Tag Archives: memory

CfP: The People’s Conference: The Transnational Legacies of 1919

Posted on by

Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston (Ontario)
November 7-8 2019

Download bilingual CfP: Symposium 2019 – Call for paper (bilingual)

On the hundredth anniversary of the world changing Paris Peace Conference and of the Treaty of Versailles, the Department of History of the Royal Military College of Canada is hosting a conference to examine their impact on transnational and international movements and institutions. Most scholarship to date has focussed on what happened in Paris in 1919 from the perspective of the coming of the Second World War, and on the inability of the Treaty of Versailles and of the League of Nations to prevent a second global conflagration. Only recently has more attention been paid to the explosion of international and transnational institutions and organizations created in aftermath of 1919. The Paris Peace Conference was the first international conference to draw upon the input of individuals and private groups, while others met in parallel conferences to discuss what was happening or should be happening within the halls of Versailles. In that sense, Paris 1919 opened the door to popular participation in global treaty making that continues to this day.

The organizing committee solicits proposals for papers on the short and long term legacies that the Paris Peace Conference (1919) has had on international and transnational movements and institutions over the past century. Areas of study might include, but are not limited to:

• International, transnational, non-governmental organizations;
• Human Rights;
• Disarmament and Rules of Armed Conflict;
• Veterans’ Rehabilitation/Demobilization;
• Human migration (Refugees, Sanctuary);
• Peace (including peacekeeping and peace enforcement);
• Gender and international peace and security;
• Memory and memorials.

Preference will be given to historical studies highlighting new perspectives or new fields of study.
Proposals in French or English should include a 200 or 300 words abstract accompanied by a one-page CV.

Proposals should be emailed to symposium2019@rmc-cmr.ca no later than 30 November 2018.

For more information, please contact Dr. Kevin Brushett (kevin.brushett@rmc.ca), Dr. Marie-Michèle Doucet (marie-michele.doucet@rmc.ca) or Dr. Emanuele Sica (Emanuele.sica@rmc.ca).

CfP: Politics of Memory and Trauma

Posted on by

ICAS 11: Politics of Memory and Trauma
16 – 19 July 2019
Leiden University

The LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development will organize a panel on the “Contested Heritage and the Politics of Memory and Trauma” as part of the International Convention of Asia Scholars, which will be organized at Leiden University from 16 – 19 July 2019. The panel intends to discuss the notion of “contested heritage”, in light of the politics of memory and trauma.

Wars and conflicts have a direct impact on the tangible environment. Military architectures, war ruins, wrecks and monumental memorials all together form what is known as conflict heritage. In Asia, a significant share of conflict heritage remains absent from the heritage discourse. This may be attributed to many reasons, of which: the lack of a proper recognition of this specific category of heritage. Second, the contested nature of the heritage prevent governments from touching upon the subject, especially in the cases where human causalities were involved. Third, the conflict of interests which results from the economic value of this heritage. For instance, the collection of rare types of aircraft wreckage or the activities carried by metal salvagers. What can we do to safeguard this type of heritage from its biggest threat: oblivion?

With this session we hope to raise awareness on this particular category of heritage, especially with policy makers.

While we welcome all contributions that are relevant to the theme of the panel, we particularly encourage contributions that address the following topics:

. New theoretical approaches to defining conflict heritage, with respect to the Asian context.
. Case studies from Asia that investigates the politics and dynamics of memory that surrounds contested heritage

Prospective participants may send their abstracts (max. 300 words) and brief bios to Professor Carola Hein at c.m.hein@tudelft.nl and John Hanna j.m.k.k.hanna@tudelft.nl by 01 October 2018.

For any inquiries about the panel and the conference, please write to c.m.hein@tudelft.nl

For further information on the conference, see here.

CfP: Museums as Agents of Memory and Change

Posted on by

25-26/04/2019, Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia
Organisers: Estonian National Museum, University of Tartu
Keynote speakers confirmed: Dr Silke Arnold-de Simine (Birkbeck, University of London)

Museums have been shifting toward expanding their work from collecting and preserving to supporting and educating communities. They are using their collections to promote social change in the context of rising global demands on history and culture institutions. More than ever, dealing with the past is full of impediments and challenges for museums. How should they address a ‘global visitor’ who has little or no knowledge of the past – local, national or regional – to which the museum is dedicated? What stories should they tell and how, what memory cultures should they take into account? On the other hand, what have museums done and what do they intend to do in order to change the established way of remembering the past? What are the characteristics, risks and benefits in dealing with the difficult past in museums? What problems can museums tackle as they attempt to bring in changes to remembering and commemorating the past?

This conference aims to problematise museums as places of memory negotiations, and agents of societal change. While increasingly seeking to engage themselves in public life, museums are embedded in the fields of politics of memory and heritage, diverse, often disparate group interests, and power relations. How can a contemporary museum critically deal with the past and shape open debate and yet take into account diverse stakeholders and the versatility of narratives in play?

We welcome papers that approach the problems and dilemmas as well as best practices of contemporary museums as agents of memory and change:

How do museums position themselves in concurrent policies of memory and heritage? What are the roles of the museums in countries with targeted history politics? What dilemmas, possibilities and/or obstacles do they encounter in ‘memory-laden’ societies?
How do museums connect to transnational memory processes? What kind of new forms of remembrance should museums develop to make visible and/or seek to overcome tensions between group-specific, regional national and transnational memory?
How can museum relate historically specific and more abstract and structural experiences? Does anthropological universalisation have a place in national, regional or group-specific museums? How do museums address difference and shared legacy issues?
How is a transformation of the role of museums manifested in methods of visitor involvement? How are trends in recent museology linked to museums’ awareness of their role as public history agents? Are there specific trends in using media, material collections and oral histories to evoke open debate and awareness on memory matters? What topics and methods ‘work’ for different audiences, and why?
How should the issue of authorship and the autonomy of the curator in curating difficult histories (initiators, passive players, opposers) be addressed? Are curators independent agents in memory processes or do they mediate institutional points of view? Are there different practices in different types of museum (for example in art museums, cultural historical museums)?

We welcome submissions from a variety of disciplines and from museum professionals as well as academics.

Please submit your abstract of 300 words for a 20‐minute paper, along with a short CV, by October 15, 2018 to: conference@erm.ee

The conference language is English.

The conference fee of 100 EUR covers attendance to all sessions, lunches and coffee/tea breaks during the conference, welcome reception, and conference materials.

The time and venue of the conference is April 25-26, 2019 at the Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia.

Notification of acceptance: November 15, 2018

Deadline for registration and conference fee payment: March 30, 2019

We are expecting to publish an edited collection based on a selection of the papers presented at the conference.

CFP: Monuments, The Biennial Conference of the Nordic Association of American Studies

Posted on by

25 – 27 April 2019 in Bergen, Norway

Submission deadline: 1 November 2018

Monuments construct the past in the present, and link it to a predetermined version of the future. Monuments tell singular and unified stories, acting as master narratives that impede other voices. Monuments have become some of America’s most important storytellers, giving form to power, but also to particular acts of resistance.

This is perhaps only to be expected, for the word “monument” bears within it the Latin mon, from monēre, which means “to remind,” but also means “to warn.” In its descriptive form “monumental” connotes something massive or imposing, something great in importance, but also expresses a sense of excess, of being overwhelmed. The word itself thus invites a chain of questions: What do monuments call to memory? What might they warn us against? What versions of events do they impose in presenting greatness? Who and what deserves recognition? How can monuments commemorate different or competing pasts? What should be done with monuments that uplift violent pasts?

The NAAS 2019 conference in Bergen on “Monuments” welcomes panel and paper proposals that address monuments and the monumental in relation to American literature, history, politics, media, art and popular culture, transnational and transcultural and comparative approaches. Keeping in mind that not all monuments are made of stone—Hemingway has been called a monument, political symbols and landscapes act as monuments, the literary canon and the Bible are monuments to Western culture—the list of different kinds of monuments is near endless. Some themes may be, but are not limited to:

Conceptualizations of the American past
Preservation and commemoration
Tradition and cultural heritage
Cultural perceptions, shifting attitudes towards the monument
Representation Memory and forgetting
Genre or aesthetic form
Naming
Landscapes, places and spaces
Myth
Resistance to the monument
Inscription
The non-monumental
False memories
Amnesia
Nostalgia
Imaginaries
Ossification
War
Architecture
Photography
Religion
Visibility/invisibility

Please send abstracts and panel proposals to NAASBergen@gmail.com by 15 Sept. 2018. Abstracts for individual panel presentations (20 minutes) should be no longer than 250 words; proposals for panels or workshops should be no longer than 500 words. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in October.

The conference is open to scholars and students from all countries, but we offer lower registration fees to members of NAAS (Nordic Association for American Studies), EAAS (European Association for American Studies), and ASA (American Studies Association in the U.S.).

A conference website will be made available in the autumn. If you have any questions regarding the conference or your proposal before then, please write to the conference organizers at: NAASBergen@gmail.com.

Conference organizers:
Jena Habegger-Conti, Associate Professor
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
President, American Studies Association of Norway

Asbjørn Grønstad, Professor
University of Bergen
Vice-President, American Studies Association of Norway

Lene Johannessen, Professor
University of Bergen
Committee Chair, American Studies Association of Norway

CfP: Commemoration, Memory, Archive, Sussex University, 4 & 5 Sept. 2018

Posted on by

COMMEMORATION, MEMORY, ARCHIVE
Investigating commemorative and memorial uses of personal, non-professional images in the digital age in the Global South
Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex
4th and 5th September 2018

The commemorative and memorial use of personal, private images in the context of large-scale violence and death has a long history. Private images have been continually employed to access worlds that no longer exist, to de-anonymize, individualize or humanize victims, to identify murderers and the murdered, to evidence contested events and to prove the existence of life before death. They populate archives, memorials and museums, places of public protest and, increasingly, myriad regions of the internet.

We invite contributions to both the roundtable discussions and more traditional conference papers. Please note that the aim of the roundtables is to generate and facilitate a broad exchange of knowledge and ideas and to nurture collaboration. Consequently, as selected roundtable members you will be asked to participate in the discussion from the perspective of your research expertise rather than present a traditional conference/practice paper.

Full details here.

Roundtable Participation
If you would like to participate in the Roundtable discussions please send a 300-word expression of interest with a brief biography to Piotr Cieplak on imageandcommemoration@gmail.com by 9th July 2018.

Abstracts should include: a) a brief overview of how your research or practice work fits into the remit of the roundtables b) three key points you would like to include for consideration and discussion among other participants.

Traditional Papers
If you would like to submit a more traditional, 20-minute paper on any of the themes covered by the roundtables above please send an abstract of 300 words and a brief biography to Piotr Cieplak on imageandcommemoration@gmail.com by 9th July 2018.

We are particularly interested in hearing from early career researchers but abstracts from people at all stages of their career are welcome.

There will be dedicated networking time to further future collaborations.

CfP: The First World War in Italy and Beyond: History, Legacy and Memory (1918–2018)

Posted on by

30 November – 1 December 2018
Italian Institute of Culture, London

Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy

Download CfP: CFP – ASMI 2018

The conference will explore the history, legacy and memory of the First World War in Italy from 1918 to 2018. As the War was one of the formative experiences of the modern Italian nation, the aim is to place the conflict in a longer chronological perspective and to highlight its lasting impact from a range of viewpoints. Drawing on recent innovations in the historiography, the conference will shift focus away from the battlefields towards hitherto neglected areas of study, including the experience of civilians and everyday life, the transition from war to peace, and the post-war climate and reconstruction. It will shed light on how the memory of WWI shaped Italy’s national identity and served political ends during the Fascist period and after the Second World War. The intention is also to escape the confines of national historiography by placing Italy in comparative and transnational contexts. Thus, the centenary presents an opportunity to look with fresh eyes at the mark left by the War on the history, politics and society of Italy.

We welcome proposals from scholars working in a variety of disciplines including history, literature, film, politics, anthropology, art, economics, sociology and geography.

Panels might include, but are not limited to:
• The immediate aftermath of WW1 (1918–1922) and the rise of social conflict, political violence and Fascism
• The creation of the League of Nations and the emergence of pacifism, humanitarianism and internationalism
• The experience of veterans in the post-war period
• New historiographical approaches to the study of Italy and WW1
• Global, transnational and comparative perspectives
• Local, regional and national experiences
• Gender, both femininity and masculinity
• Family and societal ties
• Changes to ideas of nationhood, democracy, citizenship and community after WW1
• The legacy of WWI under Fascism
• Parallels between the aftermath of WW1 and the aftermath of WW2
• The material heritage of the War: monuments, memorials and cemeteries
• Italy’s commemorations of the centenary in national or transnational contexts

The organizers welcome proposals for individual papers and for panels composed of 3 speakers. They reserve the right to break up and re-structure proposed panels.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Prof. Gunda Barth-Scalmani (University of Innsbruck)
Author of numerous works on Italian-Austrian relations and the experiences of women during WWI, including Ein Krieg – Zwei Schützengräben, Österreich – Italien und der Erste Weltkrieg in den Dolomiten 1915–1918 (Bozen 2005) and Militärische und zivile Kriegserfahrungen 1914–1918 (Innsbruck, 2010).

Dr. Marco Mondini (University of Padua/Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento)
Author of numerous bestselling books on Italy and WW1, including most recently Il Capo. La Grande Guerra del generale Luigi Cadorna (Il Mulino 2017) and La guerra italiana. Partire, raccontare, tornare 1914-18 (Il Mulino 2014). He is a frequent contributor to programmes on Rai Storia, e.g. http://www.raistoria.rai.it/articoli/cadorna-il-capo/32462/default.aspx

Please send an abstract of max. 250 words and a short biography to: asmi.conference1918@gmail.com
Abstracts can be both in English and in Italian.
The closing date for receipt of abstracts is 1 June 2018

Accepted speakers will be required to join ASMI, which includes subscription to the journal Modern Italy.

Organising Committee: Selena Daly (University College Dublin), Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti (University College London), Hannah Malone (Freie Universität Berlin), Martina Salvante (University of Warwick)

CfP: Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation

Posted on by

Postgraduate and ECR Conference
Saturday 26 May 2018, 9am-5pm
TORCH, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG

Keynote Speaker: Professor Marita Sturken
(Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University)

This one-day interdisciplinary conference is the culmination of the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Series Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation. Over the course of the 2017-18 academic year, the Series has brought together academics, creative practitioners, field-workers and policy-makers to explore textual, monumental and aural commemoration and its role in reconciliation and peace-building. This conference provides an unprecedented opportunity for graduates to contribute to and profit from the Series’ findings. Postgraduate students and early career researchers from all disciplines are invited to share their original research in a conference interested in the purpose, practice, significance and consequences of commemorative acts which respond to and emerge from armed conflict. We are particularly interested in what the future of commemorative practice might look like, and how new technologies and social media are changing the ways in which people remember and heal.

We welcome theoretical and methodological diversity, including critical reflections, and qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Possible topics for presentations include, but are not limited to:

– Textual, monumental and/or aural modes of commemoration
– Digital forms of commemoration
– The future of post-war commemoration, including digital commemoration
– The politics of post-war commemoration
– Post-war commemoration and place/space, ecology and the environment
– Post-war memory and/or trauma
– Commemoration in relation to post-war displacement, migration, settlement and belonging
– Diasporic / exilic post-war commemoration
– Post-war commemoration and the body
– Comparative post-war commemoration

‘Post-war’ can relate to any armed conflict and we welcome submissions addressing commemoration across cultures and time periods. AV equipment will be available and you are welcome to use PowerPoint or other presentation software.

The conference is free to attend and will include lunch and refreshments.

How to apply
Please send an abstract of 250 words for a 20-minute paper and a short biography (max. 150 words) in a single Word document to postwarconference2018@gmail.com by Friday 23 March 2018. Applicants will be notified of the outcome in early April.

Travel bursaries
A number of travel bursaries of up to £300 will be available on a competitive basis. If you wish to apply for a travel bursary, please include a short paragraph (max. 300 words) in your application, detailing how your work fits with the themes of the Series and how your research will benefit from attending the Conference. Please itemise your estimated expenditure.