TraCe co-spokesperson and PI Prof. Dr Astrid Erll receives an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen. With this nomination, the Faculty recognizes Astrid Erll's research in the field of memory studies as an important contribution to the consolidation of the research field.
The research discipline of memory studies connects history, sociology and psychology with language, media and cultural studies. The central object of investigation is individual and collective memory, how it is formed, how it produces and remembers the past and at the same time influences the present and future. Astrid Erll's research in particular has expanded the field transnationally through contributions in internationally acclaimed textbooks. In addition, Astrid Erll has advanced the field of cultural memory as a dynamic method of investigating the past and present. Cultural memory manifests itself in monuments, family histories and media. As a result, we are not only products of history and surrounded by memory, but can interact with it and actively shape it. As part of her work in Research Area 3.2 Memories of Violence, Astrid Erll is investigating how transformations of political violence occur through collective memory.
On November 10, Astrid Erll will give her honorary doctorate lecture titled “War, Climate Change, Racism: How Memory shapes Europe today”. In the lecture, she will examine how - to a large extent - contemporary challenges such as the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, climate change or racist and anti-Semitic violence are products of the past and our collective memory.