RA 1 Meeting with Joanna Wawrzyniak (Warsaw)

Varieties in Memory Studies

Dr Joanna Wawrzyniak

Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw

The purpose of our meeting will be to discuss the meanings of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity in memory studies; the advantages and disadvantages of the weak institutionalization of the field; as well as its different trajectories as seen from non-hegemonic perspectives. In the latter case we will draw mainly on the examples from Eastern Europe (and Poland specifically), as well on research projects of the PhD students of Research Area in Cultural Memory Studies.

The participants are encouraged to think on the following questions:

1. What are the main disciplines that are constitutive for memory studies? Why?

2. What does it mean to do interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research? Do you agree that memory studies is multidisciplinary and weakly institutionalized? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this situation?

3. What are the canonic perspectives in memory studies? What are advantages and disadvantages of bringing non-hegemonic perspectives to the field?

Recommended literature:

Henry L. Roediger III and James V. Wertsch. 2008. ‘Creating a new discipline of memory studies’ Memory Studies, no. 1.

Anamaria Dutceac Segesten and Jenny Wüstenberg. 2016. ‘Memory studies: The state of

an emergent field’ Memory Studies. Published online before print June 20, 2016, doi: 10.1177/1750698016655394.

Joanna Wawrzyniak and Małgorzata Pakier. 2013.  ‘Memory Studies in Eastern Europe:

Key Issues and Future Perspectives’. Polish Sociological Review. no. 3 (183).

Robert Traba and Peter Oliver Loew. 2015. ‘Erinnern auf Polnisch. Theorie und Praxis‘, in: Deutsch-Polnische Erinnerungsorte, vol. 5: Erinnerung auf Polnisch Texte zu Theorie und Praxis des sozialen Gedächtnisses. (Panderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh): 9-38.