Carsten Jac­ob Hum­le­bæk

The tragedy of Spanish 20th century history is also an inspirational story of coping with trauma and struggling to rebuild the country. I have taken the ‘sites of memory’ approach to another level using them as manifestations of discourses, which, over time, demonstrate how national identity is evolving through changes in value attribution.  

After the turn of the century, the so-called ‘pact of forgetting’ became criticized for its negative effects. Together with Spanish colleagues, I have investigated this paradigm shift, and the Spanish case prompted new developments within the theories of transitional justice. These theories are based on a linear understanding of history and the premise that we learn from past mistakes, which is not always the case. 

In my research, I strive to uncover the mechanisms that drive discourses about the nation, an eminently political project that, however, also has a sociological dimension concerned with self-understanding as well as a branding dimension regarding how the external image is affected. Each of these follows its own logic and sometimes they develop in parallel; at other times, however, they do not, and tensions occur. These crises are often gateways to new understandings.