MEMORIGHTS · Cultural Memory in LGBT Activism for Rights

Cultural Memory in LGBT Activism for Rights

How do LGBTQ people (i.e. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer people) mobilize the memories of the past for civil resistance? This is the question addressed by the project MemoRights – Cultural Memory in LGBT activism for rights. Although there have been considerable gains in the last decades as regards the recognition of equal rights for LGTBQ people, such accomplishments are unevenly distributed in the EU. Indeed, a recent European Parliament motion for a resolution on LGBTIQ rights in the EU (2021/2679(RSP)) addressed the current political uncertainties and risks of setbacks in the recognition of equal rights for LGBTQ people. MemoRights aimed to contribute to these debates by providing a better understanding of how cultural memory inspires civil resistance in the case of LGBTQ activism (and beyond). Research in memory studies has proved how crucial acknowledging the past is for informing politics and policies in the present and for constructing more inclusive and reflective societies. However, LGBTQ activism falls outside the dominant theoretical framework in the field. Memory studies have mainly focused on top-down (i.e. from the institutional actors to citizens) uses of memory in nation-building and applied a traumatic paradigm for investigating the memory of the tragic historical experience of WW1, WW2, and the Holocaust. LGBTQ struggles have been instead characterized by their transnationalism and by bottom-up practices for remembering and protesting (e.g. Pride Marches and festive modalities of protest and commemorations). Since these are at odds with the traumatic as an interpretative category for the analysis of memory and identity-making, research into the mobilization of cultural memories in LGBTQ activism is overdue. To address this knowledge gap, MemoRights followed three complementary tracks: 1) it built on a small but growing scholarship on the memory-activism nexus memory-activism which offers an alternative to the traumatic paradigm; 2) it adopted a transnational approach and decentralized the European perspective by conducting research on LGBTQ activism in the Argentinian context, moving beyond forms of methodological nationalism; 3) it analyzed three practices: i) commemorative marches; ii) archiving process and the building and uses of archives for/of LGBTQ activism; iii) the use of memorial spaces. The PI connected and worked with three world-class centers for the study of cultural memory and activism at Utrecht University and the University of Buenos Aires; and with the International Institute for Social History of Amsterdam, a world-leading research and heritage institute for the preservation of the cultural legacy of social movements.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз