Learning through Collective Memory Work
Troubling Testimonio in Post-war Peru
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bristol University Press
Publishing:1st Jul '26
£27.99
This title is due to be published on 1st July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£84.99(9781529237863)

This book traces the process of producing testimonio with the children of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), an insurgent group during Peru’s internal war (1980–2000). It examines how the group navigates post-war struggles over memory while dealing with the ‘children of terrorists’ stigma.
Drawing on a cycles of inquiry approach, the book theorizes three movements for memory work: a realist presentation of testimonial narratives, a ‘politics of memory’ engaging with the conditions of production and a ‘poetics of memory’ that troubles memory, voice and representation for qualitative inquiry in post-war contexts.
Challenging the notion of war-torn countries as pure devastation, the author invites readers to see them as sites of knowledge and creativity, with much to offer for education, peace studies and social justice research.
"Wilson-Vásquez provides context and analysis, addressing such concepts as the ethics of an outsider collecting and publishing testimonials, the importance of the spaces and places where testimonials occur, the silences contained in them, the pedagogical lessons they provide, and the fact/fiction binary." Choice
“This is an utterly astonishing read. Moving in its content. Flowing in its style. And breathtaking in its ambition. You will forever think very differently about the politically difficult questions of memory, testimonials and truth.” Susan L. Robertson, University of Cambridge
“Framed by a deep engagement with spatial awareness, Goya Wilson Vásquez walks and talks with the participants in her study, visiting places of their choosing, including prisons and graves. Throughout, she brings her compassion and imagination to this activist research, presenting a moving counter-history.” Molly Andrews, Co-director Association for Narrative Research and Practice
ISBN: 9781529237870
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
248 pages