Dr. Jenny Wüstenberg

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In our recent article in Memory Studies, Yifat Gutman and I define memory activism as the strategic commemoration of the past to challenge (or protect) dominant views on the past and the institutions that represent them. The goal of memory activism is mnemonic change or to resist change, that is, it can be used for causes across the political spectrum.

I have been working on this phenomenon for many years, starting out by focusing on postwar Germany. Currently, I am studying memory activism in the context of memories of biodiversity loss and family separation policies under the broad umbrella of slow memory. I have been engaged in a number of collaborative projects on this topic, resulting most recently in the Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (with Yifat Gutman) and De-Commemoration (with Sarah Gensburger).

Relevant publications on memory activism:

Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany
Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism

Edited with Yifat Gutman (forthcoming in 2023).
De-Commemoration - Making Sense of Contemporary Calls to Remove Statues and Rename Places,

Edited with Sarah Gensburger (Berghahn Books, 2023).
Dé-Commémoration - Quand Le Monde Déboulonne Des Statues Et Renomme Des Rues

Edited with Sarah Gensburger (Fayard, 2023).
Agency in Transnational Memory Politics

Edited with Aline Sierp (Berghahn Publishers July 2020). 
‘Challenging the Meaning of the Past from Below: A Typology for Comparative Research on Memory Activists’

Memory Studies Vol.15, No. 6, with Yifat Gutman, December 2022.
‘Protest cycles and contentious moments in memory activism: insights from post-war Germany’

In Remembering Activism: Social Movements and Memory, edited by Stefan Berger, Sean Scalmer, and Christian Wicke, Routledge, 2021.
‘Vom alternativen Laden zum Dienstleistungsbetrieb: the Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt – A Case Study in Activist Memory Politics’

German Studies Review, Vol.32 No.3, October 2009. 
‘Memory Activism’

Entry in MeMiRe – A Discursive Glossary