In the final installment of our series on war and memory, Joe speaks with Essex University historian Lucy Noakes and Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz on the creation of cultural memories around armed conflict. They cover a wide array of topics, including the Churchillian turn of British World War II narratives and how the words monument and demonstrate are linked by their roots in Latin. Their discussion beautifully encapsulates a number of topics covered across the series and explores more radical ways of remembering - or remembering better.
Lucy Noakes is a social and cultural historian with specific interests in war, memory and gender. She is co-editor of the book British Cultural Memory and the Second World War, sits on the Academic Advisory Board of the Imperial War Museum's Second World War Galleries redevelopment project, and is a series editor for the Social History Society book series New Directions in Social and Cultural History.
Michael Rakowitz is an Iraqi-American artist working at the intersection of problem-solving and troublemaking. His anti-war statue April is the Cruellest Month formed part of the Turney Contemporary for the English coast series in 2021. Michael is also Professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.
As always, the show was presented by our very own Joe Glenton. If you'd like to learn more about Joe's new book Veteranhood (as mentioned in the podcast by Michael) then head over to his publisher Repeater.
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