{"id":47132,"date":"2025-06-27T22:37:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T22:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=47132"},"modified":"2025-06-27T22:38:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T22:38:20","slug":"call-for-papers-memory-and-social-movements-in-democratic-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=47132","title":{"rendered":"Call for papers: Memory and social movements in democratic crises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the multifaceted relationship between memory and activism in the context of democratic backsliding, authoritarian resurgence, and shifting political imaginaries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An international conference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COSMOS \u2013 The Centre on Social Movement Studies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 13-14,  2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(all practical information, deadlines, etc. at the end of this post)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keynote speakers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Hoskins, <\/strong>Personal Chair of AI, Memory and War, University of Edinburgh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenny  W\u00fcstenberg<\/strong>, Professor of History & Memory Studies, Nottingham Trent University<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the political landscape across the globe has witnessed a dramatic resurgence of authoritarian practices\u2014even within long-standing democratic regimes<\/strong>. One of the most striking aspects of this transformation is the strategic deployment of collective memory: selective readings of the past, the glorification of particular historical narratives, and the silencing of others have become central tools in the reconfiguration of political legitimacy, national identity, knowledge regimes in policy-making, and other critical indigenous and cultural knowledge. These developments point to an urgent need to reconsider the political uses of memory\u2014not as peripheral, but as central to the dynamics of contemporary governance and political contestations, which are overwhelmingly haunted by repressed memories and silenced voices of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, grassroots mobilisations and social movements have emerged or re-emerged to challenge these authoritarian tendencies. In social movements, this dynamic relationship between memory and social movements has highlighted its symbolic power, specifically as a valuable resource for mobilisation and as the site of doing politics, where claims of the past and future(s) are contested in the present.<\/strong> Indeed,  many of these movements draw on past struggles, rework collective memories, and engage in \u201cmemory work\u201d as a form of resistance, identity formation, and political claim-making. From anti-colonial memory politics to the recovery of silenced historical traumas, memory has become a battleground in current democratic crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the multifaceted relationship between memory and activism in the context of democratic backsliding, authoritarian resurgence, and shifting political imaginaries.<\/strong>   By bringing together scholars from memory studies, political science, sociology, history, cultural studies, legal studies, human rights studies, and adjacent fields, we aim to foster dialogue across disciplines and methodologies. We particularly welcome contributions that bridge theoretical frameworks with empirical research and that engage with diverse geographical contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We invite paper proposals addressing (but not limited to) the following questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n