Memory, Trauma and Recovery - International Interdiciplinary Conference RECOVERY on September 18-19, 2025 in Gdańsk, Poland

Conference online (via Zoom)

CFP:

To remember means sometimes: to experience again. That is the case of trauma. However, recovery from trauma is also based on memory. So the question is not how to forget about bad memories, but how to remember and not suffer.

During this conference we would like to concentrate on the phenomena of trauma and recovery, to look at how memory is involved in the traumatic experience and the recovery process and explore among other questions what we remember and forget, what causes suffering and how to deal with it.

We are interested in all aspects of traumatic experiences, in their individual and collective dimensions, in the past and in the present-day world. We would like to examine the role of memory in both falling into trauma and overcoming it. Thus, we want to describe the phenomena of trauma and recovery in their multifarious manifestations: psychological, social, historical, cultural, philosophical, religious, economic, political, and many others. As usual, we also want to devote considerable attention to how these phenomena appear in artistic practices: literature, film, theatre or visual arts. That is why we invite researchers representing various academic disciplines: anthropology, history, psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, politics, philosophy, economics, law, literary studies, theatre studies, film studies, memory studies, migration studies, consciousness studies, dream studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, medical sciences, cognitive sciences, and urban studies and others.

Different forms of presentations are encouraged, including case studies, theoretical inqueries, problem-oriented arguments or comparative analyses.

We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the start of their careers, as well as doctoral and graduate students. We also invite all persons interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation.

The topics for the conference include but are not limited to the following suggestions:

I. Individual experiences

- Trauma and childhood memories

- Trauma and child abuse

- Trauma and women abuse

- Trauma and domestic violence

- Trauma and old age

- Trauma and love

- Trauma and death

- Trauma and mourning

- Trauma and crime

- Post-traumatic stress disorder

- Trauma and nightmares

- Trauma and neurosis

- Trauma and psychosis

- Secondary traumatization

- Life after trauma

- Trauma and psychotherapy

- Help for traumatized people

II. Collective experiences

- Trauma and war

- Trauma and genocide

- Trauma and terrorism

- Trauma and natural disasters

- Trauma and post-memory

- Traumatized nations

- Traumatized minorities

- Traumatized generations

- Traumatized social classes

- Trauma of victims

- Trauma of witnesses

- Trauma of bystanders

- Trauma of perpetrators

- Trauma and oblivion

- Trauma and forgiveness

III. Representation of trauma

- Bearing witness to trauma

- Testimonies and memories

- Trauma and narrative

- Trauma and fiction

- Trauma in literature

- Trauma in film

- Trauma in theatre

- Trauma in visual arts

- Traumatized authors

- Traumatized readers/spectators

- Writing as a traumatic experience

- Writing as recovery from trauma

- Trauma and creativeness

IV. Institutionalization

- Trauma and law

- Trauma and politics

- Trauma and religion

- Trauma and medical treatment

- Trauma and management

- Trauma and punishment systems

- Trauma and army

- Trauma and school

- Trauma and memory places

- Trauma and museums

​Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 31 August 2025 to: [email protected]