The second training school & third annual meeting for the “Slow Memory – Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerated Change” COST action took place in Belgrade, Serbia during the last week of May 2024, at the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK).
We had 34 participants in the training school and 60 for the conference with 35 countries represented in all.
The focus of this years’ both training school and annual meeting was on theories of Slow Memory, aiming to advance our conceptual and theoretical thinking about the actions’ work and production of knowledge.
The training school was led by 8 trainers member of the actions’ core group. Prior to the event, each participant submitted a paper, discussed in small groups with thorough feedback of attendees and trainers. During the training school, we had 2 master classes and one Political Walk– Tracing Post – Yugoslav slow transformations in today’s Belgrade. We came together for a lecture at the Krokodil Cultural Center Welcome to the desert of Post-Socialism Slow transitions fast new realities with Igor Štiks and enjoyed slower evenings at the cultural center KC Grad.
The Training School and the annual meeting merged in a fun and lively Fuck Up night event as all participants came together to share experiences from their academic worlds…
We opened the annual meeting with two round tables on Slow Temporalities and on Realms of Slow Memory (links forthcoming) featuring rich discussions on slow memory theories and their implementation.
In partnership with the Center for Public History (CPI) we offered 4 Memory Walks in the city:
*What do Belgrade monuments tell us about 1990s conflicts?
*Everyday Life in Belgrade in the 1990s
*The memory of the Staro Sajmište unmarked WW2 camp
*Graffiti and memory on the walls of Belgrade
And a roundtable discussion featuring memory politics in Serbia and more broadly in the Western Balkans.
We visited the Museum of Yugoslavia, where after guided tours in smaller groups, we held an MC meeting at the Museum auditorium.
Throughout the annual meeting, all the working groups came together to advance their discussions, work results and outputs, and plan towards the last year of the action’s work and meetings.
The detailed schedules of both events are available here.
Many thanks to Jovan Ivanovic and Zorica Skakun for their invaluable help in organizing and hosting all participants in Belgrade!
Orli Fridman
