Anthropology @ AUC
ANTH 5280
History & Memory
Fall 2014 Syllabus
Updated 31 October 2014
Instructor: Dr. Hakem Al-Rustom
Office: HUSS – 2105
Office hours:
E-mail: [email protected]
Class location: HUSS 143
Meeting time: W 17:00 – 19:25
+ Sat 29 Nov
Interdisciplinary Seminar taught jointly at AUB and AUC
Supported by a Mellon Foundation Grant (AUC)
School of Humanities and Social Sciences (AUC)
and the Art and Humanities Initiative (AUB)
Course instructors:
Dr. Hakem Al-Rustom, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, AUC
Dr. Nadia Bou Ali, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Arts and Humanities Initiative, AUB
Course Description
The relationship between History and Memory has occupied the attention of many fields of
inquiry from history and anthropology to psychoanalysis and philosophy. While memory has
been conventionally thought of as a category for understanding the role of the past in the
formation of the individual subject, the implications of memory on collective social
formations has been a point of more recent investigation in the humanities and social
sciences. For example, Maurice Halbwachs notion of ‘collective memory’, Pierre Nora’s
‘sites of memory’, and Paul Connerton’s ‘organized forgetting’ shed the light on the ways in
which societies remember, commemorate as well as forget and erase events and episodes of
individual and collective pasts. Memory becomes a site on which a
society/culture/community projects its anxieties about repetition, change, representation,
authenticity, and identity.
The relationship between the past and the present is at the core of memory studies and to a
large extent history as a scholarly practice. The course aims to explore various ways of
thinking of the relationship between history and memory, as well as problematizes the clearcut distinction between the ‘past’, the ‘present’, and the ‘future’ as separate temporal units of
analysis. It provides a theoretical introduction to the field of memory studies and the more
recent critiques of it by examining a variety of themes and ethnographies.
History and memory are important aspects to understand ‘imagined’ political projects
(Benedict Anderson), and the ways nationalist movements and states seek to write history and
control collective memory. Meanwhile, collective memories are equally important sites of
contesting the hegemonic rendition of the past bringing to the surface the subverted episodes
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of state violence, inequalities, and exclusions. Furthermore, memories are sites of resistance
where minorities and subaltern groups make cultural and political claims through asserting
their right to historicity (Michel-Rolph Trouillot).
As such, the course unbinds and unpacks the political implications of the seemingly natural
dichotomy between remembering and forgetting. The readings and discussions venture into
unthinking temporalities of the past and present as determinants of the future that is to come.
The readings will explore anthropological approaches to the study of memory as stated above
as well as the works of thinkers like Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, Lauren Berlant, Robert
Meister, and Reinhardt Koselleck. Through this cross-disciplinary engagement, history and
memory are entertained as sites of knowledge production around following themes:
1. Approaches to Memory: Subjectivity and Collectivity
2. Locating Collective Memory
3. Memory and Violence
4. Memory After the Fact
Assessment
1. Weekly response papers + Class Presentations
2. Three essays, 1500–2000 (10% each)
4. Final Essay, min. 3500 words
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30%
30%
40%
More than 1 unexcused absence
–4% per absence
Please refer to the general AUC regulations as well as class regulations below.
Grade Scale
A
A-
93-100
90-92.9
B+
B
B-
87-89.9
83-86.9
80-82.9
C+
C
C-
77-79.9
73-76.9
70-72.9
D+
D
F
67-69.9
60-66.9
0-59.9
Class participation & reading requirements:
This course is rich with readings that will challenge you to think differently of the “past”.
You are expected to read on average 120 pages per class/week and be ready to actively
engage in class discussions. While in class, you are expected and highly encouraged to bring
an article, a media piece, or a current question/event/debate that is taking place in Egypt,
which is also relevant to the course. It is essential that you do the assigned readings for each
class before coming to class. Fulfilling these requirements is the cornerstone to benefiting
from and enjoying this class.
There is no required textbook for this course. Articles and book chapters will be available in
PDF format on Blackboard.
It is a course requirement to have in-hand copies of each day’s
readings while attending class.
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Writing response papers, 500 words each, due every Tuesday by 5pm on Blackboard
These short response papers allow you to engage critically with each week’s readings that
would ultimately feed into our class discussion. That is why they are due 24 hours before our
class to everyone would have the time to read them before coming to class. These papers are
not meant to be a summary of the one or all the readings, rather a critical engagement with at
least two of the readings.
Writing essays, 1500–2000 words each
The essays are a way to help you to think critically with the course material, participate better
in class discussion, and prepare for the final examinations. Each paper must seek to answer a
question either from the syllabus or out of class discussion. You can pose your own question
that you want to answer. Answers should engage with the readings of the specified topics,
and should engage the readings of at least 2 weeks:
Essay 1, due Mon 20 Oct (Topic 1)
Essay 2, due Mon 17 Nov (Topic 2)
Essay 3, due Wed 3 Dec (Topic 3) – due in class.
Please note:
 All essays are due by 12 noon on the specified date, except otherwise indicated
 I do not accept essays by email. If you don’t come to AUC on Mondays, then either
put it my mailbox on Sundays, or arrange with a colleague to hand it in on your
behalf.
Essay Marking Criteria:
Excellent
Answer written in an essay format.
Bibliography, references, pages numbered,
& word-count included?
Overall structure of essay (argument that
builds well to conclusion)
Extent to which the essay provides an
answer to the question/s posed
Use of ethnographic/historical examples
(relevance, quality of description, etc) to
support the argument
Understanding wider theoretical debates &
Thinking beyond the question.
Fluency of essay (writing style, including
grammar, syntax, spelling and punctuation)
YES
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Good
Average
Poor
NO
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is a serious offence at AUC and any academic institution and can result with
failing the course and even expulsion from the university. It is your responsibility to insure
that all the work you present (orally or written, examined or unexamined, formally or
informally) is originally yours. If it is not, you are required to indicate the source of your
information and to give credit to the actual author of the work.
Every student should familiarise her/himself with AUC statement on Academic Integrity.
Make sure you visit all the links including the one entitled “Avoiding plagiarism” on the
following link: http://www.aucegypt.edu/academics/integrity/Students/Pages/default.aspx
Attendance Policy
American University in Cairo university-wide attendance policy:
"A student who misses more than the equivalent of three weeks of class meetings
during a semester for any reason may be assigned a reduced grade for the course
— including the grade of “F” — solely on the basis of inadequate attendance,
regardless of excuse... Students who miss fewer than three weeks of class sessions
may not be penalized on the grounds of attendance alone... Students are
personally responsible for making up any academic tasks and assignments
missed due to their absence."
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Attendance is a requirement to pass this course. According to AUC policy, any
student who misses 3 class sessions (i.e 3 weeks of class) or more will automatically
fail the course.
Any student who misses more than 1 class (i.e 1 week) without a legitimate reason,
each absence thereafter will drop the grade by 4%.
The same rules are applied for doing class readings and submitting work on time.
Unexcused delay in submitting work will result in deduction of 4% per day.
Attendance as well as class participation in class discussions are obligatory.
If there is any health or compassionate reason that would hinder you, please discuss
the matter with me or drop me an email. I would be happy to help in whichever means
I could, so don’t hesitate to bring up any issue as early as possible so we can deal with
it while we have time. Please do not leave it to the end of the term, as I will be left
with little options and time to act in your favour. This becomes especially important
for those students who are in their senior year and expect to graduate soon.
Please make sure you arrive to class on time so as not to disrupt class discussions. If
there is a reason that hinders your class attendance on time, please discuss the matter
with me.
I require seeing a medical note from the AUC clinic for any absence or a missed
assignment/examination due to health reasons. To be granted an excused absence or
extension, the medical note must clearly state that the student was unable to attend
class or do the work for the specified date/s for legitimate medical reason.
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Strictly enforced classroom rules:
 The classroom is an ideal place to discuss and exchange our ideas freely in order
to learn from each other, and from the texts we are reading. Some of the topics we
will be covering might be controversial, and thus we should allow all perspectives
to be expressed in the class discussions. Disagreements are welcome, and you are
not going to be graded according to your opinions and views.
 We should all be respectful of each other’s opinions, however, any remarks that
would insult or discriminate against a person or a group of people will not be
welcomed in the classroom.

Mobile
phones
and
all
communication devices and programs are strictly
prohibited while the class is in session. Please turn
them off or put them on silent before the class
begins.
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Mobile phones may not be put on
desks, please put them in your bag, pocket, or on the
floor if necessary.
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Students, who leave the classroom
early, may not re-enter. Attendance sheet will be
taken at the end of each class.
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Repeated late entry into the
classroom after the lecture or class discussion
started distracts our flow. In this case, they may be
counted as half absence for these classes.
While in class, you must have a copy of the day’s readings. It is recommended
that you bring a hardcopy of the readings. While reading off your computers or
tablets is acceptable, they could be distracting as students keep chat programs
open on their computers. In this case, I may ask the student to leave the classroom.
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Reading Schedule
Week 1 – Wed 10 Sept: Introduction to the Course
Film Screening: “Memories of Underdevelopment” Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Topic One: Approaches to ‘Collective’ Memory
Week 2 – Wed 17 Sept: Theorizing and Conceptualizing Past
Conceptualizing the Past
 EH Carr (1961) ‘The Historian and His Facts’ in What is History? (p. 7–30)
 Reinhardt Kosseleck, Future’s Past (chs.1, 2, & 3)
 Walter Benjamin, “Thesis on the Philosophy of History” In Illuminations, pp. 388–
408.
The Politics of Memory: Between the Colonial and the Nationalist
 Susannah Radstone, Bill Schwarz, ‘Mapping Memory’ in Memory: Histories,
Theories, and Debates: 1-15
 Anne Norton (1993) ‘Ruling Memory’ Political Theory Vol. 21(3): 453-463.
(memory’s relation power)
 Jean-Rolph Trouillot () ‘The Three Faces of Sans Souci’ in Silencing the Past. (pp.
31–69).
Week 3 – Wed 24 Sept: Approaches from the Sociology
 Maurice Halbwachs (1950) On Collective Memory. New York: Harper and Row. Pp.
41–53; 167–189
 Pierre Nora (1989) ‘Between Memory and History: Les Leius de Memoire’.
Representations 26:7-25.
 Paul Connerton (1989) How Societies Remember. Cambridge UP.
Week 4 – Wed 1 Oct: Concluding Topic 1
Video Conference with Dr. Nadia Bou Ali to conclude above readings and revisit
Walter Benjamin in light of Fasolt.
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Walter Benjamin, “Thesis on the Philosophy of History” In Illuminations, pp. 388–
408.
Constantin Fasolt (2004) The Limits of History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chapters 1 & 5.
No class Wed. 8 Oct, make-up class Sat. 29 Nov.
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Topic Two: Locating Collective Memory
Building on our readings that examined memory as shared and ‘collective’, we look in this
section on the different sites of memory (Nora) by looking at materiality and immateriality of
memory in everyday lives in places such as landscape, memorial sites, commemoration
rituals, invoking events in everyday speech, food, music, cemeteries, among others.
Week 5 – Wed 15 Oct: Space
 Foote K. 1997. ‘Chapter 1: A Landscape of Violence’ in Shallowed Ground:
America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy. Austin: Univ. Tex. Press (landscape
as carrier of meaning). (pp. 1–35)
 Boyarin, Jonathan (1994). ‘Space, Time, and the Politics of Memory’ in Remapping
Memory: The Politics of TimeSpace, Jonathan Boyarin, ed. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1994. (pp. 1–38).
 Slyomovics S. 1994. The memory of place: rebuilding the pre-1948 Palestinian
village. Diaspora J. Transnatl. Stud. 3:157–68
 Feldman I. 2006. ‘Home as a refrain: remembering and living displacement in Gaza’.
Hist. Memory 18:10–47
 Doris, Francis, Leonie Kellaher, and Georgina Neophytou (2002). ‘The Cemetery: A
Site for the Construction of Memory, Identity, and Ethnicity’ In Social Memory and
History: Anthropological Perspectives, eds. JJ Climo, MG Cattell, pp. 95–110.
Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira
Week 6 – Wed 22 Oct: (Im)Materialities of Memory
On Food
 Sutton D. 2001. Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory.
London: Berg. Chapters 1–3, pp. 19–102.
 Siskind J. 1992. The invention of Thanksgiving: a ritual of American nationality. Crit.
Anthropol. 12(2):167–91
 Ghassan Hage, Migration, Food, Memory and Home Building in Memory: Histories,
Theories, and Debates edited by Susannah Radstone, Bill Schwarz
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On Ritual and Myth
Schielke S. 2008. Policing ambiguity: Muslim saints’ day festivals and the moral
geography of public space in Egypt. Am. Ethnol. 35(4):539–52
Shenoda, Maryann (2007). ‘Displacing Dhimmi, Maintaining Hope: Unthinkable
Coptic Representations of Fatimid Egypt’ International Journal of Middle East
Studies 39(4): 606–606.
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Week 7 – Wed 29 Oct: Heritage and the (Im)Materialities of Memory (127)
 Gillis, JR, ed. 1994. ‘Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship’ by Gillis
and ‘Identity, Heritage and History’ by Lowenthal, from Commemorations: The
Politics of National Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. (Introduction pp.
3–20 and Ch. 2 pp. 41–54)
 White GM. 2004. National subjects: September 11 and Pearl Harbor. American
Ethnologist 31(3): 293–310
 Gür, Aslı (2007). ‘Stories in Three Dimensions: Narratives of Nation and the
Anatolian Civilizations Museum’ in The Politics of Public Memory in Turkey. Ersa
Ozyurek. (pp. 40– 69).
 Washabaugh, William (2012). Flamenco Music and National Identity in Space.
Ashgate. Chapters 1, 6, 7, 10, postscript
Topic Three: Subjective Approaches to Memory
Week 8 – Wed 5 Nov: Psychoanalysis as a Theory of History
 Freud Screen Memory and Mystic Writing Pad (Both in the reader)
 Richard Terdiman “Memory in Freud” in Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates pp.
93-109
 Norman Brown: “The Disease Called Man” and “Neurosis and History” in Life
Against Death.
 Freud: Civilisation and its discontents (, ch.7-8 pp.83-112)
Week 9 – Wed 12 Nov: Trauma as Repetition
Week 10 – Wed 19 Nov: Loss, Pain, and Unfinished Pasts
 Freud, Mourning and Melancholia
 “Trauma, representation, and historical consciousness”, “Trauma, dystopia of the
spirit”, “Falling into History”, from Memory, Trauma, and history by Micheal S.Roth
pp. 77-122
 Kojin Karatani, History and Repetition: On the Eighteenth Brumaire, p. 1-26
Week 11 – Wed 26 Nov: Justice and Human Rights
 Robert Meister, After Evil: A Politics of Human Rights. Columbia UP. (Ch.1-2-3-10)
Week 12 – Sat 29 Nov: Memories of War
The Lebanese Case
 Walid Sadek, “In the Presence of the Corpse” in Third Text, Volume 26, Issue 4, 201.
Special Issue: Not, not Arab, and “The Next of Survivors”
 Ernest Gellner, How the System Manages to go on Functioning in War-Torn
Lebanon, Times February 198
 Max Weiss, In the Shadow of Sectarianism (Prologue, chapter one, epilogue)
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Ghasan Hage, The Fetishism of Identity: class, politics, and processes of identification
in Lebanon, unpublished dissertation, Ch. 4, p.110-15
Ilham Khuri Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global
Radicalism, 1860-1914. (Berkeley, 2010)pp.1-15
Usama Makdisi, Cultures of Sectarianism, (University of California Press, 2000) p.114
Nadia Bou Ali, Butrus al-Bustani and the Shipwreck of the Nation, Middle East
Literatures (16:3, 266-281)
Rohit Goel, War and Peace in Lebanon (unpublished dissertation chapter, University
of Chicago)
Topic Four: Memory: After the ‘Fact’
Week 13 – Wed 3 Dec: After the Fact: Ruptures and Continuities
 Walid Sadek, “The Next of Survivors”
 Lisa Yoneyama (1999) Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space, and the Dialectics of
Memory. University of California Press. (Hiroshima Memorial erases the South
Korean victims of the Bomb)
Week 14 – Wed 10 Dec: After the Fact: Exhibiting the Native
The case of the Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC
 Sonya Atalay, (2006) “No Sense of Struggle: Creating a Context for Survivance at the
NMAI,” American Indian Quarterly, 30 (3/4): 597-618.
 Patricia Penn Hilden, “Race for Sale: Narratives of Possession in Two ‘Ethnic’
Museums,” The Drama Review 44, 3, (Fall 2000): 11-36. READ PP. 23-33.
 Claire Smith “Decolonising the museum: the National Museum of the American
Indian in Washington, DC,” Antiquity 79 (2005): 424–439.
 Fath Davis Ruffins , “Culture Wars Won and Lost: Ethnic Museums on the Mall, Part
I: The National Holocaust Museum and the National Museum of the American
Indian,” Radical History Review (1997), 79-100.
 Amanda J. Cobb, ‘The National Museum of the American Indian as Cultural
Sovereignty,” American Quarterly 57 no 2 (June 2005): 485-506.
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