Research Interests

My work is concerned with collective memory and identity. I have particular interests in how these issues play out in Russia , the Republic of Georgia , and Estonia , but my research is also motivated by a broader set of concerns about the nature of collective memory in general. In previous writings I have drawn on the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky, M.M. Bakhtin, and others in order to examine problems of language and thought from a sociocultural perspective.

I am currently working on several projects in the South Caucasus , especially the Republic of Georgia . This includes collaborating with colleagues on efforts to understand the emergence of civil society, and democracy in this region. Of particular interest for me is how schools and other institutions are harnessed to create and maintain official collective memory.

In addition to Anthropology, I am associated with the Department of Education, the International and Area Studies Program, and the Department of Psychology.  I am also Director of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy and Vice Chancellor for International Relations at Washington University .

Selected Publications

Karumidze, Zurab and James V. Wertsch, editors 2005 Enough! The Rose Revolution in the Republic of Georgia. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Wertsch, James V.

2003 The future of the past. CaucasUS Context, no.1, pp.109-116.
2002 Voices of collective remembering . New York: Cambridge University Press.

2001 Narratives as cultural tools in sociocultural analysis: Official history in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Ethos 2001: 511-533.
1998 Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press. 1991. Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action . Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.

Courses

Introduction to Memory Studies (L80 221)
Text Memory and Identity (L97 343)
History and Memory (L12 4109)