idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
The new research network, "Margins of Memory: Cultures and Politics of Non-Hegemonic Remembrance," at the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Regensburg — a joint platform of the University of Regensburg and the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) — invited scholars to a kickoff meeting at the university's Department of Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS). Over the course of two years, 12 scholars will develop new concepts and terminology to enrich Memory Studies. The scholars will focus on topics such as hegemony, agency, silence, trauma, memory activism, and memories of (dis)location and migration.
The date for the presentation of the new research network "Margins of Memory: Cultures and Politics of Non-Hegemonic Remembrance" of the Leibniz Science Campus (LSC) Regensburg could not have been better chosen: On May 8, the annual commemorations of the end of the Second World War begin in many countries, showing everyone how different memories can be in different countries, what remains for future generations, what is said or not said, how memories are interpreted, what is made of them.
The Leibniz ScienceCampus "Europe and America in the Modern World", a joint platform of the University of Regensburg (UR) and the Regensburg Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), invited colleagues on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe to a kick-off meeting for the new research network Margins of Memory, which brings together 12 researchers of different career stages based in Regensburg and abroad.
In the course of two years, they will develop new concepts and terminology that seek to enrich the field of Memory Studies by focusing on topics such as hegemony, agency, silence and trauma, memory activism, and memories of (dis)locations and migration.
Postdocs and co-speakers of the network, Tatiana Klepikova (UR) and Volha Bartash (IOS/WWU Münster), presented the network’s four research packages and its members: Tigran Amiryan, Philipp Bernhard, Sarah Grandke, Sara Žerić Đulović, Nishani Frasier, Julian David Bermeo Osorio, Minerva Peinador, Lilia Topouzova, Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams. One of the network members is Kateřina Králová, Charles University Prague, who is the main organizer of the upcoming 9th Meeting of the Memory Studies Association (MSA) on July 14-18, a global conference, partnered by the UR.
Predocs and postdocs of UR’s Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS), which hosted this session, together with scholars from UR’s Center for Commemorative Culture, the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, the IOS and the seeFField research group joined the interdisciplinary conversation. Network members from across the world participated digitally.
Roman Birke and Mélanie Sadozaï introduced the network speakers, Volha Bartash and Tatiana Klepikova.
Volha Bartash is a historian and anthropologist of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who focuses on the Nazi persecution of Roma in the Baltic countries and Belarus. Her current project is related to memory activism in the Baltics. Tatiana Klepikova leads the Volkswagen Foundation Freigeist Fellowship research group Light on! on queer literatures and culture under socialism at the University of Regensburg’s Institute for Slavic Studies and is interested in exploring queer memory during and after socialism.
Klepikova and Bartash introduced the ideas and concepts of the network, presenting its four work packages, which roughly correspond to the research profiles of the network members. The network’s plan, according to the co-speakers, is “to develop these into individual sections of our handbook which will be the main output of our network”.
Theorizing Margins of Memory
Work Package 1 Theorizing Margins of Memory focuses on developing new theoretical frameworks for dealing with memories of marginalized groups and communities while conceptualizing their relationship to dominant or hegemonic memories. The scholars consider alternative narratives and seek to bring perspectives from feminist studies and postcolonial studies, such as the concept of queering memory or subaltern memories, into their theorization. Currently, the field is very much focused on dominant and national memories, Bartash explained, and the perspectives from the margins are meant to diversify that field.
Agency, Silences and Trauma
Work Package 2 focuses on Agency, Silences and Trauma. “We see these concepts as interrelated, as silence often emerges as a result of trauma, but silence is also power and it can be seen as a demonstration of agency of marginalized populations”, Bartash said. They also focus “on silences within silences”, she added, referring to ongoing work in the broader field of Memory Studies and feminist Cultural Studies, as, “there can be certain groups that are excluded from community narratives, such as women’s voices of genocide”.
The research network also intends to address the ethical issues and protocols involved in pursuing social justice and making such collections publicly accessible—while remaining mindful that not all stories need to be shared with everyone: “Marginalized communities may not be interested in sharing their memory with the broader society.”
Sites of Memory activism
Work Package 3 Sites of Memory activism draws attention to the spatiality and materiality of memory. Scholars working in this section seek to locate the sites of memory of marginalized groups: “How can we spot these memories? Where can we study them?” They focus on sites of memory that are important to marginalized groups and work on a broader understanding of what “a site of memory” actually is. It is not necessarily about monuments – “it could be a school museum or a performative practice”, Bartash explained: “In this work package we are trying to identify specific pathways and institutions that bring marginalized memory cultures into the wider public sphere.”
(Dis)Locations of Memory: Temporalities and Geographies of Belonging
Work Package 4 (Dis)Locations of Memory: Temporalities and Geographies of Belonging
focuses on memories which were displaced—in space and/or time. In this work package, the scholars examine the memories of migrants and the sense of belonging in a new place, among other things. “We ask what actually happens to memories that have been displaced and how they are reproduced in new social, cultural, and political contexts, what meanings do they acquire there, especially in the societies and audiences that are perhaps not much interested in listening to these voices.” Another theme is the transmission from one generation to another and how new generations deal with the memories that “belong” to their parents.
The network understands itself as an open platform: “We invite everyone who is interested in this topic to reach out to us, to talk to us, to participate in our events and to co-create the events we are planning”, Klepikova said. The network members as well as three other early career scholars of the University of Regensburg will do just that – they will be attending the 2025 MSA meeting at Prague in July.
Tatiana Klepikova, University of Regensburg, tatiana.klepikova@ur.de and Volha Bartash, IOS Regensburg, volha.bartash@ur.de
https://www.europeamerica.de/margins-of-memory-network.html About the research network "Margins of Memory"
https://www.uni-regensburg.de/research/dynamics-in-the-global-world/index.html UR Research Dynamics in the Global World
Tatiana Klepikova and Volha Bartash
Tanja Wagensohn
University of Regensburg
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, all interested persons
Cultural sciences, History / archaeology, Media and communication sciences, Philosophy / ethics, Social studies
transregional, national
Research projects
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
