Dr P. Anh Nguyen on "Living with Unfinished Pasts: How States Manage Trauma, Memory, and Feared Futures"
About the Talk
This talk is hosted by the EASG and the International Relations and Security cluster. It examines how traumatic memory traverses temporal boundaries and shapes ontological (in)security across the past, present, and future. Drawing on cases from South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia, it explores how political actors engage with their 鈥�temporal others鈥濃�攃onstructed versions of the self located in different moments in time鈥攁nd how these engagements reveal selective memory and reconfigure state identity. While existing work on temporal othering has tended to focus on the past, the talk extends this framework to include anticipated future selves, highlighting how states manage not only unresolved historical legacies but also feared or undesirable futures. Through an analysis of debates over responsibility, compensation, and acknowledgment, the talk shows how states navigate unwanted memories in order to stabilise fragmented national narratives. It argues that traumatic histories continue to shape contemporary political landscapes, not only through remembrance of the past, but through ongoing efforts to secure future ontological stability.
Event Details
Wednesday, 11th of March 2026
11.15-12.30 (UK Time)
R1.03, Ramphal Building and Microsoft Teams
Contact easg@warwick.ac.uk for a Teams invite
About the Speaker
P. Anh Nguyen is a Research Affiliate at the School of International Relations, the University of St Andrews, and a Teaching Fellow in Politics at SOAS University of London. Her research focuses on memory politics, the politics of emotions, and the international relations of East Asia. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews. Her work has appeared in Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Email:pan2@st-andrews.ac.uk