This book explores the formative role of mobilities in the production of our close relationships, proposing that the tracks—both literal and figurative— we lay down in the process play a crucial role in generating and sustaining intimacy. Working with diaries, journals and literary texts from the mid- to late-twentieth century, the book pursues this thesis through three phases of the lifecourse: courtship (broadly defined), the middle years of long-term relationships and bereavement. Building upon the author’s recent research on automobility, the text’s case studies reveal the crucial role played by many different types of transport—including walking—in defining our most enduring relationships. Conceptually, the book draws upon the writings of the philosopher, Henri Bergson, the anthropologist, Tim Ingold and the geographer, David Seamon, engaging with topical debates in cultural and emotional geography (especially work on landscape, memory and mourning), mobilities studies and critical love studies.

Migration is most concretely defined by the movement of human bodies, but it leaves indelible traces on everything from individual psychology to major social movements. Drawing on extensive field research, and with a special focus on Italy and the Netherlands, this interdisciplinary volume explores the interrelationship of migration and memory at scales both large and small, ranging across topics that include oral and visual forms of memory, archives, and artistic innovations. By engaging with the complex tensions between roots and routes, minds and bodies, The Mobility of Memory offers an incisive and empirically grounded perspective on a social phenomenon that continues to reshape both Europe and the world.

"This book is situated within the terrain of intense debate over the placement and displacement of monuments to difficult histories. Installed in Plymouth in 1921 to commemorate the Tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims, Cyrus Dallin's statue Massasoit was intended to memorialize the Pokanoket Massasoit (leader) 8sãameeqan as a welcoming diplomat and participant in the mythical first Thanksgiving. But Massasoit did not remain only in Plymouth. Lisa Blee and Jean O'Brien track the physical and narrative mobility of Massasoit through its inception and its movement to numerous locations in the US to illuminate how Massasoit's attachment to national origins did and did not move with the installations. The historical memory surrounding Massasoit suggests both the rich potential of Indigenous public historians to intervene in sanitized national narratives of origins, and the ways in which this history is commodified. Can Massasoit prompt viewers to reckon with ... the structural violence of settler colonialism in commemorative landscapes, or does it further entrench celebratory narratives of national origins?"--

‘Through a series of excellent essays this volume uses concrete ethnographic analyses of memory practices in different parts of the globe to offer theoretical reflections on how memory shapes and is shaped by mobility in time and space.’ - Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University, USA ‘Memories on the Move is a brilliant edited volume that fills an important gap in the field of memory studies as it weaves together issues of mobility and remembering. Drawing on fine-grained ethnographical cases, it offers a rich and complex portrait of mnemonic constructions in the context of forced migration, exile and transnationalism. It is clearly a must-read for anthropologists, sociologists, historians and political scientists as well as for all scholars interested in the contemporary dynamics of memory, identity and mobility.’ – David Berliner, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium ‘This thought-provoking volume disentangles, ethnographically, the complexity of meaning-making practices of memory/forgetting in various contexts of (im)mobility.’ - Noel B. Salazar, University of Leuven, Belgium Bringing together vivid ethnographic material, this book opens up a timely conversation between memory and mobility/migration studies. It goes beyond the idea of the nation state as the primary unit of analysis to explore how people on the move use different forms and media of remembering to make sense of their lives and act as political subjects. Investigating when and by what means people on the move remember and communicate memories in the context of various forms of (im)mobility, the authors examine photographs, films, the reinhabiting of pre-exilic homes, pseudo-historical performances, transgenerational mnemonic gatherings and transnational political activism. This edited collection will appeal to scholars of anthropology, sociology, political science, human geography, history and oral history.

Within Germany, policies and cultural attitudes toward migrants have been profoundly shaped by the difficult legacies of the Second World War and its aftermath. This wide-ranging volume explores the complex history of migration and diversity in Germany from 1945 to today, showing how conceptions of “otherness” developed while memories of the Nazi era were still fresh, and identifying the continuities and transformations they exhibited through the Cold War and reunification. It provides invaluable context for understanding contemporary Germany’s unique role within regional politics at a time when an unprecedented influx of immigrants and refugees present the European community with a significant challenge.

Memory studies has become a rapidly growing area of scholarly as well as public interest. This volume brings together world experts to explore the current critical trends in this new academic field. It embraces work on diverse but interconnected phenomena, such as twenty-first century museums, shocking memorials in present-day Rwanda and the firsthand testimony of the victims of genocidal conflicts. The collection engages with pressing ‘real world’ issues, such as the furor around the recent 9/11 memorial, and what we really mean when we talk about ‘trauma’.

Explores the relation between histories of violence and their contemporary commemoration.