Memory and Uses of Pasts

The Research Group Memory and Uses of Pasts (MUP) investigate how people use pasts in different social, temporal and spatial contexts for various purposes. We explore how people connect past, present and future. We are focused on how people process memories and how people weave their own personal life stories into different forms of communities of memory. We are interested in the processes that determine what is remembered and what is forgotten and the power-related implications of these processes. We are contributing to the multidisciplinary research field’s theoretical development and working across time and space.

The group is focused on the presence of the past is present – today and in past times. We investigate how the past is experienced, sensed, remembered, constructed, discussed and staged. We do not only look at the representations of the past, but also at the uses of pasts as process and practice. We are investigating how the past is used to create meaning, to construct, maintain and transform social communities and how it involves power and conflict. We are working with history both as a subject and as part of people’s lifeworld and we aim to build bridges to people’s use of the past.

The research group was formed in 2010 and has completed several joint projects that, among other things, have led to joint publications: A theme piece in the journal Temp - Tidsskrift for history no. 2.2011 about memory and uses of history; the book Fortider tur/retur. Reenactment og historiebrug 2015, and the article “Doing pasts: authenticity from the reenactors’ perspective” in Rethinking History, 21,2,2017.

The members of the group participate in research projects and networks together with Danish and international researchers. We are frequently holding open seminars for colleagues at museums, upper secondary schools, vocational colleges, public schools and other universities.