In-Person | Streaming Online

Why Isn’t Remembering Enough to Repair?

How Should Societies Remember Their Sins? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian
How Should Societies Remember Their Sins?: A Zócalo Event Series, Supported by The Mellon Foundation
Moderated by William Sturkey, University of North Carolina Historian and Hattiesburg Author

The Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel did not believe in collective guilt. Instead, he asked for repair, and for holding the post-World War II generation of Germans responsible “not for the past, but for the way it remembers the past. And for what it does with the memory of the past.” Other societies and communities have taken up Wiesel’s call—at the national level, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Argentina’s efforts to prosecute Dirty War military leaders, and at the local level, movements like the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission in North Carolina and land back efforts in the Pacific Northwest. What comes after we remember, from apology and forgiveness to reparations and justice?

Scholars of history and human rights visit Zócalo to discuss what repair looks like, and how different people and places have stumbled and succeeded in its pursuit.

“How Should Societies Remember Their Sins?” is a two-year editorial and event series supported by the Mellon Foundation. Blending scholarly essays and personal stories, we will explore how societies around the world collectively remember their transgressions and make attempts at repair, and how we might imagine new paths forward. Register here for updates on events in the series.


LOCATION:
TBD

More Events in this Series

How Should Societies Remember Their Sins? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian
In-Person | Streaming Online

What Kind of Monuments Do We Deserve?

Beyond debates over keeping statues up or tearing them down, and changing the names of schools and streets, lie more fundamental questions at the intersection of personal and public memory. Whom do we remember, who remembers, and whom does remembering serve? What do we owe to those who lived before us and those who come after us? How can we …

How Should Societies Remember Their Sins? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian
In-Person | Streaming Online

Does Confronting Our History Build a Better Future?

Recent attempts to confront difficult history appear to be dividing the United States and entangling communities in cultural and legal conflict. But historians, social justice activists, and many others argue that grappling with the sins of the past, and the way they reverberate into the present, is a necessary foundation for reimagining the future. What are the best and most …