Date of Award

5-11-2025

Date Published

June 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Information Science & Technology

Advisor(s)

Beth Patin

Keywords

Critical Narrative Analysis;Cultural Heritage Informatics;Epistemicide;Monuments;Narrative Documentality;Pastmaking

Abstract

Pastmaking is a process in which agents exercise power to make or use documents depicting a past that can be given or taken as historical truth. Such documents often possess narrative elements perceived for use in heritage formation, collective remembering, and identity maintenance practices such as storytelling. Pastmaking encompasses the performative creation of historical knowledge. The implications of pastmaking prompt considerable pause about: (1) who gets spoken for in (re-)tellings of prior events, (2) how agents arrive at consensus to determine what is historically known, and (3) how knowledge is lost or gained when historical narratives get (re-)written, a particularly salient disciplinary issue in light of conceptual developments on epistemicide and epistemic injustice in library and information science (LIS). In response, the research question of this dissertation asks: How are epistemicide and pastmaking related through storytelling? This dissertation addresses this question by undertaking comparative case studies of two commemorative monuments using critical discourse and narrative analysis, abductive content analysis, and document phenomenological insights: (A) Columbus Circle in Syracuse, NY, and (B) The Place of Remembrance at Syracuse University. A literature review of storytelling, epistemicide, and pastmaking is conducted. Narrative documentality is conceptualized as the guiding framework to describe the interplay between narratives and documents. This critical qualitative investigation reveals how commemorative monuments subject to performative agencies of giving and taking afford or deny experiences of historical narrative through their use in constructions of the past. Findings enable three distinct contributions, including: a relational model of pastmaking; the assessment of relevance as a performative process; and demonstrating instances of document-dependent truth. Theoretical, empirical, practical, and curricular implications of pastmaking for LIS are discussed.

Access

Open Access

Download

Share

COinS