**Achievements and Perspectives of Cultural and Social Memory Research, Berlin 27.-29. September 2023**
**Call for Papers**
Memory studies and its offshoot within the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of memory, have attracted considerable attention in recent decades, not just in the social sciences and cultural studies, but also beyond these fields. Diverse approaches, perspectives, empirical objects and methods have emerged. As a result, the engagement of cultural studies scholars and social scientists with memory – in the sense of an organization of connections to the past – appears as a multi-paradigmatic undertaking, guided by different interests, basic terms and concepts. Against this background, the aim of the congress *Achievements and Perspectives of Cultural and Social Memory Research* is to review what has already been achieved, discuss key theoretical approaches and methods, and talk about perspectives for the ongoing development of these theories and methods.
The individual papers should offer a critical retrospective, as well as identifying prospects for the future of memory studies in general or the sociology of memory in particular. We would like to invite theoretically and/or empirically oriented contributions along the following central lines of discussion:
**1) Theoretical lines of tradition and development**
Following Halbwachs’s notion of collective memories, and phenomenological or pragmatic reflections, a broad reception and nuanced elaboration of the concept of memory has evolved – be it the Assmannian model of cultural memory studies, systems theory, or the sociology of memory. These and other approaches to reflecting on social relations to the past could be linked to other lines of enquiry, in ways that have yet to be explored. Examples are the theory of social time, the linking of the concept of memory with notions of social inequality (which Halbwachs began to address in his concept of class), or the application of the terminology in complex contexts of phenomena such as migration, violence and war, disasters or globalization. Papers on this aspect – the continuation of theoretical lines of tradition and development – should reflect on the concepts and terms that are explicitly used and/or on the conceptual connections that are assumed implicitly, and discuss them with regard to possible further conceptual developments.
**2) Methodological implications**
Both in memory studies and in the sociology of memory, specific reflections on methods and methodology are beginning to emerge (cf. Keightley/Pickering 2018; Dimbath et al. 2023). This includes systematically relating the temporalities inherent in the methods to the object of enquiry: the ways in which social contexts of memory connect to the past and future. Combining empirical research and theoretical work paves the way for new possibilities and differentiations. Papers about methodological implications should reflect on the fit between the empirical object, the questions and methods of the sociology of memory, and preliminary conceptual decisions. They should also develop ‘memory-sensitive’ methodologies of cultural and social memory studies, which do justice to the temporality of both the method and the object.
**3) Subject areas**
Memory studies and approaches in cultural studies and the sociology of memory have opened up numerous fields and objects of research. A survey of subject areas could both take stock of the current state of research and further the development of new fields and objects of study. Challenges to be mentioned here are the ways digitalization (or algorithmization), globalization and virtualization are changing forms of memory. Furthermore, future risks (such as climate change) are attracting increasing attention, for example in the memory of social movements, and thus generating new forms of social memories. We invite contributors to retrace the ‘history of exploration’ of particular fields and objects of research, and to devise approaches or strategies to explore new fields.
**4) Interdisciplinarity**
One strength of approaches that theorize memory is the broad interdisciplinary spread in the humanities, cultural studies and social sciences. What is striking, however, is the distance maintained (on both sides) between this field and that of history, despite their great proximity. Here it would be worth reflecting on the mutual connectivity of methodological, thematic and theoretical constructs. This also applies to other areas of research such as the digital humanities, the theory of knowledge, philosophy, or law. Papers should reflect critically on established interdisciplinary contexts of memory studies and the sociology of memory, examine the immanent boundaries and openings, and outline opportunities for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity motivated by theories of memory.
The conference celebrates the completion of the [Handbuch Sozialwissenschaftliche Gedächtnisforschung/Handbook of Social Memory ](https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-658-26593-9)*[Research](https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-658-26593-9)*.
Confirmed Keynotespeakers: Wulf Kansteiner (Aarhus), Susanne Buckley-Zistel (Marburg), Jeffrey K. Olick (Charlottesville/Virginia), Andrew Hoskins (Glasgow), Emily Keightley (Loughborough), Astrid Erll (Frankfurt), Achim Landwehr (Düsseldorf).
Please send abstracts (or panel proposals) with a maximum of 400 words by 15 May 2023 to: Oliver Dimbath ([dimbath@uni-koblenz.de](mailto:dimbath@uni-koblenz.de)), Nina Leonhard ([nina.leonhard@berlin.de](mailto:nina.leonhard@berlin.de)), Mathias Berek ([berek@tu-berlin.de](mailto:berek@tu-berlin.de)) and Gerd Sebald ([gerd.sebald@fau.de](mailto:gerd.sebald@fau.de)).
