Recollecting bones: the remains of German-Australian colonial entanglements

This article critically engages with the different politics of memory involved in debates over the restitution of Indigenous Australian ancestral remains stolen by colonial actors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and brought to Berlin in the name of science. The debates crystallise how deeply divided German scientific discourses still are over the question of whether the historical and moral obligations of colonial injustice should be accepted or whether researchers should continue to profess scientific ‘disinterest’. The debates also reveal an almost unanimous disavowal of Indigenous Australian knowledges and mnemonic conceptions across all camps. The bitter ironies of this disavowal become evident when Indigenous Australian quests for the remains of their ancestral dead lost in the limbo of German scientific collections are juxtaposed with white Australian (fictional) quests for the remains of Ludwig Leichhardt, lost in the Australian interior.     

Smart Lead Rubber Bearings Equipped with Ferrous Shape Memory Alloy Wires for Seismically Isolating Highway Bridges

Shape memory alloys (SMA) can substantially improve the damping capacity and re-centering capability of elastomeric isolators. The objective of this study is to assess the seismic performance of smart lead rubber bearings (LRBs) equipped with double cross ferrous SMA wires. Hysteretic shear response of SMA wire-based LRB is determined using finite element method. The seismic response of a multispan continuous steel girder bridge isolated by SMA-LRB is evaluated. Hybrid SMA-LRB bearing exhibits a significantly lower shear strain demand (up to 46% reduction) and a higher energy dissipation capacity (up to 31% increase) compared to the LRB.     

Memories of Kings of Israel and Judah within the Mnemonic Landscape of the Literati of the Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Period: Exploratory Considerations

This article explores, from a perspective informed by Social Memory studies, memories of kings of Judah (/Israel) in three different corpora (the Deuteronomistic Historical Collection, the Prophetic Book Collection and Chronicles). It draws attention to the interdependence between memories of kings and other characters populating the world of memory evoked by each of these corpora and explores the ways in which the worlds of memory evoked by each of them interacted, informed and balanced each other within what we may call the “comprehensive mnemonic system” of the literati. The article sheds light on generative grammars governing systems of preferences and dis-preferences for certain types of memories of kings in each of the corpora and across them, and at times, even across cultures, and highlights that the world of memory of the Yehudite literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was shaped by a consistency of inconsistency, and an overall coherence manifested through a seeming lack thereof that served well the social reproduction of the group.     

Method and Memory in the Midwestern "Lincoln Inquiry": Oral Testimony and Abraham Lincoln Studies, 1865 1938

This article narrates the role of oral testimony in the fieldof Abraham Lincoln studies from 1865 through the 1930s. Collectedin the form of letters, affidavits, and face-to-face interviews,this mounting body of "eyewitness evidence" dominated the discoursefor two generations and reflective, public practice culminatedin the organization of a "Lincoln Inquiry" in the Midwest duringthe 1920s and 1930s. For a time, practitioners successfullydefended themselves against increasing positivist assaults onthe credibility of oral testimony. Their interests and effortsresonate with later oral history practice and theory about method,authorship, performance, and memory, and their story highlightsthe contingency inherent in the development of oral historicalpractice in America.     

Cultural memory, gender and age: young Latvian women's narrative memories of war-time Europe, 1944–1947

This paper examines the war-time experiences of dislocation and loss, as well as the transition to independent adulthood, of 25 Latvian women who came to Britain as European Volunteer Workers after the end of the Second World War. Despite the recent work in cultural history exploring memories of wartime dislocation and the growing use of oral narratives in this exploration, relatively little is known about the 1944 migration from the Baltic States to the UK or about the particular experiences of young women in this movement. This paper begins to address this forgotten history through interviews with now-elderly women living in Britain in the context of recent debates about cultural memory and forgetting.     

Food,conviviality and the work of mourning. The asado scandal at Argentina’s ex-ESMA

This article addresses a controversial debate raised by an asado-party, which was celebrated by the end of 2012 at the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), the main clandestine detention centre where almost 5,000 people were held captive and tortured during Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976-1983). In 2004, the former school was transformed into a “space of memory”. Drawing upon the asado episode, I consider which kind of practices of re-occupation former landscapes of death may allow.

I first provide an overview of the interventions that took place at ESMA within the Kirchnerist period (2003-2015). Second, I bring into play some cultural productions of the new generations, as well as performances and philosophical ruminations regarding the asado as a main theme in the local culture. Finally, I put these materials in the larger context of memory politics to explore how food-reunions – and expanded tables might work as a public pathway for a collective digestion of grief. The question that is ultimately at stake is how to kindle alternative hospitalities and dialogues in landscapes marked by loss. Might the spectrum of activities that took place at the former ESMA during the Kirchnerist years suggest a new conviviality for the aftermath of violence?     

Experimental Investigation on the Seismic Behavior of Beam-Column Joints Reinforced with Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys

Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys (SE SMAs) are unique alloys that have the ability to undergo large deformations and return to their undeformed shape by removal of stresses. This study aims at assessing the seismic behavior of beam-column joints reinforced with SE SMAs. Two large-scale beam-column joints were tested under reversed cyclic loading. While the first joint was reinforced with regular steel rebars, SE SMA rebars were used in the second one. Both joints were selected from a Reinforced Concrete (RC) building located in the high seismic region of western Canada and designed and detailed according to current Canadian standards. The behavior of the two specimens under reversed cyclic loading, including their drifts, rotations, and ability to dissipate energy, were compared. The results showed that the SMA-reinforced beam-column joint specimen was able to recover most of its post-yield deformation. Thus, it would require a minimum amount of repair even after a strong earthquake.     

Performance-Based Seismic Assessment of Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy-Reinforced Bridge Piers Considering Residual Deformations

The application of superelastic Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) reinforcement in plastic hinge regions of bridge piers has been proven to reduce the residual displacement after a strong shaking owing to its unique shape recovery characteristics; however, the maximum deformation of the piers could increase due to the relatively lower modulus of elasticity of SMA bars and lower hysteretic energy dissipation capacity. In this context, this article applies a recently formulated probabilistic performance-based seismic assessment methodology that considers both the maximum and the residual deformation simultaneously to evaluate the performance of SMA reinforced bridge piers.     

The Reputation of the Slave Trader in Southern History and the Social Memory of the South

Proslavery propagandists developed a standard line on the domestic slave trade: the trade was of only marginal importance to the system of slavery, and the trader was an outcast. In recent decades, historians have recognised a strong propaganda element in this position but—even in recent specialist studies of the trade—the assumption has been that notions of paternalism must have caused owners to feel a measure of unease in dealing with the trader. The present study brings new evidence to dispute this assumption and suggests that traders found no difficulty in being accepted as respected citizens of the Old South. The essay points to two key elements in the proslavery position on the trade—first, the notion of the trader as outcast, and second the concept that black people were not capable of deep and lasting emotional suffering. The ‘trader as outcast’ operated at the level of propaganda and was not really believed: the concept of superficial black emotions operated at a deeper level and was internalised by owners. Notions about shallow black emotions allowed slaveholders to break up families and to deal comfortably with the trader while still maintaining a self‐image as benevolent paternalists.     

Social Relations and War Remembrance: Second World War Atrocities in Rural Tuscan Villages

This article addresses the issue of how long‐term memory of extreme conditions is socially transformed. It focuses on elements of the social structure and pre‐war habitus that might help understanding of the divided memory of massacres that were perpetrated by the Nazis in three rural Tuscan villages between 1943 and 1944. Within the “mnemonic communities”, discrepancies arise since some of the villagers paradoxically blame the partisans instead of the Nazis. An attempt is made to trace current representations of historical events in the framework of traditional social institutions and political life of these small villages in time of crisis. Battles over memory are seen as a twofold process—that is, as part of “internal”, intra‐village relations as well as a form of reaction toward the “external” world of which they feel victims. The article argues that long‐term memory of past political violence is strictly bound up with local power relations.