This panel takes up a variety of interrelated issues dealing with collective memory and national narratives. How do actors and national societies construct narratives of their past and how do those accountings change over time? Does economic crisis influence such cultural dynamics? How do political actors deal with very materially focused questions about the past – such as whether to unearth graves that hold the victims of past conflicts? And how do national interpretations of the past influence the political trajectory of contemporary societies? This panel deals with all of these issues and others, drawing together historians, sociologists and political scientists.