Why remember?

We participated in the annual “Why Remember?” conference in Sarajevo and moderated a panel session on innovative practices in memorialization. The conference explored the role of publicly visible memory and its potential impact on issues such as reconciliation and healing in the wake of conflict. We examined how memory processes, whether consciously or unconsciously, shape the present and future. These questions of memory (and forgetting) were discussed as intensely political with far-reaching consequences, making these debates vital to institutions of cultural memory that engage with the past to make sense of the present and build a more peaceful future.