The second conference for the COST action “Slow Memory – Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerated Change” will take place in Aarhus, Denmark from June 12th-16th, 2023. It will combine two events:
- a training school (12-13) mainly designed for PhD students and early career scholars;
- and the SlowMemo main meeting (13-16).
The focus of the conference is on methodologies: considering the barriers, blocks, flows and flux in working with and through slow memory practices. The conference will provide space for trainings, reflections, workshops, excursions and panel presentations.
The training school runs from June 12th – 13th and is organized into two tracks under the broad categories of “storytelling” and “ethnography” – with a uniting focus on “moving methodologies” (i.e. walks and talks).
After some time for Working Group meetings in the afternoon of the 13th, the 14th – 15th are dedicated to a series of meetings and activities for all Action members with a focus on shared methodological challenges and synergies across Working Group themes. The format offers key insights (rather than keynotes) from academics and practitioners working in Denmark on issues relevant for slow memory – which are then discussed and responded to by the Working Groups.
The 16th is reserved for Working Group meetings on next steps and deliverables.
Practical information are available at the bottom of the page.
Training school
Sunday June 11th
Arrival of most participants in the evening in Copenhagen.
Monday June 12th
The training school will literally start on the train from Copenhagen to Aarhus, continue for 1 1/2 days and end with a summary workshop in which the participants collect their ideas of best practices for the best practice guide (a key deliverable for our Action).
9.00 – 9.15: Train-training school participants gather at Copenhagen Central Station.
9.30 – 12.45: train training with the Human Library, Copenhagen – Aarhus
The human library is a collection of books (humans) who represent marginalized or stigmatized groups in society and who you can read (as open books) by asking questions and listening. On the train we will have 5 books and a librarian.
13.15 – 14.15: Lunch (Matematisk Kantine)
14.15 – 17.30: First training session (group 1 and 2)
Group 1: Trainer Belinda Castles, Building 1420, room M.2.3
Group 2: Trainer Stine Grønbæk Jensen, Building 1420, room M.2.2
an anthropologist doing ethnographic fieldwork and oral history with and alongside people who are shaped by the changing social policies and institutions of the welfare state (i.e. care leavers).
In this part of the workshop, participants will discuss how to elicit subjective experiences and memories shaped by social categories and interventions.
17.30 – 19.00: check-in hotel
19.00: Dinner (Nikolinehuset, Aarhus Ø)
Tuesday June 13th
9.00 – 12.15: Second training session
Group 1: Trainer Stine Grønbæk Jensen Building 1420, room M.2.3
Group 2: Trainer Yilmaz Vurucu Building 1420, room M.2.2
The workshop will discuss the journey into artistic research practices and methodology, more specifically when applied to ethnographic filmmaking – with examples from an upcoming (and not yet released) documentary on community transformation of heritage sites. The focus of the workshop will be on subjectivity, qualitative research practices, the role of power structures, recognising “standpoints”, fluidity, and readiness to explore when engaging with participant and themes. The workshop will look at how these participatory practices legitimize and validate the experiences of marginalized groups, situating them in the role of collaborators as opposed to being subjects. NB! The workshop will include a component on exercises for writing practices.
12.15 – 13.30: Lunch (Matematisk Kantine)
13.30 – 14.30: summary for good practice guide (facilitated by Rosanne Kennedy) – Building 1421, room M1
14.30 – 14.45: Coffee break
19.00 – Dinner (Nikolinehuset, Aarhus Ø)
CA SlowMemo main meeting
Two of the days (14th–15th) of the main Action meeting start with a combined key insights followed by Working Group discussions and plenary debates.
Tuesday June 13th
14.45 – 15.30 WG meet and greet
15.30 – 18.30: parallel workshops and WG sessions
- WG 1: Building 1420, room M1.2
- WG 2: Building 1420, room M1.3
- WG 3: Building 1420, room M1.1
- WG 4: Building 1421, room M1
- (WG 5: Building 1420, room M2.2)
Workshop 1 with Belinda Castles
This workshop draws on Belinda’s current book project: Walking Sydney, a series of recorded walks with Sydney writers, taken in order to access personal, social, cultural and environmental memories of place. The project and this workshop aim to highlight embodied research practices as a way of exploring the slowly formed and intimate relationships between people and their familiar locales. After an interactive introductory session, we will walk in small groups, conducting our own walking talks, and considering this method as a means to gain distinctive forms of knowledge about place. On our return we will undertake some writing exercises and consider how we might use these methods in future research
Building 1420, room M2.2.
Workshop 2: A journey into artistic research methods and practices through filmmaking with Yilmaz Vurucu
The workshop is will discuss the journey into artistic research practices and methodology, more specifically when applied to ethnographic filmmaking – with examples from an upcoming (and not yet released) documentary on community transformation of heritage sites. The focus of the workshop will be on subjectivity, qualitative research practices, the role of power structures, recognising “standpoints”, fluidity, and readiness to explore when engaging with participant and themes. The workshop will look at how these participatory practices legitimize and validate the experiences of marginalized groups, situating them in the role of collaborators as opposed to being subjects. The methods covered in this workshop can come in handy when conducting research on slow memory.
Building 1420, room M2.3
19.00: Dinner (Nikolinehuset, Aarhus Ø)
Conference/omnibus working group days
Wednesday June 14th
Location: Stakladen
9.30 – 10.30: Key insights
Building 1420, Richard Mortensen Stuen
Combining the themes of work/conflict/climate, we get key insights from Frida Hastrup, anthropologist and PI of the Cattle Crossroads project, which investigates the Danish agricultural sector’s animal “production” and the slow structures and enduring assumptions that make it very hard for this sector to change and react to the imminent climate crisis (see https://sustainablefutures.ku.dk/about-the-centre/).
10.30 – 12.00: Separate WG engagements (rooms as before)
2x 45 mins.
First: 45 minutes in smaller group discussion (within the WGs).
Suggested questions:
- How do the methodological approaches suggested in the key insights feed into the research of the working group members? (i.e. in terms of data collection, interpretive frameworks, time, scale)
- How do the cross-cutting themes addressed in the key insights (welfare, colonialism, politics) relate to and entangle with the issues explored by working group members?
- How do the key insights challenge or expand our conceptual understanding of what kind of thing or process ‘slow memory’ is.
Then: 45 mins joint discussion in the WG to agree on key take aways for plenary discussion:
- Identify a couple of methodological openings/possibilities for data collection.
- Identify a couple of potential interpretive frameworks/time/scale
- Identify an interesting/surprising thematic connection between the key insights and the research of WG members.
- Identify an ethical (potential/challenge) implication for good practice when working slowly/with slow memory.
12.00 – 13.00: plenary debate led by WG 1, 4, 5.
Richard Mortensen Stuen
13.00 – 14.00: Lunch (Matematisk Kantine)
14.00 – 15.00: Transit to Moesgaard (Bus 18 altogether)
15.00 – 16.00: Working good practice guide – introduced by remaining training school participants
16.00 – 17.30: MC-meeting
Everybody welcome to join the discussion (Room 301 & 302, Moesgaard Museum)
17.30 – 19.00: Buffet dinner at Moesgaard (245 kr including a drink – no cash!)
19.00 – 21.00: Visit at the museum and evening dip
Return to Aarhus
Thursday June 15th
Location: Stakladen
9.30 – 10.30: Key insights
Combining the themes welfare and politics, we get key insights from
- Astrid Nonbo Andersen, (Danish Institute for International Studies).
Historian of ideas, PI in the collective research project Truth and Reconciliation in the Nordic Countries, which studies the slow processes of determining official mandates to deal with colonial pasts and indigenous rights across the Nordic countries. - Mikkel Thelle, (Aarhus University and the National Museum of Denmark), Historian, PI of Entangled fluid cities: Material politics of urban water, Copenhagen 1860 – 1975
Mikkel explores how the body and environment of the ”welfare-citizen” has been shaped in the long 20th century.
10.30 – 12.00: Separate WG engagements
2x 45 mins. Rooms as before
First: smaller group discussion (within the WG)
Suggested questions:
- How do the methodological approaches suggested in the key insights feed into the research of the working group members? (i.e. in terms of data collection, interpretive frameworks, time, scale)
- How do the cross-cutting themes addressed in the key insights (welfare, colonialism, politics) relate to and entangle with the issues explored by working group members?
- How do the key insights challenge or expand our conceptual understanding of what kind of thing or process ‘slow memory’ is.
Then: 45 mins joint discussion in the WG to agree on key take aways for plenary discussion:
- Identify a couple of methodological openings/possibilities for data collection.
- Identify a couple of potential interpretive frameworks/time/scale
- Identify an interesting/surprising thematic connection between the key insights and the research of WG members.
- Identify an ethical (potential/challenge) implication for good practice when working slowly/with slow memory.
12.00 – 13.00: plenary debate led by WG 2,3
13.00 – 14.00: Lunch (Matematisk Kantine)
14.00 – 17.00: Excursion to the open air museum “the old city” with Mikkel Thelle
19.00: Dinner, Nicolinehuset
Recipes for Slow Memory
Friday the 16th
Location Stakladen
9.00 – 9.30: Natalie Braber introduces cross cutting themes
Building 1420, Richard Mortensen Stuen
9.30 – 12.30: Working Group meetings on special issues or educational materials or other deliverables
12.30 – 13.30: Lunch (Matematisk Kantine)
Practical information for Slow Memory Training School and Conference, Aarhus
Hotel
Unfortunately, we cannot reserve rooms in advance, but at the moment Wake Up hotel has space for all of us. Please book your hotel room as soon as possible, preferably before 26th April.
- Wake Up Hotel, Aarhus: https://www.wakeupcopenhagen.com/the-hotels/aarhus#/
Alternatively, for those who prefer more luxury, you can try one of these:
- https://www.scandichotels.dk/hoteller/danmark/aarhus/scandic-the-mayor
- https://www.scandichotels.dk/hoteller/danmark/aarhus/scandic-aarhus-city
And there is a more budget-friendly option at the designer hostel (former Møllegade Library): https://www.brochner-hotels.com/book1/rooms/
Transport
Training School (12-13 June):
Those of you who will join the train-training
You will probably need to arrive to Copenhagen in the evening of 11 June and spend the night. We recommend that you book a hotel room at Wake up Hotel Copenhagen or a similar place near the central station.
Please note: The train will depart from Copenhagen Central Station on 12 June at 9.30.
We have 27 reserved seats. If you want a seat, please sign up by writing to Sara at: engsdm@cc.au.dk
Conference (13-16 June) or directly to Aarhus
- You can take the train from most of Europe to Aarhus
- you can fly into Aarhus and take the airport bus to the centre of town (it stops near the University on the way)
- you can fly to Billund and take a bus 912X to Aarhus
- you can fly to Copenhagen and take the train to Aarhus (3,5 hours)
Conference practicalities
Please remember swimsuit and shoes for walking.
We will supply more detail about food and other catering options and practical directions and local transport by mid-May.
