[ecrea] CFP for ICA Preconference: Making Sense of Memory and History

Making Sense of Memory & History

ICA Pre-Conference
Sponsored by the Communication History Division of the International 
Communication Association
Date: May 22, 2014
Time: 8:30 AM – 5 PM
Location: Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI)

History and memory – two modes of thinking about the past that often 
appear at odds – have an intimate, albeit at times strained, 
intellectual relationship. Despite the argued antagonism between history 
and memory studies, historians Natalie Zemon Davis and Randolph Starn 
suggested in their introduction to the 1989 special issue of 
Representations that, “Rather than insisting on the opposition between 
memory and history, then, we want to emphasize their interdependence…If 
anything, it is the tension or outright conflict between history and 
memory that seem necessary and productive. The explosive pertinence of a 
remembered detail may challenge repressive or merely complacent systems 
of prescriptive memory or history; memory, like the body, may speak in a 
language that reasoned inquiry will not hear.” (5) Following Davis & 
Starn, this pre-conference proposes to grapple with this tension between 
history and memory, exploring the varied ways in which scholars, from a 
variety of subfields within communication studies and across the 
humanities, have engaged with this relationship in recent years. Through 
its emphasis upon cross-field, cross-disciplinary connections, this 
pre-conference will highlight new directions within memory studies, 
underscoring the intersections of work done within communication, media 
studies, journalism, rhetoric, public history, and the digital 
humanities more broadly.

This pre-conference seeks to build upon existing theoretical and 
methodological frameworks as well as empirical studies by opening a 
space for new and reconsidered perspectives that capitalize upon the 
interdisciplinarity of memory studies and the possibilities of new 
technologies. The pre-conference planners seek submissions that draw 
upon under-utilized theoretical paradigms and analytical frameworks, 
focus on world regions or nations that have received relatively little 
historical attention, consider comparative analysis, make use of 
underutilized source materials, revise dominant interpretations of 
institutions, individuals, and practices, and/or consider how digital 
technologies may challenge understandings of public memory and history.

While not limited to the following topics, possible themes to be 
considered in the pre-conference include:

1. Theorizing the relationship between memory and history in a digital world
2. Methodologies for conducting memory research
3. Materiality and public memory
4. Audiences and public memory
5. Applied history
6. Pedagogies of public memory

The goal of this pre-conference most broadly is to encourage cross-field 
and cross-disciplinary participation and potential future collaboration 
and scholarly networking.

Abstracts of 300 words (maximum) should be submitted no later than 20 
November 2013. Send abstracts to: Nicole Maurantonio at 
(nmaurant /at/ richmond.edu) <mailto:(nmaurant /at/ richmond.edu)>. Authors will be 
informed regarding acceptance/rejection for the preconference no later 
than December 15, 2013. In an effort to facilitate informed discussion 
of papers, the organizers hope to have the papers for this 
pre-conference posted online. For this reason, full papers will need to 
be submitted no later than April 15, 2014. The pre-conference will take 
place on May 22, 2014.

Here is the web home for this preconference:
http://communicationhistory.org/precon/