A national Day of Reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from past memorialisation initiatives and attitudes in the present

拟议的项目将侧重于应对COVID-19大流行的公共纪念活动的演变。与居里夫人慈善机构及其2021年全国反思日的活动合作，它将与利益相关者组织（慈善机构、信仰团体和公共机构）一起，利用公民纪念方面的学术专业知识，研究两个核心问题。首先，关于20世纪英国公众创伤纪念的学术研究如何为新的实践提供有益的信息。第二，如何将利益攸关方对全国2019冠状病毒病疫情反思日的形式、组织和叙述的不同意见，批判性地融入到纪念活动的发展中。通过这种方式，该项目将着眼于过去的先例和当前的复杂性，建立一个分析框架，有效地促进对这一流行病的社会反应。在开展这项工作时，该项目将考虑纪念活动如何处理几个关键关系：在“自上而下”的国家主导的纪念活动和地方机构之间；在作为团结力量的纪念活动和反映社会多样性的需要之间；在哀悼损失和庆祝危机期间的成就之间；在各种形式的纪念仪式之间；在国家自我确认和自我批判反思之间。该项目的产出将包括召集记忆研究学者和非高等教育机构参与者的一系列讲习班，为居里夫人和其他利益攸关方提供一份开放获取的书面报告，为全国反思日的筹备工作提供信息，以及一份重要的会议论文和后续出版物。

The proposed project will focus on the evolution of public memorialisation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Partnering with the Marie Curie charity and its campaign for a national Day of Reflection in 2021, it will draw academic expertise on civic memorialisation together with stakeholder organisations (charities, faith groups, and public bodies) to examine two core issues. First, how new practices may be beneficially informed by scholarship on British public memorialisation of traumas in the 20th century. Second, how varied stakeholder opinions on the format, organisation, and narratives of a national Day of Reflection on COVID-19 can be critically integrated into the development of the memorialisation activities. In this way the project will look to both past precedents and the complexities of the present, building up an analytical framework that impactfully contributes to social responses to the pandemic. In undertaking this work the project will consider how memorialisation navigates several key relationships: between 'top down' state-led memorialisation and local agency; between memorialisation as a force for unity and the need to reflect social diversity; between mourning loss and celebrating achievements during the crisis; between varied forms of memorial ritual; between national self-validation and self-critical reflection. Outputs from the project will include a series of workshops that draw together memory studies scholars and non-HEI participants, an open-access written report for Marie Curie and other stakeholders that informs preparations for the national Day of Reflection, and a major conference paper and follow-up publication.