Introduction : Memory Activism and Alternative Commemorative Practices after Conflict

Abstract

This chapter introduces the book’s inquiries into the mnemonic practices and claims of memory activists as they engage with remembrance and alternative knowledge production of otherwise silenced and unwanted pasts. It presents a framework for the analysis of non-state commemorations as alternative commemorative events, as they become apparent in the aftermath of war and violence. By utilizing Ann Rigney’s memory-activism nexus (2018), it examines the ways in which memory activists, as local actors, claim agency and space by establishing alternative commemorative events marked on alternative calendars. Finally, the methodological approach of this study is discussed, and a generational lens is proposed as a means of delving deeper into the shifts in and nuances of the practices of memory activists.