CFP: International conference

The 9th ESA conference
September 2nd – 5th 2009, Lisboa

“Memory, Culture and Public Discourse”

The deadline for proposals is 26th February 2009

Memory studies have attracted increasing interest among scholars during the last decades. The selective inscription of the past in the public discourse through commemorative ceremonies, sites,
and monuments has become a central issue in the agenda of many democratic governments, and
the politics of reconciliation seem to represent a new mode of the international relations among
nations. Despite their integrative nature, celebrations of the past are often very contested.

This is the case of war memorials, and memorial over victims of terrorist attacks, which become object of
heated debates both in Europe and in the rest of the world (the projects for commemorating the victims of September 11 in New York, and March 11 in Madrid, for example). The narration of the past, the maintenance and loss of collective memories is a matter of meaning, power, argumentation, and persuasion. Several versions of the same event compete in the public arena, where different “lobbies of the past” struggle to impose their own “preferred meanings” on the past itself. Traditions persist and are “invented” to legitimate old and new forms of power. Cultural symbols and artistic codes become resources for articulating these struggles over the past which shape national and collective identities.
In which respects is the past an aspect of politics? What is the role of culture in the formation of the past and in the maintenance of international relations among nations? To what extent is culture manipulable as a space for the articulation of power and ideologies? What is the interaction between cultural and social processes that shapes collective memories, with stable and changing public representations of controversial pasts, and with conflict among different groups over issues related to ethnicity, race, gender, and religious belief?

This research stream focuses on culture and arts as forms of meaning-making and mediating power
relations in contemporary societies. We welcome proposals for papers on these and other issues
concerned with culture, collective memories, controversial pasts, meaning, and power.

Recommended keywords: Collective memory, culture, public discourse, tradition, identity, counter
culture, arts, power, resistance, terrorism, war.
Research Stream Conveners:

Mark Jacobs (mjacobs@gmu.edu)
Anna Lisa Tota (tota@uniroma3.it)

The deadline for proposals is 26th February 2009. Acceptance will be notified by the 30th April
2009.
Abstracts must include: 1) name (s) and affiliation (s) of the author(s); 2) contact details of
presenting author (postal address, telephone, fax and email address); 3) title of proposed
presentation.
Please NOTE that the abstracts will only be accepted through completion of the online submission
form, and submission in any other form will be declined,
More information on the conference and the conference venue can be found on the conference
website
http://www.esa9thconference.com