Panel 1: Friday November 22, 2024 (15.00-17.00)
Panel 2: Friday February 14, 2025 (15.00-17.00)

A year on from the 2023 MSA roundtable that discussed the “activist turn” (Chidgey, 2023) in memory studies, how do we conceptualize the relationship between memory and activism? How has research into the formation and circulation of activist memories impacted our understanding of collective remembrance? And what new methods have emerged from the field’s attention to using memory in collective action and contentious politics? Building from existing work at this juncture (Reading and Katriel, 2015; Gutman, 2017; Zamponi, 2018; Rigney, 2018; Zamponi and Daphi, 2019; Fridman, 2022 to name a few), this callinvites new cases of, approaches within and challenges to the “memory-activism nexus” (Rigney, 2018).

Within the framework of the digital MSA, the Memory and Activism Working Group will organize two online panels with a broad geographic and temporal scope. The first, on November 22, 2024, centres around the memory of activism, inviting contributions that address the narratives, affects and media through which civil disobedience has been recalled. Submissions to this panel may wish to consider the following: What qualities make an activist or social movement ‘memorable’? What (narrative, visual, performance-based) forms lend themselves to the remembrance of activism? How are memories of activism affected by changing media ecologies? The second panel, on February 14, 2025, considers the role of memory in activism, including discussions of “memory activism” (Gutman and Wüstenberg, 2023).

If you are interesting in getting involved with the working group, please email Eline Mestdagh, Alexander Ulrich Thygesen or Clara Vlessing. For registration for these events please check the dMSA website.