From July 3 to 7, this year's conference of the Memory Studies Association (MSA) took place in Newcastle (UK) under the title “Communities and Change”. The regional research center TraCe was represented at the conference with its own panel, focussing on research area 3 "Interpretations".
The panel, titled “Memory Before Violence”, took place on the second day of the conference, July 4, 2023 from 11:30-13:00 and focused on a temporal perspective on memory. Moderated by Prof. Dr Susanne Buckley-Zistel and Prof. Dr Astrid Erll, the various contributions illuminated the extent to which collective memories not only arise from political violence ('Memory After Violence'), but also enable or shape it ('Memory Before Violence'). The speakers focused on the narratives, framings or stories that contribute to the production of violence as well as on different regional case studies.
In the first contribution, Prof. Dr Nicolai Hannig discussed the connection between memories and violent street protests. Dr Sabine Mannitz linked to her research focus in Canada under the title “Canadian settler storytelling: Memories of peril before violence against Indigenous people”. Prof. Dr Monika Wingender developed a linguistic perspective on 'memory before violence' and spoke on “(De)communization and (de)colonization in Russia and Ukraine before February, 24th”. Finally, Prof. Dr Sybille Frank discussed the role of memory before (and after) terrorist violence using the example of Berlin's Breitscheidplatz. The very well attended panel ended with a lively discussion on questions of political violence and different temporalities.
TraCe scholars participated in the international exchange beyond the TraCe panel. Together with Prof. Bill Hirst (New School for Social Research), Prof. Dr Astrid Erll organized a Roundtable on “Between mind, media, and society: Visions for the interdisciplinary future of memory studies” on July 4, 2023. Additionally, Dr Mariel Reiss joined a panel on memories of the colonial past and present by presenting her research on LGBTQ+ identities. The panel was convened by Prof. Dr Susanne Buckley-Zistel and Dr Selbi Durdiyeva (Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg).
The Memory Studies Association conference was held for the seventh time this year. Each year, scholars of memory studies as well as practitioners come together to reflect and discuss the diverse and interdisciplinary developments in memory studies at the local, national, and transnational level. Given the post-industrial background of this year’s venue Newcastle, the numerous panels, roundtables, and discussions focused on themes such as de-industrialization, coloniality and de-colonialization of memory, memory of conflict and violence as well as activism and social justice.
More information on the conference can be found on the website. Detailed information on the TraCe panel can also be found there.