Two New Books on Memory Activism

This book panel will discuss two brand new books on memory activism: Yifat Gutman's Memory Activism. Reimagining the Past for the Future of Israel Palestine and Jenny Wüstenberg's Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany. Together with the two authors, key experts on memory studies, from different disciplines and countries, will debate the central arguments, conceptual innovations, and empirical evidence presented in the books. We will compare the productive differences between the two approaches, as well as discuss the implications for past and ongoing instances of memory activism, such as in Charlottesville, Virginia. In particular, we will gauge to what extent the ideas put forward in these books can be fruitful for thinking about non-progressive and right-wing memory protests.