On Collective Memory

Memory Studies Research Platform Lecture with Jeffrey Olick, Jr. Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia.

Jeffrey Olick is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia. He is Past President of the Memory Studies Association (memorystudiesassociation.org) and an elected member of the Sociological Research Association.

Olick received a B.A. with High Honors from Swarthmore College (1986) and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale (1993), where his dissertation won the Marvin B. Sussman prize. Before joining the faculty at UVa, Olick was a member of the sociology department faculty at Columbia University in New York City for eleven years.

Olick is a cultural and historical sociologist whose work has focused on collective memory and commemoration, critical theory, transitional justice, postwar Germany, and sociological theory more generally. Current work focuses on the historical origins of the boundaries between psychology and sociology, the life and work of Maurice Halbwachs, and change in political culture through conflict over collective memory.

Olick frequently speaks at universities, conferences, and public forums around the world, and his work has been translated into Spanish, German, Polish, Turkish, Estonian, Hungarian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.