CIMS annually organizes a day-long Symposium showcasing postgraduate research from across our faculties.
Memory as a Future Practice
Online Symposium | 29 May 2026
CfP Deadline: 28 February 2026
While memory is inherently bound to the past, it is through acts of remembering that individuals, communities, and institutions imagine and shape possible futures (Huyssen 2003; Erll & Hirst 2026). Remembering structures expectations, frames political and ethical debates, and influences how societies respond to present challenges (Szpunar & Szpunar 2016). Therefore, this symposium invites postgraduate researchers to explore memory as a future-oriented practice and to reflect on how memory studies can contribute productively to contemporary debates and future-making processes.
Recent scholarship has increasingly questioned linear models of memory that separate past, present, and future (Conway et al. 2016). Instead, memory is approached as a dynamic practice that connects temporalities and opens spaces for reflection and action (Erll & Rigney 2009). At the same time, changing media environments and new technological forms are transforming how memory is produced, mediated, and addressed to future audiences.
This postgraduate symposium, jointly organized by the Institute for Cultural Identity and Memory Studies at the University of St Andrews and the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform at Goethe University Frankfurt, aims to provide a forum for interdisciplinary discussion on memory as a dynamic and future-oriented field. We welcome contributions from postgraduate researchers across disciplines, including but not limited to cultural studies, literary studies, history, media studies, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, digital humanities, and museum studies
Keep an eye on this page for information about upcoming Symposiums. You can find details about all our past symposiums via this link