Repression, Memory, and Globalization

Abstract

This project involves the examination of Kurdish nationalism in regard to the formation, transmission, and materialization of political memory. Focusing on developments of the 20th and 21st century, this analysis contextualizes the mobilization of Kurdish political consciousness within the modern forces of globalization, digital technology, mass media, and international governance. Substantial attention is paid to the role of radio, TV, and the Internet in the processes of national imagining and political discourse. NGOs and superstate institutions like the UN are also examined, as they play a fundamental role in integrating human rights language and sub-national movements like the Kurds. Additionally, the ways in which these developments are manifested through public spaces of memory provide insight into the parameters and aspirations undergirding Kurdish national identity. This project seeks to claim that traditional definitions and typologies of nationalism are insufficient, and that the nation, seen as a community of memory, provides better access points to understand how nations are created in the modern age.