Call for Paper “Memory Moves: Migration, Exchange, Collision”
The Memory Studies Network of the German Studies Association (GSA) invites panel or individual paper proposals for the 2016 GSA Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, from Sept. 29th to Oct. 2nd.
In light of the current migration crisis, we are seeking papers for memory network panels that engage with notions of exchange, collision, and migration. Increasingly, national territories are becoming “contact zones” for the exchange, collision, competition, clash, dialogue, and hegemonic appropriation of cultures. These uneven points of contact are in most cases inflected by asymmetries of power, war- fare, and uneven access to political power and voice.
We seek papers that address how the current situation of migration, exchange, and collision affects the practices, discourses, and material manifestation of personal and collective memory formations. Memory is conventionally associated with place, but for people in movement what does it mean to speak of public, collective, or counter-memory? Conversely, how does the current crisis of mobility, broadly conceived, affect the ever more codified notions of official memory upon which Germany, the EU, and other states premise both policies and political narratives? How do memory institutions—archives, memorials, museums, schools, but also literature, theater, and film—negotiate changing concepts of the stranger, the guest, and the host? How do conceptions of personal and collective memories shift in light of dialogues, collisions, and exchanges between citizens from German-speaking countries and families that are not ethnically German, have bi-national connections, or are seeking refuge in German-speaking countries?
Proposals are also welcome from scholars working on all questions of memory in German speaking culture, history, politics, and literature and beyond. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives and welcome ideas for collaboration, grants, or publications.
Please send individual paper abstracts of ca. 250 words or full panel proposals by January 21, 2016 to network co-chairs Jonathan Bach and Susanne Baackmann at <GSAMemory@gmail.com>. We especially welcome panel proposals. The memory network will select and submit proposals to the GSA for final approval. Papers or panels accepted for Memory Network will be informed by February 8th, 2016. This allows those whom cannot be accommodated in the Network to submit their proposals directly to the GSA by the deadline of February 15th, 2016.
Please note that all panel participants including the commentator and moderator must be registered GSA members by February 10, 2016. Please note GSA rules at https://www.thegsa.org/conference/current.html.
