Postmemory and the Contemporary World - International Interdisciplinary Conference on February 27-28, 2025 in Gdańsk, Poland

ABOUT CONFERENCE:

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Coined by Marianne Hirsch in the 1990s, the term postmemory by now entered various disciplines who search to understand how memory form our identity and how we position, articulate or just make sense of our place in the society and our relations with it. The term postmemory problematizes the concept of memory by bringing attention to the memories that are not exactly personal but that keep on shaping one’s life and one’s way of seeing the world.

       During our conference we would like to concentrate on the phenomenon of postmemory and how it keeps on shaping the contemporary world.

  We are interested in all aspects of postmemory: in its individual and collective dimensions, in the past and in the present-day world, and in its potential to direct the future. Whose memory is postmemory: that of generations, communities, nations or families? How is it maintained and passed on? What is the role of imagination in its creation? What is remembered and what is forgotten? Is it always the memory of traumatic experience? How can it be taught and studied? These are some of the questions that inspired the idea of the conference.

      We would like to explore the phenomenon of postmemory in its 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 appears 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, to name a few.

  Different forms of presentations are encouraged, including case studies, theoretical inquiries, 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.

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  Our repertoire of suggested topics includes but is not restricted to:

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I. Individual experiences:

Postmemory and trauma

Postmemory and recovery

Postmemory and imagination

Postmemory and artefacts

Postmemory and personal memories

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II. Collective experiences

Postmemory and its sources

Postmemory and mythology

Generational postmemory

Postmemory and social non-acceptance

Postmemory and solidarity

Postmemory and territory

III. Remembering and Forgetting

Postmemory and forced forgetting

Postmemory and forced remembering

Teaching postmemory

Negotiating postmemory

Studying postmemory

Forgetting/remembering for recovery

Postmemory and its purpose

Postmemory and allegiances

IV. Representations

Testimonies and memories

Genres of Postmemory

Postmemory in literature

Postmemory in film

Postmemory in theatre

Postmemory in visual arts

Creating as experience

Postmemory and urban planning

Postmemory and urban art

Rural Postmemory

Postmemory in the nature

Materialism of postmemory

Nonhuman postmemory

V. Feelings and Practices

Sadness of postmemory

Fear of postmemory

Postmemory and nostalgia

Postmemory and grief

Postmemory and loneliness

Postmemory and change

Living postmemory

Rituals of postmemory

VI. Institutionalization

Postmemory and nation-state

Postmemory and identity politics

Postmemory and ideology

Postmemory and religion

Postmemory and punishment systems

Postmemory and army

Postmemory and school

Postmemory and museums

Monuments of postmemory

Sites and cities of postmemory

Economy of postmemory

Language of postmemory

VII. The Contemporary World

Postmemory and postcomunism

Postcolonialism, decolonization and postmemory

Neoliberalism and postmemory

Postmemory and migration

Postmemory and globalization

Postmemory and nationalism

Postmemory and new media

Postmemory and political correctness

Postmemory and natural disasters

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Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 7 February 2025 to: [email protected]