{"id":1610,"date":"2018-12-04T15:16:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T23:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2019-03-01T09:34:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T17:34:44","slug":"star-trek-and-historical-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/2018\/12\/04\/star-trek-and-historical-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cStar Trek and Historical Memory,\u201d by Aely Aronoff \u201921"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Among the most popular shows in American history, <em>Star Trek<\/em> and its many iterations have left an indelible mark on modern American culture, largely because of the show&#8217;s remarkable ability to convey culturally important messages.<\/p>\n<p>For my research paper in HSA 10 (the first-year seminar at Harvey Mudd), I explored the ways in which <em>Star Trek<\/em> gives Americans something every culture needs: an understanding of the historical tragedies that can affect people for generations.<\/p>\n<p>Focusing specifically on the Holocaust, I considered how an understanding of historical trauma is successfully passed on to an audience, both by <em>Star Trek<\/em> and by various historical figures. Analyzing characters in <em>Star Trek,<\/em> I took an interest in individuals who assume responsibility for understanding past tragedies and communicating that understanding to others\u2014a task that takes an immense toll on those who attempt it.<\/p>\n<p>What fascinated me the most while writing this essay was how I could use the narratives of characters in <em>Star Trek<\/em> to better understand the stories of real-life Holocaust survivors. I concluded my essay by suggesting that modern America should find people who are best able to understand the traumas of the past and give those people a platform to teach us all. Only then will we be equipped to prevent the tragedies of the future.<\/p>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1611 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2018\/12\/Aely-HSA-r-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Aely Aronoff \u201921, Harvey Mudd College student\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Harvey Mudd College sophomore\u00a0Aely Aronoff\u00a0\u201921 submitted the paper &#8220;Star Trek and Historical Memory&#8221; for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/faculty-staff\/david-k-seitz\/\">Professor David Seitz&#8217;<\/a>s course Star Trek and Social Theory. Aronoff was awarded the First-year Writing Prize in spring 2018 by the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/a\/g.hmc.edu\/file\/d\/18_leU7Izr8m7BkFB-n6AEWTZbY1bvnX1\/view?usp=sharing\"><em>Read the full text of Aronoff\u2019s paper \u201c<\/em>Star Trek<em> and Historical Memory.\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among the most popular shows in American history, Star Trek and its many iterations have left an indelible mark on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":1615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hsa-announcements"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}