Fifth International Conference on Humanities
History & Memory
April 6th, 7th & 8th, 2018
Venue: Higher Institute of Applied Languages and Computer Science of Beja, Tunisia
Call for Papers
Texts act like receptacles for an ever present remembered past, or what the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur calls “the present representation of an absent thing” (7).1 They might embody an efficient remedy to forgetting but could also become a vivid testimony for exorcised traumas, and “it is on this level and from this viewpoint that we can legitimately speak of wounded, even of sick memory” (Ricoeur, 69). According to Ricoeur, “the work of mourning is the cost of the work of remembering, but the work of remembering is the benefit of the work of mourning” (72). Thus remembering brings back a bitter past but might heal revived memories. As to history, it is always in tension between memory and forgetting; it relies on memory and prevents from forgetting. But it is also questionable because it depends on its source and its context and sways between hiding and revealing.
During this conference the debate will focus on Ricoeur’s phenomenology of memory, epistemology of history, and hermeneutics of forgetting. A special emphasis will be laid on the dissension between individual and collective institutional memory.
Topics will pivot around the relationship between history, memory and forgetting in relation to different academic fields such as history, political science, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, gender studies, anthropology, linguistics, literature, psychology, and pedagogy. Materials covered are historical documents, novels, short stories, poems, plays, autobiographies, biographies, texts, paintings, films, museums, national archives, etc.
We welcome proposals focusing on, but not restricted to, the following topics:
Language and Linguistics
- Text as memory
- Socio/psychoanalysis of a text
- Cognitive load theory,
- Learning: memory& forgetting
- Teaching history
- Bilingual memory
- Role of memory in second language and foreign language acquisition
- Linguistic memory
- Language and memory
Cultural Studies
- The historical and the political
- History of ideas
- Tunisian history and tradition
- Cultural studies and historical approaches
- Individual and collective memory
- Socio-cultural dimension of memory
- History in the digital age
- Digital memory and the archive
- Collective memory and history
- Cities and the architecture of memory
- Social justice and human rights
Literary Studies
- Theories of memory
- Intentional fallacy
- Deconstruction
- Historiography
- Trauma and traumatic memory
- Film and memory
- Historical movies
- Art and memory
- Art history
- Memory, history, forgetting in novels, plays, and poems
- Literature for the reconstruction of history
Submission Details
The reviewers will welcome abstracts of 300 words (maximum) and at least 3 key words for 15-minute presentations in English, French and Arabic, addressing aspects of the above-cited areas or other concerns pertinent to the topic of this conference.
All submitted proposals will be unanimously peer-reviewed by two external reviewers.
The abstract and the author’s personal information sheet must be submitted together in two separate files. The abstract file must contain no reference that may identify the author. The second file must include the author’s contact information, institutional affiliation, and a short biography (100 words max).
Once an abstract is accepted, the author is required to submit the full draft to the panel respondent no later than February 1st, 2018.
Send your abstracts to: islaibconf2018@yahoo.com
Important Dates
Submission of abstracts: November 30th, 2017
Notification of acceptance: December 15th, 2017
Submission of articles: February 1st, 2018
Conference Fees
Registration with accommodation (April 6th and 7th in Tabarka)
- Tunisian Teachers or researchers – TND 150
- Foreign Teachers or researchers – USD 300
Registration without accommodation
- Tunisian Teachers or researchers – TND 80
- Foreign Teachers or researchers – USD 100
References
- Ricoeur, Paul. Memory, History, Forgetting. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004.
