International Conference, 17-19 March 2016, University of Warsaw Library
This conference revisits the regional structuration of memory, an issue that was discussed in an earlier meeting within the “Genealogies of Memory” project in 2012. The conference aims at gaining further insights into the construction of memory regions understood as discursive arenas of memory that are above the level of the nation-state but not fully universal. It will consider the ways in which public debate, digital discourse, written narratives and visual representations shape constellations of memory that transcend the nation-state. It will also seek out points of comparison and contact between Eastern Europe with other regions of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and/or the Americas.
The conference will begin with a roundtable discussion “On memory regions” with open invited speakers: Jeffrey Olick (University of Virginia), Kate McGregor (University of Melbourne), Jie-Hyun Lim (Sogang University), Aline Sierp (Maastricht University).
The first keynote lecture, entitled “The Past is Another Story”, will be given by Ann Rigney - professor of Comparative Literature at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and coordinator of the Utrecht Forum for Memory Studies. The second lecture by Derek Sayer - professor of Cultural History at the University of Lancaster (UK) and Professor Emeritus (Canada Research Chair) at the University of Alberta, Canada – is entitled “Memory Regions: Texas/Berlin”. Later the conference panels will cover the following topics:
- The Fragmentation of Trauma: Memories of Mass Violence between the Global and Local
- Memory on the Move: the Formation and Deformation of Memory Regions through Migration and Travel
- After Empire: Memory and Postcoloniality
- Narrative as Bridge: Texts and the Construction of Memory Regions Empire
- Memory and Technocracy: How Policies Construct Memory
- Shadows of War: Conflict and Memory Regions
- A Post-Soviet Memory Region?
The conference will take place in the University of Warsaw Library on 17-19 March 2016. Admission free, no earlier registration required. Simultaneous English-Polish translation will be available.
The “Genealogies of Memory” project was initiated by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity in 2011 as a result of growing interest in social memory in Central and Eastern Europe and in other parts of the world. The project aims to facilitate academic exchange among Central and Eastern European scholars and to promote the study of memory in the region in the international academic community. Learn more about the project.
Conference Committee:
Simon Lewis (Freie Universität Berlin), Małgorzata Pakier (Museum of the History of Polish Jews), Joanna Wawrzyniak (University of Warsaw)
Advisory Board:
Jeffrey K. Olick (University of Virginia), Gertrud Pickhan (Free University of Berlin), Jan Rydel (ENRS), Matthias Weber (Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe)
Organizers and Partners:
European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, Institute of Sociology at the University of Warsaw, Institute for East European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe
Funded by:
Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (Germany), Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland), Ministry of Human Capacities (Hungary)