Afterlives of Protest: The Protest Memory Research Network
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Centre for Cultural Policy Studies
Abstract
This is a particularly timely moment to examine how protest memory might act as a site of knowledge, citizenship and creativity for a wide range of interested parties. We live in times of upheaval, with clear shifts in the prevailing norms and a strong distrust in traditional politics and expertise. We are also experiencing transformations in the nature of protest, which is becoming increasingly individualised and yet more pervasive and mediated. How protest is remembered, recovered and recycled, and by whom, is critical to explore.
By evoking the 'afterlives of protest', we are interested in the expanded temporalities and spatialities of protest. This includes the examination of not just heightened moments of resistance taking place in the public sphere, but also banal articulations of radical pasts in the everyday and how memories associated with social movements circulate in a range of creative and medial contexts.
Discussion and knowledge exchange activities between academics, heritage managers, artists and activists/campaigners are vital to the work of the network, as multiple stakeholder perspectives are needed to understand the creative and cultural value of protest, and how diverse and 'risky' legacies of protest can be managed publicly and privately.
To achieve these objectives, our network will:
1. Identify and connect new theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks for exploring protest memory as an inter-disciplinary and (sub-/trans-) national object of study. How is protest memory understood?
2. Chart the ways in which protest memories move (spatially, temporally, medially) by identifying the social practices, cultural/heritage industries and organisational actors that are the custodians, curators and circulators of protest memory. Where does protest memory stop and go?
3. Understand the memorability of protest through sharing research and practice on the embodied, affective and material dynamics of protest as creativity, storytelling, and performance. Why are some protest memories not forgotten?
4. Explore protest memory and its transmission as a form of social learning about past practices of resistance to explore how we might draw on these to build both informal and formal protest knowledge. Our idea here is that the deep, time-rich and embodied practices of protest can and should be shared, materialised and mobilised for re-imagining resistance. What can we learn from protest memory?
By evoking the 'afterlives of protest', we are interested in the expanded temporalities and spatialities of protest. This includes the examination of not just heightened moments of resistance taking place in the public sphere, but also banal articulations of radical pasts in the everyday and how memories associated with social movements circulate in a range of creative and medial contexts.
Discussion and knowledge exchange activities between academics, heritage managers, artists and activists/campaigners are vital to the work of the network, as multiple stakeholder perspectives are needed to understand the creative and cultural value of protest, and how diverse and 'risky' legacies of protest can be managed publicly and privately.
To achieve these objectives, our network will:
1. Identify and connect new theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks for exploring protest memory as an inter-disciplinary and (sub-/trans-) national object of study. How is protest memory understood?
2. Chart the ways in which protest memories move (spatially, temporally, medially) by identifying the social practices, cultural/heritage industries and organisational actors that are the custodians, curators and circulators of protest memory. Where does protest memory stop and go?
3. Understand the memorability of protest through sharing research and practice on the embodied, affective and material dynamics of protest as creativity, storytelling, and performance. Why are some protest memories not forgotten?
4. Explore protest memory and its transmission as a form of social learning about past practices of resistance to explore how we might draw on these to build both informal and formal protest knowledge. Our idea here is that the deep, time-rich and embodied practices of protest can and should be shared, materialised and mobilised for re-imagining resistance. What can we learn from protest memory?
Planned Impact
In our workshops, conference and website, we aim to assist in the building and curation of protest memory research in order to contribute to a more plural, cultural and social understanding of protest. The network will provide a unique, interdisciplinary and international opportunity for practitioners/activists, and curators/museums to consider the contribution of protest memory to their work and activities. Multiple forms of expertise, engagement and knowledge generation will be built into the entire research process. Our impact activities are targeted at the successful achievement of these goals via:
PROJECT WEBSITE AND PROMOTIONAL WORK will disseminate the contribution of the network and stimulate public debate by enacting 'distributed expertise' through co-produced activities and outputs. The wider public will have the opportunity to engage with the resources on the website, its media and with outcomes, with added interaction through social media. We will also explore visual ways of presenting network activities to wider publics, such as the content curation tool Storify.
Each network workshop will be captured in BLOG POSTINGS so that key discussion points and findings can be easily disseminated in a creative format. The accessibility of our reporting on the network activities will appeal to activists, curators and museums seeking short and engaging dialogue on protest memorability, art and activism. Such content will be co-produced with our advisory group.
The EXHIBITION/DISPLAY of the network activities and protest memories will provide opportunities for the circulation of new visual materials and narratives of protest, with the aim to reach a wide audience. These materials will be exhibited at the capstone conference and within a small gallery space at The People's History Museum.
CULTURAL MEMORY POLICY REFLECTIONS - in terms of policy beneficiaries, our network will provide a significant interdisciplinary and multi-sector perspective on protest, activism and campaign culture through memory work and the arts. We seek to reach cultural and memory policy audiences through our contacts with European and non-European memory, heritage and identity policy research/action such as the EU Cultural Base and the Brazilian UNESCO MIL-CLICKS social media movement. Through the circulation of our policy reflections at the end of the project (as a cultural memory policy of protest research), our aim is to garner the insights of protest/social movement researchers, practitioners and cultural actors and facilitate further contributions from organizations that respond to our reflections. Given our ultimate goal of extending this network into a larger project, our consultation will bring significant potential to establish a longer-term collaboration that bridges academic research and protest memory practice.
PROJECT WEBSITE AND PROMOTIONAL WORK will disseminate the contribution of the network and stimulate public debate by enacting 'distributed expertise' through co-produced activities and outputs. The wider public will have the opportunity to engage with the resources on the website, its media and with outcomes, with added interaction through social media. We will also explore visual ways of presenting network activities to wider publics, such as the content curation tool Storify.
Each network workshop will be captured in BLOG POSTINGS so that key discussion points and findings can be easily disseminated in a creative format. The accessibility of our reporting on the network activities will appeal to activists, curators and museums seeking short and engaging dialogue on protest memorability, art and activism. Such content will be co-produced with our advisory group.
The EXHIBITION/DISPLAY of the network activities and protest memories will provide opportunities for the circulation of new visual materials and narratives of protest, with the aim to reach a wide audience. These materials will be exhibited at the capstone conference and within a small gallery space at The People's History Museum.
CULTURAL MEMORY POLICY REFLECTIONS - in terms of policy beneficiaries, our network will provide a significant interdisciplinary and multi-sector perspective on protest, activism and campaign culture through memory work and the arts. We seek to reach cultural and memory policy audiences through our contacts with European and non-European memory, heritage and identity policy research/action such as the EU Cultural Base and the Brazilian UNESCO MIL-CLICKS social media movement. Through the circulation of our policy reflections at the end of the project (as a cultural memory policy of protest research), our aim is to garner the insights of protest/social movement researchers, practitioners and cultural actors and facilitate further contributions from organizations that respond to our reflections. Given our ultimate goal of extending this network into a larger project, our consultation will bring significant potential to establish a longer-term collaboration that bridges academic research and protest memory practice.
Organisations
- University of Warwick (Lead Research Organisation)
- Nottingham Trent University (Collaboration)
- Aarhus University (Collaboration)
- Paris West University Nanterre La Défense (Collaboration)
- University of Warsaw (Collaboration)
- KING'S COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- Peoples History Museum (Project Partner)
Publications


Chidgey R
(2020)
Postfeminism™: celebrity feminism, branding and the performance of activist capital
in Feminist Media Studies

Chidgey R
(2018)
Feminist Afterlives - Assemblage Memory in Activist Times

Red Chidgey
(2018)
Feminist Protest Assemblages and Remix Culture

Red Chidgey
(2019)
Mobilizing the Past: Social Movements, Cultural Memory and Digital Media
Title | "Three Day Work-Out". |
Description | Exhibition Curation and Arts Programming · 24/05-26/05/2019. Co-Curator, Tate Liverpool. With Birmingham School of Art and Post-Workers Theatre Collective. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | Co-production A participatory arts programme centred on remembering working-class social movement histories within the local area, with a focus on communal cycling and singing, delivered in partnership with local activist groups. Generated footfall of over 650 visitors across the three-day installation period. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/tate-exchange/workshop/three-day-work-out |
URL | https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/tate-exchange/workshop/three-day-work-out |
Description | Protest Memory is a mixed-media phenomena that is moving horizontally across culture, art, media and digital platforms in established and new ways. It is personal, local, national and global all at once. It is a challenge requiring great expertise, knowledge, skills and resources to capture contemporary protest memory for future generations. Some museums, archives and galleries have risen to this challenge but most are thinking about their collections in the light of social change and audience diversity. Researching protest memory should be participatory and collaborative with museums, archives and protest organisations. |
Exploitation Route | The principal investigator and co-investigator have submitted a proposal for a co-authored monograph which will include the voices of professional from the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sector. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
Description | We have published https://link.springer.com/book/9783031444777 Museums Archives and Protest Memory drawing on non-academic expertise/case studies/experiences that is now more widely shared with non-academic audience readers. The purpose of this book is for a general GLAM sector readership. |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Leverhulme - Pollyanna Ruiz (Workshop Lead) |
Amount | £54,807 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Sussex |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 01/2021 |
Description | Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change |
Amount | € 125,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 09/2021 |
End | 10/2025 |
Description | Queer Museology with KCL as lead |
Organisation | King's College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Queer Museology, scoping project, with Dr Serena Iervolino (KCL) and other King's colleagues. Jan-May 2019. Exploratory arts-based research with young LGBTIQ+ artists and a practitioner-led workshop with contributions from key role holders at Tate, Queer Britain, the V&A and Pitts River Museum asking what a queer museum may look and feel like, and what kind of connections it would have with community and activist groups. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Institute, King's College London. |
Collaborator Contribution | KCL partners collaborating on a future AHRC proposal |
Impact | None yet |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Transformative Memory - Confronting the Past in Grand-Scale Socio-Economic Change |
Organisation | Aarhus University |
Country | Denmark |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This project seeks to move memory and heritage studies beyond an exclusive focus on "conflictual pasts" in the traditional sense, while not neglecting the importance of understanding collective responses to historical violence. We aim to bring together scholars to discuss memory from a holistic perspective of large-scale transformation processes. The following areas have been identified as starting points for framing discussions: Post-industrial communities Reconfiguration of welfare and social care systems Post-conflict divisions in society Changing political landscapes Environmental change |
Collaborator Contribution | Researchers of protest memory are contributing in terms of leadership, conference contributions and research meetings across Europe to develop a COST network bid for April 2020. |
Impact | Conference at Nottingham Trent University, 3-5 June 2020 |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Transformative Memory - Confronting the Past in Grand-Scale Socio-Economic Change |
Organisation | Nottingham Trent University |
Department | School of Arts and Humanities |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This project seeks to move memory and heritage studies beyond an exclusive focus on "conflictual pasts" in the traditional sense, while not neglecting the importance of understanding collective responses to historical violence. We aim to bring together scholars to discuss memory from a holistic perspective of large-scale transformation processes. The following areas have been identified as starting points for framing discussions: Post-industrial communities Reconfiguration of welfare and social care systems Post-conflict divisions in society Changing political landscapes Environmental change |
Collaborator Contribution | Researchers of protest memory are contributing in terms of leadership, conference contributions and research meetings across Europe to develop a COST network bid for April 2020. |
Impact | Conference at Nottingham Trent University, 3-5 June 2020 |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Transformative Memory - Confronting the Past in Grand-Scale Socio-Economic Change |
Organisation | Paris West University Nanterre La Défense |
Country | France |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This project seeks to move memory and heritage studies beyond an exclusive focus on "conflictual pasts" in the traditional sense, while not neglecting the importance of understanding collective responses to historical violence. We aim to bring together scholars to discuss memory from a holistic perspective of large-scale transformation processes. The following areas have been identified as starting points for framing discussions: Post-industrial communities Reconfiguration of welfare and social care systems Post-conflict divisions in society Changing political landscapes Environmental change |
Collaborator Contribution | Researchers of protest memory are contributing in terms of leadership, conference contributions and research meetings across Europe to develop a COST network bid for April 2020. |
Impact | Conference at Nottingham Trent University, 3-5 June 2020 |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Transformative Memory - Confronting the Past in Grand-Scale Socio-Economic Change |
Organisation | University of Warsaw |
Country | Poland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This project seeks to move memory and heritage studies beyond an exclusive focus on "conflictual pasts" in the traditional sense, while not neglecting the importance of understanding collective responses to historical violence. We aim to bring together scholars to discuss memory from a holistic perspective of large-scale transformation processes. The following areas have been identified as starting points for framing discussions: Post-industrial communities Reconfiguration of welfare and social care systems Post-conflict divisions in society Changing political landscapes Environmental change |
Collaborator Contribution | Researchers of protest memory are contributing in terms of leadership, conference contributions and research meetings across Europe to develop a COST network bid for April 2020. |
Impact | Conference at Nottingham Trent University, 3-5 June 2020 |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | 'Collaboration and Social Change' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 10th January 2019. Gallery Talk: Red Chidgey. 'Collaboration and Social Change'. Modern Couples Exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | 'Curating Live Protest Memory: Protest Media Ecologies and the 2017 Women's March' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Red Chidgey (Co-I) 11th July 2018. Conference Paper: Red Chidgey. 'Curating Live Protest Memory: Protest Media Ecologies and the 2017 Women's March'. Console-ing Passions Annual Conference. Bournemouth University. 11-13 July 2018 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | 'The Afterlives of Protest: An Experimental Debate on Remembering Activism' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 29th September 2018. Talk: Red Chidgey. 'The Afterlives of Protest: An Experimental Debate on Remembering Activism'. Action: Arrest Symposium, King's College London. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Commemorating Women's Suffrage - How do we remember a movement? One-day public symposium. Speakers from Parliamentary Archives, |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Red Chidgey (Co-I) 4th July 2018. Organiser: Red Chidgey. Commemorating Women's Suffrage - How do we remember a movement? One-day public symposium. Speakers from Parliamentary Archives, Museum of London, People's History Museum, Now 14-18, Suffrage Arts, Womanchester Statue Project, East End Women's Museum. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Digital memory and history culture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Panel for ESSHC 2020 in Leiden Organizer: Robin Ekelund Discussant: Joanne Garde-Hansen This session explores uses of the past and memory culture in the contemporary digital age. A particular focus will be on the existential dimensions of digital memory and history cultures, that is, how the digital turn has affected the ways in which people deal with and relate to the past. The papers represent a broad perspective on this topic; how people use social media to gain and produce historical knowledge, how the Internet and online archives enables and affects memories of the past, as well as the intertwinement of technology, digital interfaces and memory communities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Invited Conference Panel 'Memory Studies Association' Madrid June 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Development of a new strand of research to the Arts and Humanities based on water and media. A key part of the Memory Studies International Conference June 2019 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.memorystudiesassociation.org/ |
Description | Paris-Seine (EUTOPIA) Session TRUTH, MEDIATION, HERITAGE & PUBLIC DISCOURSE |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Contemporary public discourses seize the explosion of communication and its new technological forms in the public space. Politicians, journalists, public figures, cultural institutions and creatives develop new forms of argumentation that often mark a break with classical rhetorical forms and notions of impartiality. The direct relationship to the public, via social networks, multimedia channels, the immediacy of public communication and the increasingly sophisticated expectations of the receiver have an impact on both the public discourse and its content. This session brings together research on these two issues with special attention to the digital humanities and the heritage dimension of digital archives for the reasoned analysis of contemporary issues, in that they constitute a trace of discursive processes on different subjects. The objective is to make a panorama of current studies on the turning points of the argumentation of the truth, the rhetoric of fake news and mis- and disinformation, new facets of the controversy in media discourses, electoral campaigns, activist content, or the expressions of the various forms of commitment. Les discours publics contemporains s'emparent de l'explosion de la communication et de ses formes technologiques nouvelles dans l'espace public. Politiques, journalistes, personnalités publiques, institutions culturelles et créatives développent de nouvelles formes argumentatives qui marquent souvent une rupture avec les formes rhétoriques classiques et les notions de l'impartialité. Le rapport direct au public, par l'intermédiaire des réseaux sociaux, les canaux multimédia, l'immédiateté de la communication publique et les attentes de plus en plus sophistiquées du récepteur ont un impact à la fois sur l'habillage du discours public et sur son contenu. Cette session rassemble des recherches sur ces deux pendants avec une attention particulière aux humanités numériques et à la dimension patrimoniale des archives numériques pour l'analyse raisonnée des questions contemporaines, en ce qu'elles constituent une trace de processus discursifs sur différents sujets. L'objectif est de faire un panorama des études en cours sur les tournants de l'argumentation de la vérité, de la rhétorique des fake-news, des nouvelles facettes de la polémique dans les discours médiatiques, les campagnes électorales, le contenu militant ou les expressions des diverses formes d'engagement. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Red Chidgey "How to Curate a Living Archive: Archival Assemblages and Transnational Protest" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | "How to Curate a Living Archive: Archival Assemblages and Transnational Protest". Memory Studies Association Annual Conference. Complutense University Madrid. 25-28 June 2019. Paper delivered by Red Chidgey |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Red Chidgey "How to Curate a Living Archive: Archival Assemblages and Transnational Protest". |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Conference Paper at 'Memory Studies Association' Annual Conference. Complutense University Madrid. 25-28 June 2019 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Red Chidgey Enterprising Activism: Creative Work, Activist Cultures and the Money Taboo |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Enterprising Activism: Creative Work, Activist Cultures and the Money Taboo. Research Talk, Northumbria University. 6 November 2019 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |