How do individuals, families, and nations remember their past? How is the past represented and inscribed in the present? What social practices ensure that memories will be preserved? What are the politics surrounding the establishment of these social practice? To what extent are the collective memories of a community grounded in the individual memories of community members? And how do the memories individuals and communities hold shape their identity and determine their individual and collective action? These questions rest at the core of the emerging field of Memory Studies. This course will review the seminal works in the area that will offer a foundation for understanding both the formation and use of collective memories. It is multidisciplinary, in that it pulls from works in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, history, and the humanities. *This course is open to Lang Psychology majors and minors only.