Call for Applications: Mnemonics 2025

“Memory and Responsibility”

Keynote Speakers

• Carlos Fonseca (Cambridge University)
• Sara Dybris McQuaid (Aarhus University)
• Hanna Meretoja (University of Turku)

Theme

The 2025 edition of Mnemonics will delve into the intricate relationship between memory and responsibility.

Memory is not a static record of the past but a dynamic process, constantly reshaped by present-day concerns, power structures, and competing interests. How we remember is determined as much by contemporary realities as by historical events. Responsibility, on the other hand, signifies the obligation to answer for actions, inactions, decisions, and narratives—whether as individuals, groups, or societies. Scholars such as Paul Ricoeur (2004), Jeffrey Blustein (2008), and James Booth (2020) have underscored the profound interconnections between memory and responsibility, which underpin much work in memory studies.

Since the late 1900s, the notion of a “duty to remember” has increasingly shaped public relations to the past. Originally tied to the commemoration of the First World War in Western Europe (“lest we forget”), the moral imperative to bear witness and prevent future horrors (“never again”) gained widespread prominence in the second half of the twentieth century in response to the Holocaust (Levy and Sznaider 2006) and political transitions in Latin America (Jelin 2003). Over time, its scope has broadened significantly. Memory activists have worked to confront the enduring legacies of Western colonialism and imperialism, challenging narratives that obscure or erase these histories. Feminist and gender studies scholars have exposed how dominant historical accounts often reinforce patriarchal and heteronormative biases, advocating for more inclusive and critical approaches to remembrance. The principle of intergenerational responsibility—accountability for events beyond one’s direct involvement—has informed efforts to address histories of genocide, dictatorship, war, and other collective traumas. More recently, the growing focus on climate change and environmental breakdown has further expanded these frameworks, emphasizing humanity’s interconnectedness with other species and ecosystems through the lens of Anthropocene memory.

At the same time, responsibility remains a complex and often contested concept within memory studies. Memory narratives and dominant historical discourses are frequently constructed to evade responsibility, redirecting blame away from the mnemonic community. This tendency is evident in collective memories of the Second World War, where many nations have embraced uncritical, self-exonerating narratives that obscure their shared responsibility for wartime atrocities (Lebow, Kansteiner, and Fogu 2006; Mihai 2020). Similar challenges have emerged in recent efforts to confront the legacies of colonialism in countries such as Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands (Goddeeris 2020; Melber 2024). Cultural production can also contribute to these dynamics, fostering forms of storytelling that limit ethical engagement and constrain narrative imagination (Meretoja 2018). Even sincere attempts to assume responsibility risk producing exclusionary memory regimes or prematurely closing the door on historical reckoning.

For the future of memory studies, cultivating memory practices that embrace structural responsibility—rooted in the interconnectedness of human beings—remains vital (Sanders 2002; Young 2011). At the same time, such practices must engage with nuanced understandings of agency, shaped by the memory of complicity and implication (Sanyal 2015; Rothberg 2019).

The 2025 Mnemonics summer school invites PhD students to critically engage with these questions through interdisciplinary dialogue. Participants will reflect on key challenges and opportunities in bridging memory and responsibility, addressing topics such as the ethical demands of reckoning with the past, the risks of evasion or distortion, and the potential for memory to foster solidarity and justice. Through case studies and theoretical explorations, the summer school will illuminate the tensions and transformative possibilities within the interplay of memory and responsibility.

Contributions may address a wide range of topics, such as:

• The challenges and limits of taking responsibility for historical injustices
• (Ir)responsible memory practices in relation to genocides, colonialism, dictatorships, and wars
• The role of memory in addressing climate change and ecological responsibility
• Remembering gender-based violence in responsible ways
• How literature and art negotiate or evade responsibility for the past
• Case studies of effective or problematic attempts to take responsibility for the past
• The interplay between individual and collective responsibility
• Ethical and political strategies for fostering responsible memory cultures
• How responsibility intersects with enduring structures of power and inequality
• The impact of responsibility on key concepts in memory studies
• The ethical dilemmas of selective memory and forgetting
• The interpretative or imaginative processes involved in reckoning with the past
• The relationship between responsibility and memories of complicity and implication
• Collective memory as a means of political and ethical engagement

Key questions for exploration include:

• What does it mean to take responsibility for the past, and what does this entail?
• What risks and opportunities emerge when addressing historical wrongs?
• When, if ever, does assuming mnemonic responsibility involve a measure of forgetting?
• How can responsibility for the past be translated into action, reparations, or educational initiatives?
• What kinds of narratives support ethical memory practices, and how are they constructed?
• How can memory grapple with forms of harm that are diffuse, incremental, or invisible?
• How can memory practices rooted in responsibility help address urgent contemporary and future challenges?
• To what extent are memory cultures grounded in responsibility affected by polarized and digital societies?

Find out how to apply on the Mnemonics homepage.