory," which include all acts of commemoration from early stage spontaneous memorials of flowers and candles, to permanent structures integrated into sites of tragedy.

The lecture is free and open to everybody.

See Facebook event for the lecture

A warm welcome to all.

Photos: Wikimedia commons/University of Massachusetts Amherst

About James E. Young

James E. Young is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of English and Judaic & Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Founding Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at UMass Amherst.

His teaching and research areas include narrative theory, cultural memory studies, Holocaust studies, and visual culture. Young has written widely on public art, memorials, and national memory, and many of his publications are world leading reference works within his field.

In 1997, Professor Young was appointed by the Berlin Senate to the five-member Findungskommission for Germany's national "Memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews," which selected Peter Eisenman’s design, finished and dedicated in May 2005. He has also consulted with Argentina’s government on its memorial to the desaparacidos, as well as with numerous city agencies on their memorials and museums. In 2002, he was appointed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to the jury for the “National 9/11 Memorial” design competition, won by Michael Arad and Peter Walker in 2004 and opened on September 2011. Since 2013 he has served as advisor in the memorial processes after July 22 at Utøya (Hegnhuset) and in the Norwegian Government Center (The July 22 Center).

More about Professor James E. Young