Call for Papers

This special issue of Slovak Ethnology is thematically focused on the concept of slow memory, which relates to transformative practices and processes of uneven and accelerating change in society. They invite authors from various disciplines, such as ethnology, sociology and anthropology, history, political science, communication and media, literary studies, etc., to submit contributions that discuss and give empirical examples of the emerging concept of slow memory.

Guest editors:

• Monika Vrzgulová, Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology SAS;
• Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, Lund University;
• Violeta Davoliūtė, Vilnius University.

This special issue of Slovak Ethnology is thematically related to the Cost Action CA 20105 Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change (SlowMemo).

Memory studies, which emerged at the end of the 20th century, brought a new way of thinking about past events into academia. Scholars within the interdisciplinary field concentrate primarily on significant or extreme past events (e.g., wars and genocides) and the meaning given to them in the present. Moreover, during the last two decades, the focus has been on emphasizing the dynamics of memories and analysing current struggles over how to remember specific events.

Consequently, memory studies as a scholarly field has been much less concerned with “slow-moving”, diffused, and symptomless events that can not simply be attributed to a particular date or place but which significantly affect peoples’ present and future. Furthermore, there has been much less attention on “la longue durée” of memory and studies of collective memories’ resilience to fast changes. Thus, the purpose of this special issue is to fill this void. We are interested in the change in slow memory processes, for example, across the generations, in educational policies, media representations or public discourse. It is essential to consider the problematic “dark past” as well as slow transformations that bring improvements in people’s lives.

They are inviting contributions that conceptualize slow memory and look from new angles at how societies and individuals remember the past. The regional focus is on Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe, but we are also interested in contributions providing comparisons across Europe or other regions worldwide. They welcome case studies as well as theoretical or methodological articles and essays about the memories of “slow changes”, in relation to such phenomena as for example:

• images and narratives (e.g., stereotypes of “the Others” or self-images of the own group as victims);
• remembering the significant or extreme past events (e.g., WWII and the Holocaust, the era of communist regimes, and war in the former Yugoslavia);
• deindustrialization;
• changes in gender relations, intergenerational relations and others;
• the hollowing out of welfare states;
• gentrification;
• climate change and environmental destruction;
• the creeping rise of misinformation.

Authors can submit their abstracts and keywords no later than 31^st March 2024 through the journal Slovak Ethnology editorial system.

Please send the final manuscripts by 31st July 2024 and submit them through the same editorial system. They should be at most 5,000 words or 36,000 characters, including spaces, notes, and references, and should follow the journal’s guidelines for contributors.