Workshop of Memory and Emotions

The Cambridge History of Memory and Emotions Workshop (MEW) provides a friendly and open environment for postgraduates to present on any aspect of the history of memory and the history of emotions. We are open to work from any time period and place. People are welcome to present finished pieces or work in progress, to develop their ideas and discuss their work with their peers. 

Format

The format for this workshop is two twenty minute papers followed by refreshments and discussion. We will meet at a central Cambridge location every other week, exact day to be determined for 2023-2024, from 5-7pm. 

We intend for these sessions to be both in person in Cambridge and hybrid, with a preference for in person attendance for those based in Cambridge. If you are interested in attending the sessions online, do join our mailing list. We will send out a link to each session on the day.

Would you like to present?

This workshop is a forum for postgraduates working on any aspect of the history of memory or the history of emotions. We welcome submissions on any time period or place, from historians or those in related disciplines. Scholars might choose to present on the relationship between emotion and memory, though we welcome papers that focus solely on memory or emotions. In anticipation of a planned collaboration, we would also particularly welcome submissions concerning memory and emotions in legal and social history.

This workshop is an encouraging and friendly space for scholars to present both finished pieces, and work in progress. We welcome submissions from Master’s and PhD students. The workshop meets on alternate weeks, unless otherwise noted. In each session we will have two to three 20-minute papers. We look forward to convening afterwards for socialising, and refreshments will be provided.

Those interested in presenting should send a 250-word abstract and a short bio (no more than 100 words) to CamHistMemEmo@gmail.com.

Events for Michaelmas 2023

Wednesday 18 October, 5pm to 7pm, St John's College, Arthur Quiller-Couch Room
Julie Wendel, Ethical Memory and Postwar Witness in Andrew X. Pham’s Catfish and Mandala
Simina Dragos, The sacralization of a regime change: a discussion of public space and post-communism in Romania since 1989

Wednesday 25 October, 5pm to 7pm, St John's College, Arthur Quiller-Couch Room
Giulia Dickmans, “Angola en la Memoria” Cuban Politics of Memory regarding Cuban-Angolan Relations, from 1975 until today
Rohan Chopra, Grief, Loss and Dehliviyat: Reading Communitarian Relations through Post-Rebellion Narratives

Thursday 16 November, 5pm to 7pm, Location TBC, in collaboration with the Modern British History Workshop
Lucy Wray, Race, religion and migration: emotional responses of lascars
Brendan Tam, Speaking without ‘personality’: ‘Honourable Friend’ and the parliamentary rhetoric of friendship in the eighteenth-century House of Commons

Wednesday 22 November, 5pm to 7pm, Location TBC, in collaboration with the Modern British History Workshop
Ivana Dizdar, Looking North: Canada at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London, 1886
Ruari Paterson-Achenbach, Outsider Music: On Sonic Aesthetics, Bad Affects and Ugly Sounds
Daniel Johnston, ‘Tis His Hand that Hides My Sun’: Emotion, Providence, and Song in the life and historiography of Isaac Watts

Contact

If you have any questions or would like to be added to to the mailing list, please email us at CamHistMemEmo@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter @HistMemEmo. 

Convenors for 2023 - 2024

Daniel Gilman

Tiéphaine Thomason