Scholars in many disciplines have taken an interest in relics of the past, various fragments and different types of memory for years. Temporal complexity, however, seems to be a fresh type of exploration, as is interest in the concept of trace (e. g., Napolitano 2015, Joyce 2015, Ingold 2010). Places and landscapes have many different temporalities. In everyday life and in fieldwork we encounter fragments, traces, memories and relics of past events. These traces remain in the landscape and become part of histories that are messy, contested and variously entangled. Mapping temporal complexity and telling times as more-than-human temporalities may be key to understanding the Anthropocene (e.g., Gan 2017, Gan & Tsing 2018, DeSilvey 2017, Philips 2020). Traces are condensations of histories, and due to their fragmented nature, they might signal the limits of representation (c.f. Napolitano 2015).
The workshop focuses on the topic of traces, fragments and memories. Some of them are recognized, cherished and protected, becoming part of the (official) heritage. Others pass unmentioned, unrecognized, eventually being abandoned and neglected, intentionally or unintentionally left to vanish and decay; they may be forgotten, misrecognized and silenced. Paying attention to landscape and places in their temporal complexity may show that some relics are more resilient than others.
Some questions to consider:
How do we understand, deal with and contest fragments, traces, and memories we encounter and recognise in the landscape? In what ways can we tell their stories and histories? Where are the limits of representation when we consider the fragmented past in the present? How can we epistemologically and methodologically approach the more-than-human and nonhuman nature of the fragments and traces of the past in landscapes?
What is welcome:
Case studies, methodological and theoretical considerations grounded in disciplines across the social sciences and humanities incl. heritage studies, memory studies, landscape and time geographies, post-humanities, anthropological tracings, phenomenology and others.
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Convenors: Karolína Pauknerová – Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University and the Czech
Academy of Sciences (CTS), Jan Frei – CTS, Petr Gibas – Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
Date: 9th – 10th October, 2023
Location: Prague, Czech Republic (AKC, Husova 4a, 110 00 Prague 1)
Submission: Please email an abstract of your paper (max. 250 words), your name and affiliation to: pauknerova@cts.cuni.cz.
Deadline for submissions: 10th June 2023