Open Space - May 2025: Troubling Testimonio: Collective memory-work in post-war Peru

 

Join us for a talk about Goya's recently published book based on her doctoral research Learning through Collective Memory Work: Troubling Testimonio in Post-war Peru. The book covers ten years of collaborative memory work with a group of (then) young adults whose parents were members of an insurgent group. You can see the book description below. 

 

Goya will focus on the methodological journey and the contributions of narrative inquiry to their memory-work, in particular regarding dilemmas or tensions in the writing (about) violence.

 

There will be plenty of time for Q&A, and some writing towards the end of the session.

 

See below details of the book and the author.

 

 

This book traces the process of producing testimonio with the children of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), an insurgent group during Peru’s internal war (1980–2000). It examines how the group navigates post-war struggles over memory while dealing with the ‘children of terrorists’ stigma.

Drawing on a cycles of inquiry approach, the book theorizes three movements for memory work: a realist presentation of testimonial narratives, a ‘politics of memory’ engaging with the conditions of production and a ‘poetics of memory’ that troubles memory, voice and representation for qualitative inquiry in post-war contexts.

Challenging the notion of war-torn countries as pure devastation, the author invites readers to see them as sites of knowledge and creativity, with much to offer for education, peace studies and social justice research.

 

Goya works on memory struggles and creative/radical methodologies from Latin America by examining the dilemmas of writing violence, the intersections between research and activism, and the uses of creativity and imagination in memory work.