Towards a Fourth Wave in Memory Studies
We believe that Memory Studies are fundamentally interested in breaking open ossified and canonised conceptions of time, and in discovering more dynamic conceptual approaches. To understand the past not as something that is ‘over’, completed and contained, but as part and parcel of the present, is crucial to Memory Studies.
The past, thus conceived, is as dynamic and prone to change as is the present, and can accordingly be subject to dominant readings and interpretations. However, theory formation and contextual research oftentimes implicitly rely on Newtonian orders of time.
Our research group seeks to bring together representatives of different disciplines, contexts and research areas (such as Sociology, History, Literary Sciences, Psychology, Media Sciences, etc.) who are interested in investigating different forms, perceptions and conceptions of time and temporality.
Our network will compare diverse perceptions of temporality and how they connect with processes of remembering reaching across diverse nations, regions, cultures and histories. We will trace the manifold possibilities of constructing individual and collective memory, and will further the study of individual and collective identities emerging from non-linear understandings of time and temporality.
Rethinking the Order of Time 