Professor Alistair Thomson is 2012 distinguished visiting professor at Aarhus University. Dr Thomson is a professor of history and director of the Institute for Public History at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

2012.02.15 | AU Kommunikation

Dr Thomson's international reputation was founded about fifteen years ago with his work on the creation of one of the central legends of Australian national identity, the landing of the Anzacs on Gallipoli during WWI. An internationally renowned oral historian, he also writes about the theory and method of oral history and life history research. In his work on the Anzacs, which was based on interviews with Australian veterans of World War I, Dr Thomson developed a seminal theory of the formation of memory of traumatic events: we remember selectively when we remember such events, and when we retell an unpleasant experience, we create a narrative we can live with. Those who fail to create such a narrative have trouble living with the past and develop psychic traumas – which can ultimately lead to suicide in the most extreme cases. Many of the war veterans Dr Thomson worked with achieved peace of mind by understanding their actions in the war in the light of a larger national narrative about the meaning of sacrificing yourself for your "mates". Dr Thomson is considered one of the leaders in the field of public history.

'Working with internationally recognised experts over a longer period of time can really make a difference in our own research. And there are obvious synergies between Al Thomson's work and our work at Aarhus University in this area. He has a different methodological approach which is interesting for us', explains Associate Professor Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Department of Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University.

Dr Thomsen is the driving force in the Network for Cultural Memory Studies, a group of twenty-five researchers from a variety of fields from AU. Last year he was awarded DKK 1 million to develop the network by the Danish Council for Independent Research. The network now includes researchers from the University of Copenhagen.

Over the past ten or fifteen years, interest in cultural memory has been growing across a wide range of fields, including anthropology, history, psychology and aesthetics. There are a number of reasons for this. Globalisation and new media are undoubtedly factors, along with an increasing awareness of the fact that society does not merely transmit history; it produces history. Collective identities are thus not simple givens, but rather the result of a process of construction. This makes the role of collective memory in developing national identity and community  interesting to examine. It is necessary to draw on the methods and insights of a range of disciplines in order to understand these complex processes.

The theme of this year's MatchPoints seminar at Aarhus University is Conflicted memories: memories of war, conflict and transitional periods. Dr Thomson will be one of the seminar's main speakers. In addition, Dr Thomson will appear as keynote speaker at a conference on memory and migration in December 2012.

The next issue of UNIvers will include an article on Dr Thomson. It will be available on 20 February.

• Read more about Al Thomson
• Read an article from a previous issue of UNIvers on the current interest in research on memory (In Danish only)
• Read more about MatchPoints
• Read more about the Distinguished Visiting Professor 2013-14: Robert Putnam, professor of political theory and sociology, Harvard University, USA

For more information: Associate Professor Michael Böss, engmb@hum.au.dk or +45  2093 4818