Designed by Serhat Akbaş, M. Goran Korkmaz, and H. Laleş Öngün from the Mesopotamian Psychologists Association, this workshop aims to highlight the relationship between collective memory and psychological well-being, and to provide participants with a safe space for sharing, enabling collective empowerment through remembrance, mourning, and solidarity.
Societies experience psychological effects not only individually but also collectively as a result of years of conflict, forced migration, loss, and violence. These experiences leave a mark on collective memory and, through intergenerational transmission, shape the emotional world, sense of security, and perceptions of the future of new generations.
One of the main goals of the Societal Peace and Freedom Forum is to address the obstacles to peace in a multi-dimensional way and to discuss the conditions for a just coexistence. This workshop aims to contribute to this discussion from a psychosocial perspective. During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to reflect and share together on the psychological effects of collective memory, trauma and mourning processes, solidarity practices, and community-based healing pathways. Thus, the role of remembrance and confrontation processes in building social peace will be discussed, and a collective space for thinking that strengthens empathy and solidarity will be created.
The workshop aims to achieve the following tangible outcomes:
- Shared concept and emotion maps created with the contributions of the participants will make visible the psychological dimensions of collective memory.
- Hope messages, short notes, and symbolic expressions (post-it notes and short writings) that emerge during group work will be compiled to create materials that can contribute to the forum's general report.
- "Messages to future generations" and "sentences of hope" created by the participants will contribute to the forum's closing or exhibition work on the themes of memory and healing.
- Key suggestions and evaluations obtained from the discussions during the workshop will be compiled into a short evaluation note emphasizing the role of psychosocial approaches in social peace processes.
These outcomes aim to strengthen empathy, solidarity, and collective healing processes, thereby providing a psychological perspective to discussions on social peace and freedom.
Language: Kurdish (Kurmanji) & Turkish
Participation: While open to everyone, participation from those working in the fields of psychology, human rights, and collective memory is encouraged.
Capacity: 30 people
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