Language and Memory Conference – Registration and Program (Nottingham Trent University, 5-6 June 2023)

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In the mainstream of cultural and collective memory studies, linguists seem absent. No linguists have been elected to the executive committee of the Memory Studies Association, and the flagship journal Memory Studies caters for other disciplines in the humanities (literature, cultural studies, history) and for some qualitative social sciences (sociology, media studies). This conference aims to make a start at repairing this absence.

The role of language should not be taken for granted when we study how people attribute meaning to the past. Both memory (cultural and collective) and language are mutually constitutive. On one hand, our discursive choices heavily inform the contents of the memories we narrate. But on the other hand, the cultural experiences and meanings that are inherent to memories also inform the usage and evolution of language.

We believe that the study of language and its usage is of key importance to memory studies, in addition, and in connection to the field’s growing interest in cognition (Erll 2022, Hoskins 2021, Erll and Hirst 2022), embodiment (Giese and Keightley 2022), and the non-human (Craps et al. 2018, Sendyka 2021).

Program

Monday 5 June

9.00-9.30 Coffee and registration

9.30-10.00 Welcome (Natalie Braber and Jenny Wüstenberg, Director of the Centre for Public History, Heritage and Memory who are sponsoring the conference)

10.00-11.00 Charlotte Taylor (Sussex), “Discourse, Memory and Migration
(chair: Natalie Braber)

11.00-11.15 Coffee

11.15-12.55 Panel 1: Narrative and Group Memory I
(chair: Sophie van den Elzen)

Patryk Wawrzyński (University of Szczecin), Differences between Emotional and Neutral Remembrance Narratives: Bridging Brain, Language, and Collective Memory
Adriana Patino-Santos (University of Southampton) and Peter Browning (UCL), Remembering Together: Making Sense of Exile as a Family
Orsolya Vincze et al. (Pécs, Károli Gáspár University), Linguistic Markers of Collective Trauma
Stéphanie Pécher (UCLouvain), Memory and Attribution of Responsibility in the Discourse of Human Rights Violence: A Study of the 2019 Chilean Social Outburst

12.55-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.40 Panel 2: Discourse Analysis as a Method for Memory Research
(chair: Thomas van de Putte)

Eleonora Natalia Ravizza (Catania), Investigating Memory Through Framing: A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of the Edward Colston Case
Louise Ballière (UCLouvain), Collective Memories, Narratives and their Representation of Wartime Collaboration: CDA of Belgian Collective Memories
Samara Velte (University of the Basque Country), Stepping on Other’s Pasts: Identifying Stance-Taking Strategies Employed by Young Basques when Re-Narrativising the Past Violent Conflict
Wouter Reggers (UCLouvain), The Words we Choose: Discursive Embeddedness of Family Memories Related to WWII Collaboration in Belgium

15.40-16.00 Coffee

16.00-17.40 Panel 3: Migrants and Minority Communities
(chair: Jenny Wüstenberg)

Bhawna Khattar (Ambedkar University Delhi), In Search of the Language of Loss: An Ethnographic Study of the ‘Siraiki’ Language in Migrated Families
Manjari Chakraborty (Teach for India), The Faded History of East Bengal Refugees: A Case Study on the East Bengal Dialect
Angelo Massaro (University of British Columbia), Investigating the Fiumano dialect as Lieu de Mémoire
Tamar Katriel (University of Haifa), Linguistic Nostalgia: The ‘Yeke Dictionary’ as a Portable Site of Memory

Dinner for all panelists (venue to be confirmed)

Tuesday 6 June

9.00-9.30 Coffee and registration

9.30-11.10 Panel 4: Theory of Memory
(chair: Natalie Braber)

Philipp Kaysers (University of Salzburg) Language as Habitual Memory: Henri Bergson’s Model of Individual and Habitual Memory
Nicolas Villarroel (Australian National University), Memory as a Dialogical and Discursive Practice
Nadia Cannata (Sapienza University of Rome), The Matter of Language: Representing Linguistic Cultures in a Museum Space
Sophie van den Elzen (Utrecht University), Memory and the Protest Lexicon

11.10-11.30 Coffee

11.30-13.10 Panel 5: Multilingualism and Language Learning as Policy Tools
(chair: Thomas van de Putte)

Lotte Remue (Ghent University) Multilingual Memory and Disclosure of (Past) Experience
Zi Wang (University of Warwick), The Role of National Memories in Language Learning Motivation: A Study of Chinese Learners of Japanese
Jelena Ćalić and Eszter Tarsoly (UCL), Memories of Speaking: Shifting Multilingual Selves in Situations of Conflict
Constadina Charalambous (European University Cyprus) and Elena Ioannidou (University of Cyprus), Language, Identity and Conflicted Heritage: Two Case Studies from Cyprus

13.10-14.15 Lunch

14.15-15.15 Ben Rampton (KCL), “Memory Studies meets Sociolinguistics: A Conversation”
conversant: Thomas van de Putte, UcLouvain
(chair: Charlotte Taylor)

15.15-16.55 – Panel 6: Narrative and Group Memory II
(chair: Sophie van den Elzen)

Robert Simpson (University of Manchester), Collective Memory and Slogans of Solidarity: The Ambivalent Legacy of Post-Terror Expressions of Togetherness at Spontaneous Memorials
Małgorzata Gaszyńska-Magiera (University of Warsaw), Linguistic Exponents of Collective Memory in Translation
Dominika Baran (Duke University), Encounters between Past and Present: Co-constructing Memories in Collaborative Narratives among Polish Immigrant Women
Laura Tommaso (University of Eastern Piedmont), Investigating Music-Related Memories through Keywords: The Case of Female Rock Fan Discourse

Closing Remarks

Registration

Registration is open on the Nottingham Trent University website.

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