East European Memory Studies
Research Group

In collaboration with the Research Project,
Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia and Ukraine
Supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme

Alternate Wednesdays, 17.00 - 19.00 during term time
CRASSH, Seminar room SG2, Ground Floor
Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, CB3 9DT

Conveners

Tom Rowley (Department of Slavonic Studies, MML)
Simon Lewis (Department of Slavonic Studies, MML)
Dr Alexander Etkind (Department of Slavonic Studies, MML)
Dr Rory Finnin (Department of Slavonic Studies, MML)
Dr Harald Wydra (POLIS, FPPSIS)

The Research Group in East European Memory Studies is a transdisciplinary forum concerned with the dynamic interplay between memory, culture, and politics in today’s Eastern Europe. We seek to understand the peculiar regimes of memory and forgetting established by the socialist states of the former Soviet block and the secularist state in Turkey. We also want to situate these intertwined pasts and presents in the new European order.

We aim to employ an array of approaches, partially borrowed and partially invented, in a series of dialogues between scholars and practitioners in history, literature, political science, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. We plan to address such questions as:

- How has the state used various practices of memory – recalling not only past glory and achievement but also deportations, political repression, and genocide – to promote independent nationhood?
- How do the memories of Nazi rule and Communist rule shape international relations in Europe?
- How do museums, monuments, literature, film, digital media, and the unsignified ghosts of the past bear witness to the historical trauma?
- What is the contribution of East European memories to identity formation in a united and uniting Europe?

In the past years our series of discussions were organised according to five broad thematic areas:

Memory and Identity (Michaelmas 2009)

Memory and Theory (Lent and Easter 2010)

Memory and Guilt (Michaelmas 2010)

Memory and Resistance (Lent 2011)

Memory and Liberation (Easter 2011)

For more information please visit their external website, Memory at War: Blog
(CRASSH is not responsible for the content of external websites)

The project Memory at War is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, DASTI, ETF, FNR, FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS, MHEST, NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities programme.