Call for papers
MSA- Nordic conference & Final conference of DFF-project Revival of traumatic pasts
Decolonizing memory? Thinking through patterns of memory and power
9-11 December 2026, University of Southern Denmark
At a time when countries are becoming increasingly aware of their colonial pasts, even as colonialism and power inequalities (re)appear in various forms, we need to ask ourselves how we can respond to these transformed patterns of power and memory.
How does Denmark’s slow acknowledgement of its colonial past and its legacies compare to those going on elsewhere? How have Greenlandic and Sami activists collaborated with Indigenous activists in the Americas or South Pacific, and to what extent have they been met with responses resembling or differing from those in other contexts? How is this process, say, comparable to the heated debates in Germany, where the renewed discourse about colonial genocide in present-day Namibia haunt Germany’s memory culture, challenging the fixed pillars of Holocaust memory; how does Israels war on Gaza unsettle politicians´ attitudes towards Israel worldwide and provoke new thinking about colonial genocides and settler colonialism?; how can Italian activists’ fight for decolonization succeed in a political atmosphere of far-right ideology that tends to rehabilitate fascist perpetrators; and finally how can we conceptualize the prominent role of decolonization in Ukraine’s war?
What all these events and transformations have in common, is that they stir activistic, artistic, and political responses which are often assembled under the umbrella term decolonization. But what is decolonialization after all? In the light of these various activities, the meaning of this term has diversified to a degree that almost empties its scientific value. Amongst others, this conference asks if memory studies can (re)conceptualize decolonialization by for example defining it as a means of rejecting the (former) colonizer’sNdlovu-Gatsheni); as a practise of liberating not only people but also their pasts and memories (Yurchuk), as locally situated agents’ effort of making colonialism “memorable” (Rigney), of inciting political change by refusing existing memory regimes.
This conference is inspired by these thoughts but invites papers which are concerned with all kinds of topics that think through patterns of memory and power even if not connected to (de/post-) colonialism including media such as education, activism, literature, art, history and social media, spanning numerous geographical areas and their transnational interrelations. A special focus is on multidirectional approaches that tease out cross-fertilization between different disciplines and sites of memory.
Topics include but are not limited to
– Memories as hope in de- and postcolonial studies
– The role of the non-human in postcolonial studies
– Interdisciplinary or comparative approaches to memories of power and inequality
– Methodological considerations about memory studies’ connection to decoloniality, postcolonialism and coloniality.
– Memory activism
– Transnational impact of Black Lives Matter
– The relation between academia and memory activism
– Mnemonic agency in a moment of crises
– Multidirectional memory and postcolonial studies
– Authoritarian regimes’ (mis)uses of memories
Confirmed keynote speakers
David Mwambari, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. Associate professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at and the principal investigator for the European Research Council (ERC)-funded TMSS project on Life narratives of Violence Among Refugees who are transiting or have settled in six countries. He won the MSA first book award for his monograph Navigating Cultural Memory Commemoration and Narrative in Postgenocide Rwanda. Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Angela Pesarini, Toronto University. Assistant Professor in Race and Cultural Studies/Race and Diaspora and Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her work seeks to expand the field of Black Italia focusing on dynamics of race, gender, identity, and citizenship. Her publications include Making visible the invisible: Colonial sources and counter body-archives in the boarding schools for Black “mixed race” Italian children in fascist East Africa, Routledge Taylors & Francis Group, 2022.
Naja Dyrendom Graugaard, Copenhagen University, Associate Professor at Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics. She is a Danish-Kalaaleq(Inuk) researcher with an expertise in past and present colonial relations between Denmark and Kalaallit Nunaa. Her lates publication include “Colonial Reproductive Coercion and Control in Kalaallit Nunaat: Racism in Denmark’s IUD Program” (together with Pihl Sørensen & Stage) NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 2025.
Keynote-panel: Interdisciplinary approaches to decolonization
Confirmed speakers
Charles Burdett (University of London)
Uoldelul Chelati Dirar (University of Macerata)
Kirsten Thisted (University of Copenhagen)
Karen E. Till (Maynooth University)
Yuliya Yurchuk (Södertörn University)
Submission guidelines
Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short bio of max 150 words to dm@sdu.dk no later than 1 March 2026.
- Ilmoituksen tyyppi:
- Esitelmäpyyntö
- Vanhenee:
- Yhteyshenkilö nimi:
- Jessica Ortner
- Yhteyshenkilö sähköposti:
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- Avaa verkkosivut