University of Latvia will establish the Social Memory Research Centre

The aim of the Centre will be to systematically analyse the history of Latvia, to shape the memory policy of Latvia on the local, national and international levels as well as to evaluate memory policy efficiency. Strategies for increasing the capacity of Latvian history to unite the society instead of dividing it will be sought. The Centre will also analyse the memory policies of the EU and Russia and generate proposals to the Latvian foreign policy makers. The signed protocol includes finding innovative approaches to communicating Latvian history; this includes the methodology of teaching history in comprehensive school. On signing the protocol, Marcis Auzins (UL Rector) emphasized the future significance of the Centre and added that the team working on establishing and furthering the Centre’s activity has already demonstrated its competence in several important research projects. Zaneta Jaunzeme-Grende (Minister of Culture) expressed her satisfaction at launching the Centre and stated that the greatest motivator for it was the recent national referendum on the status of the Russian language and its possible causes. Among the causes, the Minister also mentioned people’s diverse social memory. Sarmite Elerte (Minister’s Extraordinary Counsellor in Integration and Electronic Media Development) pointed out another important task of the Centre – creation of a history’s memory that would correspond to the European and democratic values and that would equally evaluate the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. The initiator of the project is Vita Zelce, Professor at the UL Faculty of Social sciences. She has worked on developing social memory research in Latvia for ten years and inspired many young scientists. Professor Zelce believes that the main tasks of the Centre are to develop knowledge that politicians, officials and cultural workers can use, as well as to improve interaction between the academia, policy makers and modern society. The UL will form a working group for developing the Centre’s action strategy and making decisions on the possible funding. The group, chaired by Indrikis Muiznieks, UL Vice-rector for Research, will include Professor Vita Zelce, Juris Rozenvalds, Dean of the UL Faculty of Social Sciences, Martins Kaprans, Chairman of the Support Society Board of the Social Memory Research Centre, Andris Sne, Dean of the UL Faculty of History and Philosophy, and Baiba Bela, Associate Professor at the UL Faculty of Social Sciences. Translated by students of the professional study programme Translator of the University of Latvia.