SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

COURSE GUIDE 2023/2024

DEPARTMENT OF

POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

PI3570

Memory and the Politics of the Past

Welcome to the School of Social Science

This course guide gives information about the social science course you have chosen to study.

It must be read in conjunction with the School of Social Science Student Handbook, which is
available on the School of Social Science Information for Undergraduates page on MyAberdeen.

MyAberdeen is the University of Aberdeen’s Online Learning Environment. This is where you will
find learning materials, resources and activities associated with the courses you are studying.

MyAberdeen also provides direct access to TurnitinUK, an online originality checking service,
through which you may be asked to submit completed assignments.

You can log in to MyAberdeen using your University username and password (which you use to
access the University network). Further information on MyAberdeen including Quick Guides and
video tutorials, along with information about TurnitinUK, is available from the Toolkit.

Course Co-ordinator
The Course Co-ordinator for PI3570 is Dr Tom Bentley (Room: F36, Edward Wright Building; email:
[email protected]. Office hours: Thursdays, 12-1pm.

Departmental Support
Susan Mitchell, email: [email protected].

External Examiner
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Dr Gabriela Borz, University of Strathclyde (Politics & International Relations UG)

The External Examiner’s name is provided for information purposes only.

Students should not, under any circumstances, contact the External Examiner.

Credit Rating
This course is offered in the second half-session. It has a rating of 120 credit points; that is, it is
expected to take up 50% of the time of a full-time student.

Course Requirements and Assessment

Course overview

This course examines the ways in which societal understandings of the past shape political
outcomes in the present. Introducing students to the concept of ‘Collective Memory’, the course
engages with key theoretical and empirical debates in this emerging field of Politics and IR. It asks
such questions as: How can narratives of the past reproduce or challenge contemporary power
relations? To what extent do political actors and institutions engineer particular historical
narratives that serve their current interests? To what extent are societal ideas of the past
malleable? What is the relationship between ‘remembering’, ‘forgetting’ and political power?

Course Requirements and Assessment

Requirements

 Satisfactory attendance at, and participation in, tutorials

 Submission of one 3,000-word essay by the relevant deadline
 Undertaking a take home exam (details to be confirmed).

Assessment
This course is assessed by one 3,000-word essay (50%) and an examination (50%).
Essay/Dissertation deadline dates: 4pm on March 27th.

Knowledge and Understanding:

During this module, students will acquire a knowledge and understanding of:
 Key debates and issues related to the concept of ‘Collective Memory’.
 The ways in which politicians and states employ the past in pursuit of particular
objectives
 The ways in which certain groups challenge and disrupt ‘official’ narratives of the past
 The nuances and political implications of key empirical cases where perceptions of the
past are highly contested.

Intellectual Skills:
Through this course, students will be able to:

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  Undertake critical analysis regarding the political significance of competing narratives
of the past
 Critically assess the overlap and distinctions between such concepts as ‘history’,
‘historiography’ and ‘memory’.
 Critically apply theoretical debates regarding memory studies to relevant empirical case
studies
 Develop the ability to form an independent judgement regarding contentious questions
of how the past is employed for political objectives in the present.

Practical Skills:
Through this module, students will demonstrate and further develop important practical skills:
 locating and using research material, and selecting material from an extensive reading
list
 generating their own source material
 assessing and analysing that material
 making effective use of IT for information retrieval and written presentations
 research a wide range of relevant information with little formal guidance from the
reading list
 write highly analytical essays developing a sophisticated argument
 analysing and commenting on the arguments of others

Transferable Skills:
Through the module the course will cement and refine important transferable skills, including:
 effective oral and written communication and analysis
 time and project management
 a self-reliant and self-critical approach
 IT skills for researching and presenting information

Essay Questions (deadline: 4pm March 27th 2024)

1. What are the criticisms of the concept of collective memory? Are they valid?

2. How can we distinguish between ‘history’ and ‘memory’?

3. How do democracies and authoritarian/totalitarian regimes differ in terms of memory

formation?

4. Using at least one case study, evaluate the ‘presentist’ model of social memory.

5. How and why have representations of the Holocaust shifted in Israeli elite discourse?

6. Compare and contrast two states’ representations of the Holocaust.

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 7. Critically assess how the ‘culture war’ over the British Empire relates to the participants’
political priorities in the present.

8. Using at least one case study, critically evaluate the role of analogy in the legitimation of
warfare.

9. Critically evaluate the role of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in societies ‘coming to
terms’ with the past.

10. To what extent are Japan’s representations of WWII an obstacle to more cordial relations
with other East Asian states?

11. How and why have representations of Bloody Sunday shifted in British elite discourse?

12. Explain the proliferation of states showing contrition for the colonial past.

13. Explain the allure of conspiracy theories.

Anonymous marking
There is an expectation within the University and the School that any assignment that contributes
towards your overall course mark or programme award (e.g., in-course assignments, projects,
dissertations, or presentations) will be marked anonymously. This means that the person marking
your assignment will not know your identity when they do so. There are cases when this is not
possible, practical, or beneficial. If you have questions about whether and why your assignments
in a particular course are being marked anonymously, contact your course co-ordinator.

Feedback Deadlines: April 17th.

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Lectures
Lectures for this course take place on Mondays at 12-1pm in Cruickshank G08.
EXCEPT the lecture on February 26, which will take place at 1pm.

University
teaching
Week Week commencing
timetabling Topic
week number

1 26 22 January Introduction:
Individual and
collective memory

2 27 29 January Debates in collective

memory

3 28 05 February Memory and the

Holocaust: Israel

4 29 12 February Memory and the

Holocaust: Germany

5 30 19 February British Empire:

Culture War

6 31 26 February Historical Analogy

7 32 04 March Truth and

Reconciliation
Commissions

8 33 11 March Bloody Sunday

9 34 18 March Commemoration in
Japanese politics

10 35 25 March Colonialism and

political apologies
Essay deadline:
March 27th

N/A 36-38 01 – 19 April Spring Break

11 39 22 April Conspiracy theories

12 40 29 April Exams/Assessment

5
 University
teaching
Week Week commencing
timetabling Topic
week number

13 41 06 May Exams/Assessment

Lecture Outlines

Lecture Outlines

Week 1 Lecture topic

Introduction: Individual memory, collective memory and its discontents
Week 2 Lecture topic
Debates in collective memory: hegemonic and counter memory
Week 3 Lecture topic
Memory and the Holocaust part I: Sites of memory in Israel
Week 4 Lecture topic
Memory and the Holocaust part II: The different stages of Germany confronting the past
Week 5 Lecture topic
Culture war: Debates over the legacy of the British Empire
Week 6 Lecture topic
War and historical analogy: From Vietnam to the ‘War on Terror’
Week 7 Lecture topic
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in post-conflict societies
Week 8 Lecture topic
Conflicting memories of Bloody Sunday
Week 9 Lecture topic
Commemoration in Japanese politics: Between the heroic and the contrite
Week 10 Lecture topic
Memory and European Empire: The question of apologies
Week 11 Lecture topic
Conspiracy theories

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Tutorials
You will be able to choose your tutorials and finalise your personal timetable via MyTimetable.
Step-by-step online help will guide you through this process.

Once signed up for a tutorial group, you MUST stay in that group. Changes of group will only be
allowed in exceptional circumstances and must be approved in advance by the course co-
ordinator.

Week (uni Week commencing Tutorial topic

teaching
week) Essay/Assignment Deadlines

1 (26) 22 January No tutorial

2 (27) 29 January Same as lecture

3 (28) 05 February Same as lecture

4 (29) 12 February Same as lecture

5 (30) 19 February Same as lecture

6 (31) 26 February Same as lecture

7 (32) 04 March Same as lecture

8 (33) 11 March Same as lecture

9 (34) 18 March Same as lecture

10 (35) 25 March Same as lecture

N/A (36-38) 01 – 19 April Spring Break

11 (39) 22 April Same as lecture

12 (40) 29 April Exams/Assessment

13 (41) 06 May Exams/Assessment

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Reading
There is no one textbook for the class. However, I highly recommend consulting:
Olick, J. K., et al. (2011). The Collective Memory Reader. New York ; Oxford, Oxford University Press.
While all the following books/articles are higly recommended, ones in bold are required readings for the
tutorials. Students should also do their own research above and beyond the set reading list.

Tutorial 1
Assmann, A. (2006). Memory, individual and collective. The Oxford handbook of contextual political
analysis. R. E. Goodin and C. Tilly. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 210-224.

Assmann, A. (2008). "Transformations between History and Memory." Social Research 75(1): 49-72.

Connerton, P. (1989). How societies remember. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Coser, L. A. (1992). Introduction: Maurice Halbwachs 1877-1945. On collective memory. M. Halbwachs and
L. A. Coser. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 1-34.

Cubitt, G. (2007). History and memory. Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Glassberg, D. (1996). "Public History and the Study of Memory." The Public Historian 18(2): 7-23.

Halbwachs, M. (1980). The collective memory. New York, Harper & Row.

Halbwachs, M. and L. A. Coser (1992). On collective memory. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Langenbacher, E. and Y. Shain (2010). Power and the past : collective memory and international relations.
Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press.

Misztal, B. A. (2003). Theories of social remembering. Buckingham, Open University Press.

Nora, P. (1989). "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire." Representations(26): 7-24.

Olick, J. K., et al. (2011). The collective memory reader. New York ; Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Wang, Z. (2018) Memory Politics, Identity and Conflict: Historical Memory as a Variable. Palgrave
Macmillan.

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Coser, L. A. (1992). Introduction: Maurice Halbwachs 1877-1945. On collective memory. M. Halbwachs and
L. A. Coser. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 1-34.

Hobsbawm, E. J. (1983). Introduction: Inventing traditions. The invention of tradition. E. J. Hobsbawm and
T. O. Ranger. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992: 1 - 14.

Kundera, M. (1980). The book of laughter and forgetting. London, Faber.

Kundera, M. (1984). The Unbearable Lightness of Being. London, Faber.

Molden, B. (2016) “Resistant pasts verses mnemonic hegemony: On the power relations of collective
memory.” Memory Studies 9(2): 125-142.

Olick, J. K. (2007). "From usable pasts to the return of the repressed." The Hedgehog Review 9(2): 19-31.

Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen eighty-four. London, Secker & Warburg.

Popular Memory Group (2011). From "Popular Memory: Theory, Politics, Method. The collective memory
reader. J. K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi and D. Levy. New York ; Oxford, Oxford University Press: 254-260.
Rieff, D (2016). In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and its Ironies. London: Yale University Press.

Said, E. W. (2000). "Invention, Memory, and Place." Critical Inquiry 26(2): 175-192.

Schudson, M. (1992). Watergate in American memory : how we remember, forget, and reconstruct the
past. New York, Basic Books.

Schwartz, B. (1996). "Memory as a cultural system: Abraham Lincoln in World War II." American
Sociological Review 61(5): 908.
Zerubavel, E. (1996). "Social memories: Steps to a sociology of the past." Qualitative Sociology 19(3): 283-
299.

Tutorial 2

David, L. (2017). “Holocuast and genocide memorialisation policies in the Western Balkans and
Israel/Palestine.” Peacebuilding 5(1): 51-66.
Eder, JS (2016) Holocaist Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since
the 1970s. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finkelstein, N. (2000). "The Holocaust Industry." Index on Censorship 29(2): 120-130.

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Gur-Ze'ev, I. and I. Pappe (2003). "Beyond the Destruction of the Other's Collective Memory Blueprints for a
Palestinian/Israeli Dialogue." Theory, Culture & Society 20(1): 93-108.
Gutman, I. (1994). Resistance: the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.

Klar, Y., et al. (2013). "The “Never Again” State of Israel: The Emergence of the Holocaust as a Core
Feature of Israeli Identity and Its Four Incongruent Voices." Journal of Social Issues 69(1): 125-143.

Mintz, A. L. (2001). Popular culture and the sharping of Holocaust memory in America, University of
Washington Press.

Novick, P. (2000). The Holocaust and collective memory: The American experience, Bloomsbury London.

Weitz, Y. (1995). "Political dimensions of Holocaust memory in Israel during the 1950s." Israel Affairs 1(3):
129-145.

Young, J. E. (1990). Writing and rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the consequences of interpretation,
Indiana University Press.

Young, J. E. (1993). The texture of memory: Holocaust memorials and meaning, Yale University Press.

Zertal, I. (2000). "From the People's Hall to the Wailing Wall: A Study in Memory, Fear, and War."
Representations (69): 96-126

Zertal, I. (2005). Israel's Holocaust and the politics of nationhood. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Zerubavel, Y. (1994). "The death of memory and the memory of death: Masada and the Holocaust as
historical metaphors." Representations(45): 72-100.

Tutorial 3

Evans, R. J. (1987). "The New Nationalism and the Old History: Perspectives on the West German
Historikerstreit." The Journal of Modern History 59(4): 761-797.

Eley, G. (2017). “Contemporary Germany and denial: Is ‘Nazism’ all there is to say?” History Workshop
Journal 84: 44-66.
Goldhagen, D. J. (1996). Hitler's willing executioners : ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York,
Alfred A. Knopf.
Kiechel, C. (2024) ““An Asiatic Deed”: The Cambodian Genocide and the West German Right, Or a Study of
an Illiberal Variant of Multidirectional Memory” Journal of Genocide Research
https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2023.2297502

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Knowlton, J. and T. Cates (1993). Forever in the shadow of Hitler? : original documents of the
Historikerstreit, the controversy concerning the singularity of the Holocaust. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.,
Humanities Press.

Low, A. D. (1994). The Third Reich and the holocaust in German historiography : toward the Historikerstreit
of the mid-1980s. Boulder, East European Monographs.

Olick, J. K. (2007). The politics of regret: on collective memory and historical responsibility, Routledge.

Olick, J. K. and D. Levy (1997). "Collective Memory and Cultural Constraint : Holocaust Myth and
Rationality in German Politics." American Sociological Review 62(6): 921 - 936.

Olusoga, D. and C. W. Erichsen (2011). The Kaiser's Holocaust : Germany's forgotten genocide. London,
Faber.
Rothberg, M. (2014). "Multidirectional Memory in Migratory Settings: The Case of Post-Holocaust
Germany." In: Transnational Memory: Circulation, Articulation, Scales Cesari, CD. and Rigney, A. (eds.),
Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 123-146.

Rapaport, L. (1997). Jews in Germany after the Holocaust: Memory, identity, and Jewish-German relations,
Cambridge University Press.

Young, J. E. (1993). The texture of memory: Holocaust memorials and meaning, Yale University Press.

Tutorial 4

Bentley, T (2023) “‘Culture War’: The contradictions of conservative representations in the mnemonic
battle over the British Empire”. In Handbook on the Politics of Memory. Mälksoo, M. (ed.). Edward Elgar
Publishing Ltd., 334-348. I can email a copy to you if required!

Gopal, P. (2016) “Redressing Anti-Imperial Nostalgia.” Race & Class 57(3): 18-30.

Lester, A (2023) The British Empire in the Culture War: Nigel Biggar’s Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, The
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 51(4), 763-795

Lotem, I. (2021) The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence.Cham, Palgrave
(available electronically through the library).

Rasch, A. (2019) ““Keep the Balance”: The Politics of Remembering Empire in Postcolonial Britain.”
Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies 7(2).

Saunders, Robert (2020) “Brexit and Empire: ‘Global Britain’ and the Myth of Imperial Nostalgia.”
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 48(6): 1140-1174.

Priya Satia (2021): Britain’s Culture War: Disguising Imperial Politics as Historical Debate about Empire,
Journal of Genocide Research 24(2), 308-320

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Tinsley, M (2020) “Revisiting nostalgia: imperialism, anticolonialism, and imagining home.” Ethnic and
Racial Studies 43(13): 2327-2355.

Tutorial 5

Ghilani, D et al. (2017). “Looking forward to the past. An interdisciplinary discussion on the use of
histroical analogies and their effects.” Memory Studies 10(3): 274-285.
Furguson, J (2019) “Proletarian politics today: On the perils and possibilities of historical analogy”
Comparative Studies in Society and History 61(1): 4-22.
Khong, Y. F. (1987). "Seduction by Analogy in Vietnam: The Malaya and Korea Analogies." Institutions and
leadership: prospects for the future: 73-74.

Khong, Y. F. (1992). Analogies at war : Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam decisions of 1965.
Princeton, N.J. ; Oxford, Princeton University Press.
Kornprobst, M. (2007). Comparing Apples and Oranges? Leading and Misleading Uses of Historical
Analogies. Millennium 36(1), 29-49.
Lawson, S. (2012). "Putting the “war” in cyberwar: Metaphor, analogy, and cybersecurity discourse in the
United States." First Monday 17(7).
Noon, D. H. (2004). "Operation enduring analogy: World War II, the war on terror, and the uses of historical
memory." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 7(3): 339-364.
Steinweis, A. E. (2005). "The Auschwitz analogy: Holocaust memory and American debates over
intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s." Holocaust and Genocide Studies 19(2): 276-289.
Tuathail, G. Ó. (2003). "“Just out looking for a fight”: American affect and the invasion of Iraq." Antipode
35(5): 856-870.

Tutorial 6

Brahm, E. (2007). "Uncovering the truth: examining truth commission success and impact." International
Studies Perspectives 8(1): 16-35.

Ciobanu, M. (2009). "Criminalising the Past and Reconstructing Collective Memory: The Romanian Truth
Commission." Europe-Asia Studies 61(2): 313-336.
Ephgrave, N. (2015) “Women’s testumony and collective memory: Lessons from South Africa’s TRC and
Rwanda’s gacaca courts”. European Journal of Women’s Studies 22(2) 177-190.
Laplante, L. J. and K. S. Theidon (2007). "Truth with consequences: Justice and reparations in post-Truth
Commission Peru." Human Rights Quarterly 29(1): 228-250.

Miller, G. (2015) “Performative memory and re-victimization: Truth telling and provocation in Sierra Leone.”
Memory Studies 8(2): 242-254.

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Norval, A. J. (1998). "Memory, identity and the (im) possibility of reconciliation: The work of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission in South Africa." Constellations 5(2): 250-265.
Rotberg, R. I. and D. Thompson (2010). Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions, Princeton
University Press.

Shaw, R. (2007). "Memory frictions: localizing the truth and reconciliation commission in Sierra Leone."
International Journal of Transitional Justice 1(2): 183-207.
Verdoolaege, A. and P. Kerstens (2004). "The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the
Belgian Lumumba Commission: A Comparison." Africa Today 50(3): 75-91.

Tutorial 7

Bentley, T. 2016 Empires of Remorse: Memory, Postcolonialism and Apology for Colonial Atrocity New
York: Routledge. (Chapter 5). Available as an ebook through the library.
Bentley, T. (2021) “When is a justice campaign over? Transitional justice, ‘overing’ and Bloody Sunday”.
Cooperation and Conflict 56(4): 394-393
Bentley, T (2021) “A line under the past: Performative temporal segregation in transitional justice” 20(5)L
598-613.
Conway, B. (2003). "Active Remembering, Selective Forgetting, and Collective Identity: The Case of
Bloody Sunday." Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research 3(4): 305 - 323.
Conway, B. (2010). Commemoration and Bloody Sunday: Pathways of Memory. Basingstoke, Palgrave
Macmillan.
Hackett, C. and B. Rolston (2009). "The burden of memory: Victims, storytelling and resistance in Northern
Ireland." Memory Studies 2(3): 355-376.
Hayes, P. and J. Campbell (2005). Bloody Sunday : trauma, pain and politics. London, Pluto Press.
Herron, T. and J. Lynch (2006). "Like 'Ghosts who'd Walked Abroad': Faces of the Bloody Sunday Dead."
Visual Culture in Britain 7(1): 59-77.
Lundy, P. and M. Mcgovern (2008). "Truth, Justice and Dealing with the Legacy of the Past in Northern
Ireland, 1998–2008." Ethnopolitics: Formerly Global Review of Ethnopolitics 7(1): 177 - 193.
Mullan, D. and J. Scally (1997). Eyewitness Bloody Sunday. Dublin, Wolfhound.
Pötzsch, H. (2011). "Renegotiating difficult pasts: Two documentary dramas on Bloody Sunday, Derry 1972."
Memory Studies 5(2): 206-222,
Rosland, S. (2009). "Victimhood, Identity, and Agency in the early phase of the troubles in Northern
Ireland." Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 16(3): 294 - 320.
Saville, M., et al. (2010). "The Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry." The National Archives. Retrieved
7.10.2011, from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://www.bloody-sunday-
inquiry.org/.
Smyth, M. (2000). The human consequences of armed conflict: constructing "victimhood" in the context of
Northern Ireland's Troubles. A farewell to arms? : from 'long war' to long peace in Northern Ireland. M. Cox,
A. Guelke and F. Stephen. Manchester, Manchester University Press: 119 - 135.

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Walsh, D. (2000). Bloody Sunday and the rule of law in Northern Ireland. Basingstoke, Macmillan.
Widgery, J. P. W. B. (2001). Bloody Sunday, 1972 : Lord Widgery's report of events in Londonderry,
Northern Ireland, on 30 January 1972. London, Stationery Office.

Tutorial 8

Dian, Matteo (2017) Contested Memories in Chinese and Japanese Foreign Policy, Elsevier. Available as an
e-book through the library.

Ea, J. (2022) Memory, Institutions, and the Domestic Politics of South Korean–Japanese
Relations. International Organization 76(4):767-798

Fussell, P. (2013). The Great War and modern memory, OUP USA.
Gustafsson, K. (2014) Memory politics and ontological security in Sino-Japanese relations. Asian Studies
Review 38:1 (71-86).
Harootunian, H. (1999). "Memory, mourning, and national morality: Yasukuni Shrine and the reunion of
state and religion in postwar Japan." Nation and religion: perspectives on Europe and Asia: 144-160.
Hein, L. E. and M. Selden (2000). Censoring history: Citizenship and memory in Japan, Germany, and the
United States, ME Sharpe.
Lind, J. M. (2008). Sorry states : apologies in international politics. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
Qui, J (2006) “The Politics of History and Historical Memory in China-Japan Relations” Journal of Chinese
Political Science 11(1): 25-53.

Seaton, P. (2005). “Reporting the 2001 textbook and Yasukuni Shrine controversies: Japanese war
memory snd commemoration in the British media”. Japan Forum 17:3 287-309.
Soh, C. S. (2008). The comfort women: Sexual violence and postcolonial memory in Korea and Japan,
University of Chicago Press.
Tsukamoto, S. (2022). “The counter-boomerang effect of transnational revisionist activism on the memory
of ‘comfort women’”. Memory Studies, 15(6), 1346-1359
Ushiyama, R. (2021). “‘Comfort women must fall’? Japanese governmental responses to ‘comfort
women’ statues around the world”. Memory Studies, 14(6), 1255-1271.
Winter, J. M. (2006). Remembering war: The Great War between memory and history in the twentieth
century, Yale University Press.
Yoshida, T. (2006). The making of the" Rape of Nanking": history and memory in Japan, China, and the
United States, Oxford University Press, USA.

Tutorial 9

Bentley, T. (2015). “The sorrow of empire: Rituals of legitimation and the performative contradictions of
liberalism.” Review of International Studies 41(3): 623-645.
Bentley, T. (2016) Empires of Remorse: Memory, Postcolonialism and Apology for Colonial Atrocity New
York: Routledge. (the library has both hard and electronic copies).

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Bentley, T. (2018) “Colonial apologies and the problem of the transgressor speaking.” Third World
Quarterly. 39(3): 399-417.

Bentley, T. (2020) “Settler state apologies and the elusiveness of forgiveness: The purification ritual that
does not purify.” Contemporary Political Theory 19(3): 381-403 (this is a highly theoretical article. If you’re
looking for something a bit more approachable, I’d recommend starting with something else on the reading
list).

Bentley, T (2022) “The negotiated apology: ‘Double ventriloquism’ in addressing historical wrongs” Global
Studies Quarterly, 2(4), pp. 1-11

Dolan, E (2021) “The gendered politics of recognition and recognizability through political apology.” Journal
of Human Rights 20(5): 614-629.

Friedrich, J. (2022). Settling Accounts at the End of History: A Nonideal Approach to State
Apologies. Political Theory, 50(5), 700-722.

Gibney, M. (2002). "Rethinking Our Sorrow." Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 14(3): 279 - 283.

Gibney, M., et al., Eds. (2008). The age of apology : facing up to the past. Pennsylvania studies in human
rights. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press.
Gibney, M. and E. Roxstrom (2001). "The Status of State Apologies." Human Rights Quarterly 23(4): 911-
939.
Gooder, H. and J. M. Jacobs (2001). "'On The Border Of The Unsayable': The Apology in Postcolonizing
Australia." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 2(2): 229-247.
Jamfa, L. (2008). Germany Faces Colonial History in Namibia: A very Ambiguous “I am Sorry”. The age of
apology : facing up to the past. M. Gibney, R. E. Howard-Hassmann, J.-M. Coicaud and N. Steiner.
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press: 202 - 215.
Kerstens, P. (2008). "Deliver us from original sin": Belgian apologies to Rwanda and the Congo. The age of
apology : facing up to the past. M. Gibney, R. E. Howard-Hassmann, J.-M. Coicaud and N. Steiner.
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press: 187-281.
Lind, J. M. (2008). Sorry states : apologies in international politics. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
Said, E. W. (1994). Culture and imperialism. London, Vintage.
Thompson, J. (2009). "Apology, historical obligations and the ethics of memory." Memory Studies 2(2):
195-210.
Young, R. (1990). White mythologies: writing history and the West. London, Routledge.

Tutorial 10.

Van Prooijen, J-W and K. M. Douglas. (2017). “Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal
crisis situations”. Memory Studies 10(3): 323-333.

STEFANIE, O and J HEATHERSHAW (2012) “Conspiracy Theories in the Post‐Soviet Space”. The Russian
Review 71(4): 551-564

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Knight, P. (2008) “Outrageous Conspiracy Theories: Popular and Official Responses to 9/11 in Germany and
the United States”. New German Critique 103(Winter) 165-193.

Saglam, E. (2020). “What to do with conspiracy theories?: Insights from contemporary Turkey”
Anthropology Today 36(5): 18-21.

Sapountzis, A and S Condor (2013) “Conspiracy Accounts as Intergroup Theories: Challenging Dominant
Understandings of Social Power and Political Legitimacy”. Political Psychology. 34(5): 731-751.

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What you need to do now
 Book a place in a tutorial group via MyTimetable and note the day/week numbers/time
and room.

 Note your lecture arrangements.

 Note your assignment deadlines.

 Read the Student Handbook.

 Start the prescribed reading.

 Familiarise yourself with the University’s Key Education Policies for Students. These policies
are relevant to all students and will be useful to you throughout your studies. They contain
important information and address issues such as what to do if you are absent, how to
raise an appeal or a complaint and how the University will calculate your degree outcome.

 Check the week numbers for session 2023/24.

What else do you need to know about?

Attendance and Progress Monitoring

The School of Social Science uses set criteria to determine when a student should be reported in
the monitoring system. You will be warned that your class certificate may be ‘at risk’ (C6) if you:

1. Are absent from TWO tutorial or seminar meetings for a course without having provided
supporting documentation, which should be uploaded to the Absence Report on the
Student Hub, or without having relevant provisions put in place by the University’s
Disability Team;

or

2. Are absent from THREE tutorial or seminar meetings for a course irrespective of any
supporting documentation having been provided and/or relevant provisions being in place;

or

3. Fail to submit a piece of in-course assessment for a course by the stated deadline (e.g.,
class test, essay) without good cause being reported or an agreed extension.

In Social Science, we take the view that if you do not attend 70% or more of the tutorials or
seminars for a course, even if the absence is for medical or other good cause, or if you fail to
submit a piece of in-course assessment, then you cannot be deemed to have fulfilled the
requirements of the course and your class certificate may be withdrawn (C7).

You should familiarise yourself with the Student Monitoring (C6 and C7) Process. If you receive an
‘at risk’ warning (C6) you MUST NOT IGNORE IT. To resolve a C6, please read the instructions

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given in the Monitoring email and follow the relevant School procedure. If your class certificate is
withdrawn (C7), and you wish to appeal, you should contact [email protected] in the first
instance.

If you are having trouble meeting the course requirements, you must talk to your Tutor or Course
Co-ordinator.

Absence
You are strongly advised to make yourself fully aware of your responsibilities if absent due to
illness or other good cause by reading the University’s Policy and Procedures on Student Absence.
In particular, you are asked to note the situations where self-certification of absence is permitted
(usually for absences up to seven days in length) or if you are required to submit appropriate
evidence of your absence, such as confirmation of a medical appointment.

All absence (medical or otherwise) should be reported through Student Hub, where you can also
upload any required supporting documentation. Please note that absence should be reported
when missing an assessment deadline or if you are unable to engage with your studies, as well as
for purposes of attendance.

Submission of Assignments
All assignments should be submitted electronically through MyAberdeen (unless instructed
otherwise by the course co-ordinator).

Your coursework must be properly referenced. Please note all books, articles, websites, etc. that
are referenced in essays need to have been directly consulted before they are referenced. The
University Library offers a number of online guides on referencing and citing. Details will also be
provided in the tutorials.

Anonymous Marking
There is an expectation within the University and the School that any assignment that contributes
towards your overall course mark or programme award (e.g., in-course assignments, projects,
dissertations, or presentations) will be marked anonymously. This means that the person marking
your assignment will not know your identity when they do so. There are cases when this is not
possible, practical, or beneficial. If you have questions about whether and why your assignments
in a particular course are being marked anonymously, contact your course co-ordinator.

Extensions
The School aims to ensure fair and equal treatment in the assessment of all students and
accordingly essay extensions will be granted in accordance with the following rules:

• Extensions of up to 1 week may be granted by the tutor/course co-ordinator;

• Extensions exceeding 1 week may be granted only by the course co-ordinator;

• Extensions must be sought before the essay deadline.

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Extensions are granted only where students have encountered exceptional or unforeseen
difficulties, are subject to long-term episodic illnesses, or are affected by any relevant impairment,
in the period during which they are expected to prepare the essay.

Extensions are normally only granted in advance of an essay deadline. Some students are granted
provisions by Student Support Services on the grounds of disability. However, extensions for the
coursework of these students must still be authorised following the normal procedure.

Late Submission
The University has introduced standard penalties for late submission of coursework or parts of
coursework. Late submission refers to submission of work after the published deadline without an
agreed extension, and in the absence of exceptional circumstances. Further detail can be found
through the Policy on Late Submission of Work.

Any assessed coursework that is submitted beyond the deadline, without an agreed extension, will
be recorded as late and a penalty will be applied as follows:

 Up to 24 hours late, the grade will be deducted by 2 Common Grading Scale (CGS) points;

 For each subsequent day, up to a maximum of seven days total, the grade will be deducted
by a further CGS point for each day, or part of a day, up to a maximum of seven days late;

 Over seven days late, a grade of G3 will be awarded. Please note, if work is submitted
after feedback on that work has already been provided to the class, then it cannot be
graded.

Students who fail to submit work by the deadline will be reported in the monitoring system
(C6).

Academic Integrity (including plagiarism)

The University expects that all students (undergraduate, postgraduate taught and research
postgraduate students) will undertake their studies with integrity and will submit assessments that
have been prepared by themselves. To do otherwise, to act dishonestly and cheat in an
assessment, is classed as academic misconduct and will incur penalties under the Code of Practice
on Student Discipline.
The Academic Integrity web page and the associated resource, Academic Integrity: A Guide for
Students, have been developed to explain the meaning of academic misconduct, how you can
avoid it and what the penalties are should you act dishonestly.

Definitions
 Plagiarism means using someone else’s work or ideas (whether that is a written source,
image, table or graph) and giving the impression that they are your own. Plagiarism also
includes the use of generative artificial intelligence tools to generate content without
appropriate acknowledgment of the source. Plagiarism also covers ‘self-plagiarism’. This
occurs when you submit an assignment containing materials identical or very similar to

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 work that you have previously submitted for another assessment, whether at this
university or another.
 Collusion is another form of academic misconduct and it is treated in the same way as
plagiarism. It is defined as unauthorised collaboration between students in an assignment.
However, this does not refer to authorised group work (as approved by your tutor) that is
assessed by a single group report, or group presentation.
 Contract cheating is when you submit work that is not your own with the intention of
deceiving the marker. For example, this could be an assignment written by a friend, family
member, third party or by a commercial service, such as an online essay writing website. It
does not matter whether this has been paid for or not.
 Data falsification involves intentionally altering or fabricating data to support desired
outcomes or conclusions. The consequences of data falsification are severe: academic
penalties, damaged credibility, and the loss of trust.

Originality Checking
There are two originality checking (text matching) applications that are used at the University:
Turnitin and SafeAssign, with Turnitin being the most common. Turnitin is the application used in
Social Science. These applications are integrated within assessment workflows in MyAberdeen
course areas and compare student assignment submissions with online sources including web
pages, databases of reference material, and content previously submitted by other users. Turnitin
and SafeAssign alert academic staff to potential instances of plagiarism or collusion but make no
judgement on whether you have plagiarised or colluded. The latter is an academic judgement.
Each School has its own defined procedures for investigating cases which have caused staff
concern that a submitted assignment might not be wholly the work of the student who submitted
it.
If you are struggling with academic assessments or your studies, remember to ask for help.
 Speak to the Course Co-ordinator or Tutor for advice if you are unsure of the assessment
criteria.
 Seek support if you have extenuating circumstances and you feel you need more time to
complete the assessment.

Contact the Student Learning Service if you require support with academic writing, or consult
the skills development sites Achieve (undergraduate) in MyAberdeen.

Feedback
We provide feedback that aims to be timely, constructive, clear, detailed and helpful. Staff offer
feedback through a combination of the following: oral and written comments on assessed work,
class presentations, multiple choice tests, dissertation presentations and guidance on exam
techniques.

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Student/Staff Liaison Committee Meetings (feedback)
A Student/Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) will meet during each half-session and is attended by
both student and staff representatives. A date will be confirmed in due course.

Toolkit
The Toolkit was created to help students and staff at the University of Aberdeen learn new digital
skills, understand how to use University software, discover useful apps and explore University
services. This University Support Portal includes walkthroughs, tutorials, course overviews,
introductions, software and much more. To access the Toolkit, just go to: abdn.ac.uk/toolkit.

Further Information
 If you would like help with your study, such as essay writing techniques, contact the
Student Learning Service.
 For additional advice and support on a range issues, contact the Student Advice and
Support Team.

If I have any other questions, who can I ask?

 Your tutor (contact details will be given to you at your first tutorial meeting)
 The Course Co-ordinator.
 Your Departmental Support.
 At the School Office, room F50 Edward Wright Building, or e-mail: [email protected].

Please do remember to check your university e-mail account regularly. If you decide to contact
staff by e-mail, please write the message carefully so that it is immediately clear who the
message is from and what the issue is.

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