[Commlist] Call for Abstracts: Special Issue of Memory, Mind & Media

*Call for Abstracts*

*Communicating Memory Matters in Networked Environments*

Special Issue of /Memory, Mind & Media/

*Special Guest Editors*: /Christine Lohmeier (University of Salzburg, 
Austria) & Christian Pentzold (Leipzig University, Germany)/

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Memory is a communicative affair. Throughout history, a growing 
diversity of symbols and genres of communication have shaped how we come 
to remember and forget the past. Indeed, memory comes to matter when it 
is communicated: people connect to a collective past, return to personal 
reminiscences, and revive bygone moments but also impair, inhibit, or 
prevent memories by way of communication. It is the prime mode through 
which the past is enacted in the present. Unsurprisingly, the majority 
of studies into the practice of lived remembering operate with a notion 
of communicative memory, often in conjunction with the kindred concept 
of cultural memory.

The special issue of /Memory, Mind & Media/ will interrogate the current 
forms of communicative memory making. It starts from the idea that while 
communication is at the heart of commemoration processes, it has 
recently been sidelined by a focus on (media) technologies. These 
rapidly changing material environments attracted much scholarly 
attention around questions of living digital archives, virtual memory 
places, and media archaeology. Yet the actual communicative exchanges 
that happen on the cognitive level, in the often machine-mediated 
interactions between people, and the social realm at-large have received 
considerably less interest.

The special issue invites contributions that address the ways in which 
data, services, and platforms enable communicative remembering across 
the scale from micro-level mental operations to macro-level societal 
processes. We assume that transforming media will leave their mark on 
how we engage with the past, interact with others, employ artifacts and 
documents, and thus construct memories. We also believe that memory 
making within and through these technologies means inclusion of some 
people and groups and exclusion of others. Reconsidering how 
communicative remembering has changed and how it is done today will also 
allow us to scrutinize some standard distinctions on which the field is 
built. Hence, dichotomies such as communicative memory versus cultural 
memory, personal versus family versus public memory, cognitive memory 
versus social memory seem in need of re-thinking and renewal when 
considered from the point of digitally networked communication. With its 
focus on the active side of remembrance, the special issue aims at a 
tenet of memory studies yet it promises to also reach out to connate 
disciplines which share this interest, like cognitive science and 
psychology, science and technology studies, communication, political 
science, anthropology, and sociology.

Papers could address but are not limited to the following themes:

·conceptualization of memory work in times of networked media environments

·processes of inclusion and exclusion in acts of communicative remembering

·the formation of new memory collectives

·the impact of digital communication on remembering and forgetting 
in-between the individual and the collective level

·continuities and changes in communicative remembering and forgetting 
within complex networked communication

·the activities and positions of (new) memory agents in networked 
environments

·collaborative memory and communication among families, couples, small 
and large groups

*Timeline and procedure*

500 to 700 word abstracts should be sent to 
(communicatingmemorymatters /at/ plus.ac.at) 
<mailto:(communicatingmemorymatters /at/ plus.ac.at)> by *October 3, 2022*. The 
abstract should articulate: 1) the issue or research question to be 
discussed, 2) the methodological or critical framework used, and 3) the 
expected findings or conclusions. Feel free to consult with the Special 
Issue Editors about your article ideas and potential angles or approaches.

Decisions will be communicated to the authors by November 15, 2022. 
Invited paper submissions will be due May 2, 2023 and will be submitted 
directly to the submission site for /Memory, Mind & Media/: 
_https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mmm 
<https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mmm> _where they will undergo peer 
review following the usual procedures of /Memory, Mind & Media/. The 
invitation to submit a full article does not guarantee acceptance into 
the special issue. The special issue is scheduled for publication in 
early 2024.

This call for abstracts is also accessible via 
https://memoryandmedia.net/special-issue/ 
<https://memoryandmedia.net/special-issue/>

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