The Thematic Minor in Memory

Memory has a wide range of meanings and applications in many different contexts and disciplines. What, for example, is the connection and difference between artificial intelligence and human memory? How do people respond to traumatic events? How do certain animals remember similarly or differently from humans? How do nations remember great events and how do they construct their national identity accordingly? What is the importance of memory in relation to justice for the future of a collective? What rituals and performances are used to remember events? What does repetition have to do with memory, and how does this connection affect gender identity?

In order to explore these and other important questions, the minor in memory examines multidisciplinary approaches to understanding the various social, political, cultural, and technological functions of memory. It includes courses in disciplines such as psychology, computer science, gender studies, history, politics, biology, performance studies, Latin American studies, and others. Topics range from studies of trauma to the function of the archive, from the work of memory in the brain to the politics of memory.



  • A minimum of 16 academic credits


  • The Gateway Course: Psychology 208/Gender Studies 212f
    • Anthropology 334s (01): Memory, History, and Forgetting
    • German Studies 223, Remembrance of the Holocaust through Film
    • Psychology 225, Psychoanalytical Theory
    • Psychology 329, Psychology of Trauma

