Material Culture & Landscapes/Places of Memory, 25th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2–5, 2018
There are several ways to classify memory – be it “Individual” or “Collective” as by Maurice Halbwachs, “Social” as by James Fentress and Chris Wickham or “Cultural” as by Jan and Aleida Assmann. Memory, however, has a wide array of expressing itself; the one most notable, and also most subtle, is that of material culture. Material culture may be widely perceived as objects, symbols or places, yet in order to be fully able to comprehend the underlying meaning, one has to be part of the memorial tradition and memorial circle associated with the said expressions of material culture, an aspect of memory highlighted by Pierre Nora in his “Places of Memory”.
We, Stefanie Schild (Hilden) and Daniel Brown (Cologne), are currently organising a range of sessions for the IMC 2018 that explore Material Culture as well as Landscapes and Places in light of the IMC 2018 special focus “Memory” and are looking for papers that address some of the below questions on Material Culture and Landscapes of Memory in the Middle Ages:
- How do artefacts and landscapes of memory evoke memory?
- How does the make-up of such artefacts and landscapes influence memory?
- How do objects and landscapes make the transition to an item of memory?
- Is there a process, which degrades artefacts and landscapes of memory back to its non-memorial states?
- How does material memory create or influence communities?
- What are the power dynamics of conflicting material memory?
- How do communities create collective memory through material memory?
- How accurate is material memory?
- How do communities react to inauthentic material memory?
- Is material memory used to fortify legitimation or distinction of communities?
- Are there specifically gendered objects and landscapes available as material memories?
We are especially inviting PhD students as well as Early Career Scholars as well as historians using methodological approaches from gender studies, sociology, archaeology, queer studies & disability studies to submit their paper proposals
Organizers
Stefanie Schild, Hilden
Daniel Brown, Cologne