Luce Program in
Individual and Collective
Memory
Teaching
The
program offers students an inter-disciplinary introduction to the
study of memory, combining
approaches from the natural and social sciences and
the humanities. Memory is crucial to
the construction the self, to the
understanding of the physical and social environments,
to the building
of shared identities and to political projects.
Freshman
Program: Memory in Mind and Culture
The theme
The aim is to provide incoming
students with an integrated path in the study of human memory. We
aim to show students that a common set of concepts and findings are
relevant to topics as diverse as mechanisms of individual memory,
amnesia, cognitive aging, neural bases of memory, autobiographical
memory, personal past and self-representation, eye-witness testimony,
repressed memories, the “arts of memory” and mnemotechnics, oral
literature, literacy and its cognitive effects, the construction of
collective narratives, connections between self and history, political
uses of the past, and the self and autobiogra-phy in literary
representation. This will introduce students to issues,
findings and theories to do with memory as both an individual capacity
and a collective exercise, straddling such disciplines as history,
psychology, anthropology and philosophy.
The program
- Year 1 - Fall semester: Introduction to the
Study of
Memory [Psych 221]. This course provides the essential
background knowledge
from different disciplines. It is co-taught by Dr Larry Jacoby and Dr
Pascal Boyer in the Fall '06.
- Year 1 - Spring: Psych 102B, Controversies in the Study of
Memory. This is a seminar where Freshmen discuss such issues as
recovered memories, the use of memory in the legal system, conflicts
over historical events and the commemoration, etc.
- Year 2 - Fall semester: Methods in the Study of Memory [new
course]. This will focus on the methods used in the study of memory in
various disciplines. Students are often taught the results of scholarly
investigation in a domain without a proper understanding of how one
achieves those results. We willexplain how a neuroscientist, a
historian, a literary scholar or an anthropologist work in order to
appreciate their distinct contributions to the field. The
format
will include two-lecture sessions by invited faculty,
presenting e.g. a piece of historical research, an ethnographic study,
a neuroscience experiment, a cognitive experiment to introduce students
to the particular tools used in each of these disciplines. The
instructors will provide the pre- and post-guest lectures background
and discussion. This would be co-taught by Carl Craver (philosophy) and
P Boyer in the Fall of 2007.
- Year 2 - Spring: Independent study. Students are encouraged
to
enroll in independent study with one faculty in the broader memory
studies constituency (Literature, Philosophy, History, Psychology,
Anthropology). See the list of affiliated faculty in the People page.
Where do I get more information?
Get in touch with Pascal Boyer, email
pboyer AT artsci DOT wustl DOT edu
Minor in Memory Studies
The Theme
This provides students with an
integrated set of courses dealing with individual and social aspects of
human memory, from neuro-imaging to the construction of collective
identity, from experiments in priming to autobiographical memory, and
from amnesia to trauma and recovery. The point of the minor is to
understand the similarities and differences between these different
approaches and methods, as well as the kinds of findings they offer.
Details
The minor is housed in the
Psychology Department and designed for distribution requirements as
either TH or SS, as chosen by the student and approved by the Memory
Studies Minor advisor given the choice of 300-level courses. The minor
consists of 18 units composed of two required courses:
Cognitive
Psychology [to introduce experimental approaches]
Culture and Cogntion [to
introduce social science approaches]
and electives: nine units in a list of relevant courses:
L12-343
EDUC Wertsch Text, Memory and
Identity
L22-4422
HISTORY Kieval History, Memory and
Collective Identities
L75-344
J.N.E.S. McGlothlin Imagining the
Holocaust in Jewish Literature
L33-380
PSYCH McDermott Human Learning and
Memory
L90-435
ENG Zafar Slavery and the American
Imagination
L33-4625
PSYCH Boyer Autobiographical Memory
L48-4124
ANTHRO Eisenlohr Language and
Politics
L34-459
FRENCH Graebner Rewriting the Colony
L90-4892
AFAS Brown Oral and public history
L98-475
AMCS Kastor American Culture:
Traditions, Methods, Visions
L14-345W
ENG Orr Memory and Narrative
L53-375
FILM Schindler Screening the
Holocaust
The student’s particular choice to
be approved by their advisor,
and to include at least six units of courses listed as LA or TH. All
classes must be registered in the home department in which they
originate, and that no more than 9 units of classes in Psychology can
be applied for this minor. None of the credits used for the Minor in
Memory Studies can count for completion of the number of units needed
for a psychology major or minor. In addition, none of the classes can
be used to count towards the distribution requirements for the
Psychology major.
Information
To declare the minor in Memory
Studies,
the student needs to meet with Ms Dru Ko-scielnak in the Psychology
Department, room 225A, psychology Building. Questions related to
advising and choice of courses should be directed to Dr Pascal Boyer,
pboyer AT artsci.wustl.edu.
Some relevant courses
Jim
Wertsch
L12-343
|
Text, Memory and Identity
|
Pascal
Boyer
Psych 4625
|
Autobiographical Memory
This course is about how
people create and remember their personal life histories. The topics
include
basic research issues in autobiographical memory, as well as
theoretical
and practical aspects of the subject.
|
Larry
Jacoby
Pascal Boyer
Psych 221
|
Introduction to the Study of Memory
In this course we introduce students to the many aspects of memory and
the many effects of its workings on individual and social life. Topics
include individual memory systems, episodic and semantic memory,
working memory,
memory systems in the brain, amnesia, memory and self, autobiographical
memory,
historical events and personal memories, remembered events and the
construction
of collective identity, processes of knowledge transmission. |
Brown
History L22-333
|
The Holocaust: History and Memory
The Nazi period and attempted genocide of European Jewry continue to
generate debate and controversy sixty years after the military defeat
of Germany in 1945. The force behind this controversy arises from
questions about historical and collective memory and debates about the
origins and meaning the the "Holocaust." This course will examine these
issues in the context of German and European history in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. |
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Contact Information
To find out more about teaching of memory at Washington University,
contact Dr Pascal Boyer,
pboyer AT artsci.wustl.edu.
