CfP: Special Issue of Memory Studies
Yearly Issue Edited by the MSA
“Taking Stock of Memory Studies”
Deadline: 15 December 2022
Edited by Jeffrey Olick, Aline Sierp and Jenny Wüstenberg (outgoing founding Co-Presidents of the MSA)
In an important 2011 paper (“Travelling Memory,” Parallax, 17:4, 4-18), Astrid Erll identified three waves of memory studies—the first, in the 1920s and 30s, saw the foundational work on “collective memory” of Halbwachs, Warburg, and Bartlett, among others; the second, in the 1980s and 90s, ran from Pierre Nora’s work on lieux de memoire and national memory more broadly to the Assmanns’ articulation of “cultural memory,” among others; and a third, in the new millennium, has been characterized by a focus on post-national, transcultural, cosmopolitan, postcolonial, and multidirectional approaches. Most recently, Stef Craps and others have suggested we are witnessing a fourth wave, one pushing the field to go beyond the anthropocentric and to think ecologically. One of the many important issues this development suggests is the connection between styles, strategies, forms, and preoccupations of memory scholarship and the particular historical conjuncture.
What issues, then, does the current conjuncture pose for memory studies, and what kind of memory studies do we have and need now? For this special MSA issue of Memory Studies, we seek essays, papers, reviews, and other contributions that address the current moment of memory studies in history and/or that predict or set agendas for the field’s future. In particular, we are interested in generational change within the field. In this context, we invite contributions, especially though not only by early career scholars, that deal with two sets of questions:
- How do “newer” scholars assess the changes in the field? How useful are established concepts in the current moment? Do they need to be reinvented or reframed, or even discarded? What is new, and what would an agenda for the future look like? Proposals might include reflective essays, research articles, and creative responses.
- How does the transmission of memory studies as a field look like in the curricular and teaching process? What are the conditions and prospects for teaching, training, professionalization, institutionalization, or any other aspect of the reproduction of the field? Proposals might include field reports of one’s own experience, surveys of various programs, and broader analyses of memory studies pedagogy.
We are thus interested in intergenerational dialogue, efforts to assess the connections between memory studies and its changing moments, its transmission and agendas for its future. And we are particularly interested in showcasing new perspectives by early career scholars.
Timeline and Procedure:
We will begin reviewing abstracts/proposals of no more than 250 words by December 15. Please send your abstract and a short bio in one word or PDF file to aline.sierp@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
The first complete drafts will be expected by March 31, 2023, for publication in Fall 2023.
Memory Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal. It affords recognition, form, and direction to work in this nascent field. It provides a critical forum for dialogue and debate on the theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues central to a collaborative understanding of memory today.
2022 Impact Factor: 1.053 / 5-Year Impact Factor: 1.955| 2022 Ranking: 15/102 in History | 22/45 in Cultural Studies
For more information, please access Journal Description: Memory Studies: SAGE Journals (sagepub.com)