Welcome to the Spring 2012 edition of the University of Sussex Undergraduate History Journal. We are very pleased with the positive feedback we have received in response to our first two editions. Interest in the journal keeps growing and we are happy about the increasing amount of outstanding contributions that have been submitted from students at home and abroad.

The focus of our third edition lies on the subject of historical memory. Of great importance for the field of cultural history, historical memory, whether experienced by an individual or a collective, allows us to see historical events from various perspectives. Whilst affording us illuminating insights into representations of the past, the role of memory in individual reconciliation and composure allows us to connect with the methodological problems of historical study and its inherent subjectivity. We hope that this issue demonstrates that this subjectivity can be celebrated, and that the articles we chose will complement the existing scholarship in their fields by shedding fresh light on aspects of historical memory.   

Certainly doing so is Charlotte Fraser by looking at the train as a microcosm of the Holocaust. Highlighting the human experience on trains and the meaning behind them she explores a previously neglected area of Holocaust studies. She argues that the train journey facilitated a variety of experiences from the beginning of a process of dehumanisation to a space where strength and hope was cultivated. Her highly original research reveals new perspectives of the victims’ perceptions of the journey while extending the time frame of the Holocaust at the same time.  

Danielle Joyce looks directly at the role of historical memory in the Northern Ireland conflict, in a creative analysis of its cultural narratives. She argues that feelings of loss and bereavement manifested in murals to the Troubles drew on memory to strengthen feelings of victimisation on each side. Conversely, collective memory as shaped by community projects helped to aid the reconciliation process by fostering a sense of universal experience.

Finally Ruth Taylor explores the impact of historical memory on language by critically engaging with the use of the term “ethnic cleansing” after the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Taylor investigates the usefulness of the term as an analytical tool, and her rigorous definitions help to problematise the concepts of where ethnic cleansing starts and genocide begins. Whilst arguing that the memory of the Yugoslav wars may hinder the subjectivity of the term as used in a political context, she maintains that it is an important component of genocide studies in allowing historians to penetrate the processes of escalating violence.

We hope you enjoy this latest issue, and we welcome your comments and feedback at usuhj@sussex.ac.uk.  Look out for our next edition coming soon. 

Best wishes,

Elizabeth Hardwell and Julia Kompe

The USUHJ Editors