Place, Memory, and Archive: An Interview with Karen Till

Abstract

Dr. Karen Till is Professor of Cultural Geography at Maynooth University, director of the Space & Place Research Collaborative (Ireland), and founding co-Convener of the Mapping Spectral Traces international network of artists, practitioners, and scholars. Till’s 2005 book, The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place, explores German memory and modernity, showing how places and spaces exemplify the contradictions and tensions of social memory and national identity. Her current book in progress, Wounded Cities, is based upon geo-ethnographic research in Berlin, Bogota, Cape Town, Dublin, Minneapolis, and Roanoke. It highlights the significance of place- based memory work and ethical forms of care at multiple scales that may contribute to creating more socially just futures.