HPEB00032U Materiality and Memory in post-Soviet Central Asia

This course will focus on the relationship between materiality and memory, and more specifically will examine how collective notions of the past are created in Central Asia, by approaching objects, structures, cityscapes, and landscapes (or the absence thereof) as stimuli of social memory. By looking into a range of spatial contexts and historical settings across the region, the course will draw on a variety of theoretical perspectives and problematisations not only of materiality and memory, but also of such notions as belonging, creation of place, and construction of space.