Memory Studies of Pandemics: Cultural Scripts, Forgetting, and Commemoration

Masika Anna Mahinda

Department of Pharmacy Kampala International University Uganda

Email: mahindamasika@studwc.kiu.ac.ug

                                                                ABSTRACT
This paper examines the memory politics of pandemics through the lens of cultural scripts, collective forgetting, and practices of commemoration. It investigates how major pandemics including the 1918 Influenza, HIV/AIDS, SARS, and COVID-19 are differentially remembered, selectively silenced, or actively commemorated within public history, media systems, and institutional archives. Drawing on theories of cultural and collective memory, the study argues that pandemic remembrance is not neutral but is structured by cultural scripts that determine what is narrated, omitted, or transformed into official memory. These scripts operate through state narratives, media framing, archival practices, and grassroots memorialization, producing uneven memory landscapes across time and geography. The paper further explores how forgetting functions as both an unintended consequence of trauma and a deliberate political and institutional strategy that shapes public understanding of past health crises. It highlights the emergence of digital memory cultures, including online memorials and social media grief practices, which complicate traditional forms of commemoration and challenge institutional control over historical narratives. By integrating case studies and theoretical approaches from memory studies, the paper demonstrates that pandemics are not only biomedical events but also deeply cultural phenomena whose meanings are continuously negotiated. It concludes that understanding pandemic memory requires attention to the interplay between narrative power, silence, and evolving commemorative practices in both physical and digital spaces.

Keywords: Pandemic Memory; Cultural Scripts; Collective Forgetting; Commemoration; and Public History.

CITE AS: Masika Anna Mahinda (2026). Memory Studies of Pandemics: Cultural Scripts, Forgetting, and Commemoration. NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES, 7(2):35-43. https://doi.org/10.59298/NIJSES/2026/72.3543