ABSTRACT
Based on an egalitarian approach to inquiry, collective memory work asks co-researchers (participants and researchers, or research teams) to recall, examine, and analyze their own memories. Exploring these memories within a broader, cultural context allows them to see how their individual experiences link to collective, shared experiences of similar and/or different groups in society. Collective memory work is unique as participants are involved in the generation and analysis of data, which is useful to the community knowledge-base and as a form of conscious raising as they engage in the process. This process encourages and assists participants to make sense of how, unconsciously and through the internalization of taken-for-granted beliefs, they have created social and ideological dimensions of identity, including gender, race, sexual identity, and other socially relevant categories.
