Dr. Robbert-Jan Adriaansen
Social Media and Historical Consciousness
This research examines the relationship between social media and historical consciousness, focusing on how social media platforms influence our understanding and perceptions of the past. A key aspect of this research is the investigation of multimodality in social media, or the use of multiple modes of communication such as text, images, audio, and video, in the creation and dissemination of historical representations. The research aims to understand how the use of multimodality on social media platforms affects the way people access and consume historical information, as well as how it shapes their beliefs and attitudes towards the past. Additionally, the research compares the historical narratives created and disseminated through social media to more traditional forms of historical storytelling and will consider the impact of social media on the preservation of cultural memory and its role in shaping historical consciousness.
Prof. dr. Maria Grever
Historical Consciousness and Controversial Monuments
This project focuses on controversial monuments in the Netherlands as public sites of narratives and cultural values related to the Dutch colonial past, including slavery, and to modern wars in which the Dutch were involved. To understand current tensions and clashes around these monuments it is important to recognize that they are the material presence of an older mnemonic infrastructure. The monuments perpetuate a historical consciousness with interpretative frameworks coming from dominant discourses. Obviously this past is not closed but has been revitalized by groups that were previously silent and are now making their voices heard, stimulated by international movements such as Black-Lives-Matter.
The research supports the committee “Controversial Monuments”, initiated by the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences.