Summer School:

Memory and the Making of Knowledge
in the Early Modern World

18 - 22 September 2017

The Summer School aims to bring together senior scholars and junior researchers whose work focuses on memory in early modern literature and history in order to consolidate recent advances in the field and develop new avenues of inquiry. While memory is an established sub-field within these disciplines, its themes and sources have led to an over-representation of the ancient and modern worlds, meaning that the early modern era has been comparatively neglected. The School seeks not merely to redress this imbalance, but also to explore how studies of memory and early modernity might shape one another in the future. Between 1500 and 1800, remembrance of the past was crucial for creating knowledge in a wide range of personal, social, and political projects, and vital contributions were made to the theory and practice of memory. Actors from across the social spectrum used both old and new media to encode, manipulate, transmit, and deploy memories. The development of the Renaissance ars memoria played an important role in new ideas about memory in early modern elite culture; at the same time, the traumas and crises of the period produced what may be termed an ars oblivia, in which legally prescribed "forgetting" played a vital role in social and cultural reconstruction.

Participants in the Summer School, which will take place between 18 and 22 September 2017, will have the opportunity to discuss the most recent research presented by leading scholars in the field, to learn or refine skills in workshops that focus on the media and techniques of memory, and to present their own work to a uniquely qualified and supportive international peer group. The School ultimately offers a platform for consolidating recent "- and provoking new - developments in its field of interest, and is an ideal networking opportunity for senior and junior researchers.


Keynote speakers

Mon, 18 September 2017, 10.00 s.t.
Marian Füssel (Göttingen) : In Search of Memory. Memorializing the Seven Years War from the 18th to the 20th Century

Thu, 21 September 2017, 10.00 s.t.
Andrea Frisch (Maryland): Poetry and/as Polemic: Plural Conceptions of the Memorable in Renaissance Literature

Fri, 22 September 2017, 10.00 s.t.
Judith Pollmann (Leiden): Bread, fish and stone. Local memories and religious change in the Dutch Republic

The lectures are public.


All who are interested are warmly invited.
The Summer School venue is the Theologicum, room 0.136.
Address: Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2
Bus stop: Platz der Göttinger Sieben



For further information please contact the organisers Andrew Wells and Claudia Nickel at memory2017@uni-goettingen.de



The summer school is funded by VolkswagenStiftung






Coordination:

Dr. Claudia Nickel Friedländer Weg 2 37085 Göttingen Tel +49 (0)551 / 39-21125 memory2017@uni-goettingen.de
Dr. Andrew Wells Friedländer Weg 2 37085 Göttingen Tel +49 (0)551 / 39- 21128 memory2017@uni-goettingen.de