Call for papers:
Transcultural memory and reception in Europe – 3rd plenary conference, Sofia, 18-21 April 2016
The ISTME network aims to investigate the transcultural dynamics of memory in Europe today. Studying how memories of the troubled twentieth century are transmitted and received across Europe, the Action explores the tension between attempts to create a common European memory, or a unitary memory ethics, on the one hand and numerous memory conflicts stemming from Europe’s fragmentation into countless memory communities on the other.
The 3rd ISTME plenary conference will focus on the ways in which memory narratives, produced by a variety of political and civil society actors as well as by artists and writers, circulate within European societies and across European borders. How are memory narratives interpreted, appropriated, and translated into actions and attitudes? How does reception feed into the production of new narratives or the transformation of existing ones? In keeping with the main aims of ISTME of particular concern will be the question how such processes play out across national and cultural borders.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Aleida Assman, University of Konstanz
Paula Hamilton, University of Technology, Sydney
Wulf Kansteiner, Aarhus University
Miglena Nikolchina, Sofia University
We welcome proposals for papers on issues connected to circulation, appropriation and interpretation of twentieth century memory narratives in Europe. Papers may focus on memory transmission and reception on local, national, regional or European levels, they may address shared as well as disputed memories, and they may investigate memory transmission and appropriation as unifying or divisive factors.
The papers will be presented within three thematic workshops corresponding to ISTME’s working groups:
1) Politics of Memory
2) Memory and Mediation
3) Memory and Migration
Upon acceptance, the papers will be arranged into suitable thematic workshops by the organizers. Proposals should include a suggestion of which thematic workshop the proposal might fit under, but the organizers reserve the right to assign panels and papers to a different thematic section than the one suggested if that is deemed more appropriate.
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words to ISTME vice chair Tea Sindbæk Andersen (nxr333@hum.ku.dk) by 1st of November 2015. Acceptance will be notified by 1st of December 2015. We will expect a draft paper for circulation on 30th of March 2016. Travel and accommodation expenses for speakers will be reimbursed by COST. We expect to include accepted papers in ISTME’s concluding publication.
