Reports from summer school participants
Incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend the last week learning from an international community of young scholars doing their research in memory studies. As Stuart Hall’s approach to identity was rephrased at one of the roundtables, “There is always something more at stake when we talk about memory.” The school’s program and the international conference “Searching for memory between the mind and the world” fully exemplified this by bringing together researchers from various fields for discussions that highlighted sometimes unexpected yet always fruitful connectivities. From ancient history to cognitive psychology research, memory studies open up a human dimension of shared processes, allowing, as it was well put, to bridge humanities and humanitas, and underscoring the political, ethical, and moral charge of one’s research.
[Kateryna Osypchuk]
My expectations from the LIMS summer school were to systematise everything I already know about memory and commemoration. The announced trips to Rovereto and Bolzano were interesting for practical analysis of “contested” memory – that’s exactly what I’m going to focus on in my PhD project. As a result I got even more, because the lecturers and all the participants shared with me so many ideas and inspiration! We continue communication even after school, and I am glad that the weekly event has transformed into a community of like-minded people. So I am grateful for organisers and Trento university, I look forward to attend any new projects of LIMS.
Some comments from the scientific coordinator of the School, Dr. Giorgia Proietti
Well, the LIMS summer school has come to an end, and it is hard to explain how rewarding it has been.
22 participants from all over the world🌎 – from the Netherlands to Brasil, Ukraine to California, Croatia to Georgia, Germany to Greece – spent one week in Trento, attending masterclasses, participating to the LIMS international conference, joining the debates, doing fieldworks. They contributed to a great extent to all the activities, in such a passionate manner. This summer school has truly been a collective endeavor!🤗
Memory studies are a field – not a discipline – that takes concepts and tools from proper disciplines: sociology and history, literary and cultural studies, philosophy and political sciences, among others. A sophisticated degree of theoreticity follows, empirical data and evidence are asked new questions. Memory studies themselves are indeed a collective endeavor, being shaped by interactions across disciplines, across countries, across languages, across human beings.
Personally, I take memory as an interpretive lens that allows me to zoom in deeply into human things, past, present, and future. Into what Herodotus called τὰ γενόμενα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων (things done by men). To me, memory is a powerful lens through humanities. A bridge to humanitas.
I’d love to have this picture below as a symbolic cover photo of the summer school: it was taken yesterday at Maria Dolens, the Bell of the Fallen on the Miravalle Hill just above Rovereto. Built after WW1 with the bronze of the cannons, every evening it rings one hundred bells, spreading a universal claim for peace. It well represents the participants’ (and my own) passion for memory research, and commitment to a better world.
Thanks to Thomas, dear colleague, friend and co-organizer, and to Adi, Adriano, Barry, Ben, Coen, Diego, Dwika, Edward, Eleni, Emina, Francesca, Giulia B., Giulia D., Harry, Kateryna, Konstantina, Leonardo, Lisa, Marit, Martina, Misha, Oksana, Wouter: well done!!!!😎
#peace
#memorystudies
[Giorgia Proietti]
