Public Lecture at W&L Law to Address Memory Activism Professor Irit Dekel will discuss an interdisciplinary approach to the concept of witnessing to analyze the work of memory activists.

By Law Communications
March 7, 2025

Professor Irit Dekel of Indiana University, Bloomington will give a lecture at Washington and Lee University School of Law on memory activism, a form of non-state sponsored activism that challenges official narratives and commemorations.

The lecture is titled “Witnessing as Memory Activism.” It is scheduled for Wednesday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m. in Classroom B, Sydney Lewis Hall on the campus of Washington and Lee. This event is free and open to the public.

Dekel’s project develops an interdisciplinary approach to the concept of witnessing to analyze the work of memory activists. Using case studies of two Berlin-based migrant groups addressing national, transnational, and international issues, Dekel examines virtual and in-person events organized by these groups between 2020 and 2024, their publications, and media reports from German and international sources. She argues that these memory activists establish a politics of solidarity through discourse-based interventions, thereby addressing issues such as racism, inequality, and (in)visibility.

Dekel contends that the public initiatives of these groups create witnessing platforms from which to observe policies and their implications and fostering mutual recognition. This analysis is significant for understanding how non-citizen memory activists enact a space of appearance, in which they establish social presence, cultivate subjectivity, and imagine alternative futures. This approach offers a nuanced understanding of witnessing as a multifaceted, plural encounter, with witnesses acting as agents who can share their experiences from various perspectives, ranging from experts to laypersons.

Irit Dekel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the New School for Social Research and her B.A. and Master’s in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University. Dekel joined IU Bloomington in 2020. Earlier, she was a research fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin and taught in Bard College Berlin. Her first book, “Mediation at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin” (Palgrave 2013) breaks with the traditional way of analyzing monuments and memorials. Dekel’s interest was not solely in the moral or aesthetic considerations that led to the Berlin Holocaust Memorial being created; rather, she conducted an ethnographic study of the way the Memorial is experienced and used, revealing the wish of visitors to transform. Dekel recently finished her second monograph, titled “Witnessing Positions: Jews, Memories and Minorities in Contemporary Germany.”