2026 ALISE Annual Conference

In the aftermath of mass violence, memory often becomes formalized and institutionalized by archives, memorials, and museums. But existing alongside the institutional memory is the experience and meaning made by the community, now reshaped by their loss and their response to it, expressed, processed, developed, and redeveloped by their continuing movements in the space of the event and the place of their shared lives. This poster draws from my dissertation, Counter-Mapping Memory: Jewish Belonging, Boundaries, and the Afterlives of Violence in Squirrel Hill, which focuses on the aftermath of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (the deadliest antisemitic attack in United States history). My operationalization of counter-mapping demonstrates how Jewish life in Squirrel Hill persists alongside traumatic memory through movement through wounded spaces (Sturken, 2004). This project shows how memory after violence remains active in everyday community life and invites audiences to consider how trauma, belonging, and resilience are carried through ordinary places and routines.