[Commlist] CFP Mnemonics 2025: Memory and Responsibility

*Call for Papers Mnemonics 2025:*

*Memory and Responsibility*

**

*Ghent, Belgium, 10-12 September 2025*

**

/The thirteenth edition of the Mnemonics summer school 
<https://www.mnemonics.ugent.be/news/call-for-papers-mnemonics-2025-memory-and-responsibility/> will 
be hosted by the Flemish Memory Studies Network (a collaboration of 
memory scholars at Ghent University and KU Leuven) and will be held in 
person in Ghent, Belgium, from Wednesday 10 September 2025 to Friday 12 
September 2025./

The annual Mnemonics summer school brings together junior and senior 
scholars in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies, affording PhD 
students from around the world the opportunity to receive extensive 
feedback on their ongoing projects and to catch up with methodological 
and theoretical debates in memory studies. Each edition features three 
keynotes and 24 PhD student presentations. Each PhD student will be 
assigned a senior respondent from a partner institution who will provide 
an in-depth commentary on their paper. Mnemonics is a unique platform 
for learning, mentoring, and networking specifically designed to meet 
the needs and interests of the next generation ofmemory scholars.

*Keynote Speakers*

**

●Carlos Fonseca 
<https://www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/dr-carlos-fonseca> (Cambridge University)

●Sara Dybris McQuaid 
<https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/engsdm%40cc.au.dk> (Aarhus University)

●Hanna Meretoja 
<https://www.utu.fi/en/people/hanna-meretoja> (University of Turku)

*Participating Mnemonics Partners*

**

●Tea Sindbæk Andersen (University of Copenhagen)

●Guido Bartolini (Ghent University)

●Stefano Bellin (Ghent University)

●Stef Craps (Ghent University)

●Rick Crownshaw (Goldsmiths, University of London)

●Astrid Erll (Goethe University Frankfurt)

●Victoria Fareld (Stockholm University)

●Brett Ashley Kaplan (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

●Silvana Mandolessi (KU Leuven)

●Jessica Ortner Nielsen (University of Southern Denmark)

●Ann Rigney (Utrecht University)

●Michael Rothberg (UCLA)

●Barbara Törnquist-Plewa (Lund University)

●Pieter Vermeulen (KU Leuven)

●Eva Willems (Ghent University)

*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?

*Format*

The summer school will include keynote lectures, general discussions, 
and professional development sessions. The main emphasis, however, is on 
the presentation of PhD work in progress in the form of panels of three 
students who each give a 15-minute talk that is based on their ongoing 
research while also relevant to the theme of this year’s summer school. 
In order to foster feedback and discussion, each panel will include an 
extensive response and a Q&A session. The summer school will be 
bookended by a special event exploring memory and responsibility in 
relation to contemporary conflicts and a decolonial walking tour of Ghent.

*Local Organizers*

Mnemonics 2025 is hosted by the Flemish Memory Studies Network, a 
collaboration of memory scholars at Ghent University and KU Leuven. The 
organizing team consists of Prof. Stef Craps, Dr Guido Bartolini, Dr 
Stefano Bellin, Dr Eva Willems, and Eva Van Hoey (Ghent University) 
alongside Prof. Silvana Mandolessi, Prof. Pieter Vermeulen, and Nina 
Soudan (KU Leuven).

*Where?*

The summer school will be held at Het Rustpunt 
<https://www.hetrustpunt.com/en/home> (Burgstraat 116 or Prinsenhof 39, 
9000 Ghent), a residential conference centre housed in a 17th-century 
Carmelite monastery. This tranquil, green oasis is located in the heart 
of the city. Ghent is easily accessible by road, rail, and air, with 
international trains arriving at Brussels-South railway station (a 
30-minute train ride from Ghent) and Brussels airport (BRU) just one 
hour away by train.

*When?*

The summer school will officially commence on the morning of Wednesday 
10 September 2025 and conclude on the afternoon of Friday 12 September 
2025. An optional public event, followed by a reception, is scheduled 
for the evening of Tuesday 9 September 2025.

*Fees*

The participation fee is €250 and includes tuition, three nights of 
shared accommodation at Het Rustpunt 
<https://www.hetrustpunt.com/en/home> (Tuesday 9 September 2025 – Friday 
12 September 2025), breakfasts, lunches, coffee breaks, one dinner, and 
one reception. Travel costs to Ghent are not covered. Participants who 
wish to upgrade from a shared twin room to a private single room 
(subject to availability) may do so for a fee of €350. Those who do not 
require overnight accommodation can register for €100.

PhD students from institutions in low- and middle-income countries are 
encouraged to apply. To facilitate participation, the Flemish Memory 
Studies Network offers a limited amount of financial support to select 
attendees, based on merit and need. If you wish to be considered for a 
fee waiver or travel bursary, please indicate this in your application, 
provide a motivation, and disclose any other sources of funding 
available to you.

*Applications*

Applications are open to all PhD students with an interest in memory 
studies who are actively enrolled at the time of the summer school.Half 
of the 24 available spots are reserved for students affiliated with 
Mnemonics partner institutions 
<http://www.mnemonics.ugent.be/partners/>. Attendance is in-person only.

To apply, please submit the following as a single PDF document to 
(MnemonicsGhent /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(MnemonicsGhent /at/ gmail.com)> by 1 April 2025:

●A 300-word abstract for a 15-minute paper (including the title, your 
name, and your institutional affiliation)

●A brief description of your PhD research project (one paragraph)

●A short CV (maximum one page)

*Important Dates*

●Application deadline: 1 April 2025

●Notification of acceptance: 15 May 2025

●Deadline for paper submission: 20 August 2025

**

*Questions?*

Please email (MnemonicsGhent /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(MnemonicsGhent /at/ gmail.com)>.

**

*Relevant Links*

●Mnemonics website: https://www.mnemonics.ugent.be/ 
<https://www.mnemonics.ugent.be/>

●Mnemonics on 
Facebook:**http://www.facebook.com/groups/mnemonics.network/ 
<http://www.facebook.com/groups/mnemonics.network/>

●Mnemonics on Bluesky: @mnemonics.bsky.social 
<https://bsky.app/profile/mnemonics.bsky.social>

●Mnemonics on X /(to be deactivated)/:**@mnemonics_net 
<https://twitter.com/mnemonics_net>

*References*

●Ackerly, Brooke A. /Just Responsibility: A Human Rights Theory of 
Global Justice/. Oxford University Press, 2018.

●Bartolini, Guido, and Joseph Ford, eds. /Mediating Historical 
Responsibility: Memories of “Difficult Pasts” in European Cultures/. De 
Gruyter, 2024.

●Booth, James W. /Memory, Historic Injustice, and Responsibility/. 
Routledge, 2020.

●Blustein, Jeffrey. /The Moral Demands of Memory/. Cambridge University 
Press, 2008.

●Fonseca, Carlos. /The Literature of Catastrophe: Nature, Disaster and 
Revolution in Latin America/. Bloomsbury, 2020.

●Fricker, Miranda. /Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of 
Knowledge/. Oxford University Press, 2007.

●Goddeeris, Idesbald. “Mapping the Colonial Past in the Public Space: A 
Comparison between Belgium and the Netherlands.” /BMGN—Low Countries 
Historical Review/ 135.1 (2020): 
70-94.<https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10783>

●Jelin, Elizabeth. /State Repression and the Labors of Memory/. 
University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

●Jones, Hannah. /Violent Ignorance: Confronting Racism and Migration 
Control/. Zed Books, 2021.

●Lebow, Richard, Wulf Kansteiner, and Claudio Fogu, eds. /The Politics 
of Memory in Postwar Europe/. Duke University Press, 2006.

●Levy, Daniel, and Natan Sznaider. /The Holocaust and Memory in the 
Global Age/. Trans. Assenka Oksiloff. Temple University Press, 2006.

●McQuaid, Sara Dybris, and Sarah Gensburger, eds. /Administrations of 
Memory: Transcending the Nation and Bringing Back the State in Memory 
Studies/. Springer, 2022.

●Melber, Henning. /The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, 
Denialism and Revisionism/. C. Hurst, 2024.

●Meretoja, Hanna. /The Ethics of Storytelling: Narrative Hermeneutics, 
History and the Possible/. Oxford University Press, 2018.

●Mihai, Mihaela. /Political Memory and the Aesthetics of Care: The Art 
of Complicity and Resistance/. Stanford University Press, 2022.

●Niemi, Minna Johanna. /Complicity and Responsibility in Contemporary 
African Writing: The Postcolony Revisited/. Routledge, 2021.

●Ricoeur, Paul. /Memory, History, Forgetting/. Trans. Kathleen Blamey 
and David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2004.

●Robbins, Bruce. /The Beneficiary/. Duke University Press, 2017.

●Rothberg, Michael. /The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and 
Perpetrators/. Stanford University Press, 2019.

●Sanders, Mark. /Complicities: The Intellectual and Apartheid/. Duke 
University Press, 2002.

●Sanyal, Debarati. /Memory and Complicity: Migrations of Holocaust 
Remembrance/. Fordham University Press, 2015.

●Shotwell, Alexis. /Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised 
Times/. University of Minnesota Press, 2016.

●Táíwò, Olúfẹmi O. /Reconsidering Reparations/. Oxford University Press, 
2022.

●Vázquez-Arroyo, Antonio Y. /Political Responsibility: Responding to the 
Predicaments of Power/. Columbia University Press, 2016.

●Young, Iris Marion. /Responsibility for Justice/. Oxford University 
Press, 2011.


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