Call for Papers

The Politics of Cultural Memory
A conference to be held at Manchester Metropolitan University
5 - 6 November 2004

The Conference is part of a collaboration between the Centre for the Study of Location, Memory and Visuality (MIRIAD, Faculty of Art and Design) and the Cultural Memory and Ethics Research Project (Dept. of English). The Conference theme is designed to enable productive dialogue across a range of disciplines including: Art and Design History; Cultural Studies; English; Documentary and Film Studies; Fine Art; Geography; History; Photography; Sociology, Visual Culture.

The Conference will focus on the dialogue between history, memory and its varied forms of representation. It will address the different ways that cultural texts represent the past in the present and in doing so serve a range of political and cultural purposes. This conference seeks discussion on the particularities of cultural memory, both in its theory and practice, and their political ramifications. With this in mind, the conference invites discussion on a wide range of different forms, practices and theories of cultural remembrance but has a strong although not exclusive interest in the relation between memory, place and visuality. The conference hopes to encourage a dialogue between theorists and practitioners of cultural memory.

Potential themes include relationship between memory and:

Remembering/Forgetting
Archives, Museums, Memorials and Monuments
Landscapes, Mapping and Geography
Colonial / Post-colonial
Art and Photography
Media and Cinema
Architecture, Space and Place
Theories of Trauma
Performances, Rituals and Parades
National Identity
Haunting and Spectrality
Law, Litigation and Justice
Post-Communism / Post-Fascism

The Conference organisers are keen to receive abstracts for
papers/presentations from researchers and practitioners.

Deadline: 16th April 2004.

Abstracts of 400 words (approx) should be sent to:
Dr. Steven Gartside, MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cavendish
North Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester, M15 6BG.
Email: s.gartside@mmu.ac.uk