Postmemorial Exhibitions: A Design Approach to Negotiate Cultural Trauma Among Children and Grandchildren of Former War Refugees and Guerrilla Supporters

The fields of social memory and museum studies share a similar concern for intergenerational dynamics of memory, although the motivations and emphasis of study in each field is different. In museum studies, memorial museums have been noted to promote emotional engagement and critical reflection about mass atrocities. Early evidence from participatory exhibitions in other types of museums suggests that participatory approaches to exhibition design may support the desired outcomes of reflection and emotional impact in memorial museums. However, no studies to date have explored the role of participatory design in shaping communities’ memories about the violent past. In addition, the field of social memory studies has focused on understanding the nature of social memories that result from mass atrocities. Some scholars refer to this type of memory as cultural trauma. Cultural trauma is a socially relevant phenomenon because it alters group identity and may either lead to a betterment of living conditions for marginalized populations or their increased oppression depending on how societies negotiate the trauma. Importantly, cultural trauma has been noted to be a long-term phenomenon that affects different generations differently. Unlike psychological, individual trauma, cultural trauma is never solved, but socially negotiated. Moreover, the strategies through which a given generation negotiates cultural trauma may not prove ineffective or irrelevant for succeeding generations. Considering the complex and pervasive nature of this phenomenon, more work is needed to intervene in cultural trauma negotiations that does not attempt to ‘solve’ such traumas but supports its negotiation. My dissertation seizes on the unique opportunity of both academic traditions. Merging the insights from studies about studies about cultural trauma and memorial museums, I investigate how participation in the design process of a memorial exhibition shaped the memories of children who were born a decade after the end of the civil war of El Salvador (1980-1992), a historical episode characterized by atrocities perpetrated primarily against civilians. My research combined ethnographic methods such as participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the implementation of a participatory design project in El Salvador. During the eight months of my fieldwork, I worked with seven children and grandchildren of former guerrilla combatants and war refugees to produce an exhibition concept about their deeply held beliefs and feelings about the war, which they only have experienced through the stories shared with them by friends and family. I refer to my participants’ exhibition concept as a postmemorial exhibition. At the theoretical level, the concept of a postmemorial exhibition represents an opportunity to understand the impact of memorial exhibitions in social rather than individual frames of memory. Conversely, at the methodological level, the combined approach of ethnographic methods and participatory design in museums extends the toolkit of scholars of social memory to not only observe but intervene in the field. At stake in these interventions is the opportunity to promote more sympathetic and critical subjects through the process of postmemorial exhibition design, and thus, to contribute to the prevention of future episodes of mass atrocities.PHDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162997/1/allanmar_1.pd