The COVID-19 Pandemic and Memory

"This jewel of a book sets a new persuasive agenda for memory studies by an international group of scholars. Exploring individual and collective mnemonic practices that took place during Covid-19 and of Covid-19, this book offers indispensable contributions to timely questions: Has the pandemic transformed mnemonic practices? Will Covid-19 become part of collective memory?"—Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "How the Covid-19 pandemic unlocked memory. A truly international cast of authors throw light on archiving, mobilization, and the digitalization of memory – from Athens to Brazil, from Nigeria to Hong Kong. Essential reading for everyone interested in Corona and collective memory."—Astrid Erll, Goethe University Frankfurt "This innovative volume documents a profound transformation in digital memory practices triggered by the covid-19 pandemic. Empirically rich contributions interrogate mnemonic activism as a response to trauma, a form of protest and an homage to legacies of violence. It is an essential reference for the study of memory."—Denisa Kostovicova, London School of Economics and Political Science This book offers a platform for the analysis of commemorative and archiving practices as they were shaped and developed during the Covid-19 lockdown periods in 2020 and the years that followed. By offering an extensive global view the book enters a dialogue with what has emerged as an initial response to the pandemic and the ways in which it has affected memory and commemoration. It aims to critically and empirically engage with this abundance of memory tracing both memorialization of the pandemic and commemoration during the pandemic. Orli Fridman is an associate professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK) and the academic director of the SIT learning center in Serbia. She is the author of Memory Activism and Digital Practices after Conflict: Unwanted Memories (2022). Sarah Gensburger is a professor at CNRS-Sciences Po Paris. Her most recent books are Beyond Memory. Can we really learn from the past? (Palgrave, 2020, with S. Lefranc) and Memory on my doorstep. Chronicles of the Bataclan Neighborhood (2019).