RED(es) presented work at the 2026 Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) through a presentation at the Political Psychology Preconference titled “Ideology and Living Historical Memory: How Political Orientation Shapes Collective Remembering in Puerto Rico’s Colonial Context,” presented by Janice Robles Fernández and co-authored with Eduardo J. Rivera Pichardo, Teófilo Espada-Brignoni, and Luis Rivera, as part of a larger NSF collaborative research project.

Drawing on work on living historical memory (LHM)—people’s recollection of historical events—this project examines how historical remembering shapes the ways societies understand inequality, identity, and colonial relations. In Global South contexts, LHM often centers struggle, resistance, and decolonization, whereas in Global North contexts it more often emphasizes tradition and stability, reinforcing system-justifying narratives.

Within the context of the U.S.–Puerto Rico colonial relationship, this study examined how political ideology shapes historical memory among Puerto Ricans. Overall, the findings suggest that political ideology is closely linked to how Puerto Ricans remember the colonial past, and that living historical memory may function both as a product of political attitudes and as a mechanism that challenges dominant colonial narratives.

We congratulate Janice Robles Fernández on this achievement and look forward to her continued contributions to research on coloniality, collective memory, and resistance within and beyond Puerto Rico.

For more information about this project or to get involved in ongoing research initiatives and collaborations, please contact RED(es): Decolonial & Political Psychology Research Group.

RED(es) presented work at the 2026 Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) through a presentation at the Political Psychology Preconference titled “Ideology and Living Historical Memory: How Political Orientation Shapes Collective Remembering in Puerto Rico’s Colonial Context,” presented by Janice Robles Fernández and co-authored with Eduardo J. Rivera Pichardo, Teófilo Espada-Brignoni, and Luis Rivera, as part of a larger NSF collaborative research project.

Drawing on work on living historical memory (LHM)—people’s recollection of historical events—this project examines how historical remembering shapes the ways societies understand inequality, identity, and colonial relations. In Global South contexts, LHM often centers struggle, resistance, and decolonization, whereas in Global North contexts it more often emphasizes tradition and stability, reinforcing system-justifying narratives.

Within the context of the U.S.–Puerto Rico colonial relationship, this study examined how political ideology shapes historical memory among Puerto Ricans. Overall, the findings suggest that political ideology is closely linked to how Puerto Ricans remember the colonial past, and that living historical memory may function both as a product of political attitudes and as a mechanism that challenges dominant colonial narratives.

We congratulate Janice Robles Fernández on this achievement and look forward to her continued contributions to research on coloniality, collective memory, and resistance within and beyond Puerto Rico.

For more information about this project or to get involved in ongoing research initiatives and collaborations, please contact RED(es): Decolonial & Political Psychology Research Group.