William Hirst

William Hirst is Malcolm B. Smith Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research. He examines the contribution of the cognitive sciences to the study of social and collective memory and the ways this work can be integrated into the more humanities-and social science-based approaches to Memory Studies. He has explored in the social aspects of forgetting and its role in the formation of both autobiographical and collective memories, the way people remember history, how collective memories change – or resist change – both within and across generations, the nexus between autobiographical and collective memories, and the relation between remembering the collective past and imaging the collective future. He has published over 185 articles, guest edited several special issues on collective memory, in journals such as Social Research, Memory Studies, and Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. He has also co-edited several volumes, including the recent Culture, Cognition, and Political Momentum, undertaken with Astrid Erll. He is also currently the President-Elect of the Memory Studies Association.