Memory Studies is an international and interdisciplinary convergence field. It addresses – broadly speaking – the interplay of past and present in sociocultural contexts. Memory Studies is interested in the social shape of individual memory as well as in the collective generation of past, present, and future.

Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform (FMSP) was founded in 2011 by Astrid Erll. It is an initiative of the Forschungszentrum für Historische Geisteswissenschaften (FzHG). It brings together people and projects from history, sociology, literature, arts, media studies, psychology, and other relevant disciplines in a dialogue about memory. It wants to shape the future of memory studies by developing and discussing new research questions and new methodologies. FMSP is led by Astrid Erll and Hanna Teichler. 

The activities of the FMSP revolve around three main Research Lines: Transcultural Memory, the Mediality of Memory, and Memory and Narrative.

1. Transcultural Memory

Turning away from ‘methodological nationalism’ (U. Beck) and concepts of national culture, research according to this line addresses memory contents, media, and practices that travel across and beyond territorial, ethnic and social boundaries.

2. Mediality of Memory

Social memory is unthinkable without media, which express and disseminate contents of remembering. The coordinates of mediated memory are changing rapidly in our age of new media and globalising media cultures. This research line is interested in the past and present of memory and its manifold media.

3. Memory and Narrative

Narrative is one of the key modes of remembering. To address the complexities of narrative and memory it is necessary to bring together the expertise of (classical and postclassical) narratology with existent approaches to narrative in other disciplines, such as psychology and Oral History.