Siting, citing and reciting commemoration have taken many forms, most spectacularly in the Arab intifadas.  What are some of the contemporary forms of political commemoration as they are inscribed on space?  How do conflicting commemorative acts co-inhabit, or do they displace each other?  How are spaces of commemoration narrated or otherwise tied into narrative flow? How and when does commemoration become an act of resistance? How is commemoration deployed in political processes of repression?  When and how is commemoration banned, suspended, punished? How are urban heritage sites made available for consumption in the construction of either state power or resistance? Sites for discussion and presentation may include those in Tunis, Cairo, Libya, Syria, the demolished former Pearl Roundabout in Manama, Bahrain; Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, the Hariri shrine, and the National Museum; Hizballah’s Mlita Museum in South Lebanon; Ma’man Allah cemetery in Jerusalem and the so-called Museum of Tolerance to be built on its ruins. We will connect and compare these to commemorative sites in other contested places: Mexico City’s Zocalo, Johannesburg’s Sauer Street, outside Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters,and the steps of Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral; Tiananmen Square, Beijing;  New York’s Zucotti Park and the symbolics of Wall Street; “Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo” in Buenos Aires; the Washington Mall; and London’s Trafalgar Square.

>>Discuss in the Conversations Forum