Doctoral Dissertation Research: On the Formation and Transformation of Collective Memory in Family Conversations

The New School, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT William Hirts/Alexandru Cuc - 0236764 Why do families, colleagues, and even nations come to remember the past in the same way? How do initially discrepant memories come to converge on a single rendering of the past? Will everyday conversations change people's memories so that a collective memory emerges? And why do some memories spread across a group, while others remain localized or disappear? With NSF support, under the supervision of Dr. William Hirst, Alex Cuc addresses these critical issues for the study of collective memory, focusing on the formation of collective memories in families. To a large extent, researchers have failed to examine the effect of social structure on memory, concentrating on universal mental mechanisms that serve as the foundation for mnemonic processing. Mr. Cuc innovatively explores the interaction between these well-understood mental mechanisms and the less understood dynamics of conversation as he articulates the conditions under which collective memories are formed through conversation. The intellectual merits of the project stem primarily from the fresh insights Mr. Cuc offers about this interaction and the rigorous methodology he develops to chart this interaction. Broader impacts of the project include a better understanding of the formation of collective memories, not just of families, but of any group, including nations. This understanding serves as a foundation for exploring in the future the way collective memories support group identity, be it family identity or national identity.