Description
In the modern world, testimony has become the preferred mode of our relationship with the past, a traumatic past that has left deep scars in societies. Although traditionally testimony was associated with legal paradigm, in more recent decades it has been re-conceptualized through the lens of trauma theory. From this perspective, testimonyseems to be composed of bits and pieces of memory that has been overwhelmed by occurrences that have not settled into understanding or remembrance, acts that cannot be constructed as knowledge nor assimilated into full cognition, events in excess of our frames of reference(Felman, 1995). On the other hand, the concept of trauma is used in different termsas explained by LaCapra (1999): Historical trauma is related to particular events which result in significant losses. The articulation of these ideas can be argued that testimony has become a powerful tool in national and international efforts not only to document human rights abuses and social injustice, but also to act in order to avoid great historical tragedies. Nonetheless, there existtestimonial practices that go beyond institutional contexts.
Based on the above, the symposium aims to reflect on the following topics, but is not limited to:
How can we rethink the trauma from the perspective of social suffering?; To what extent does the institutional use of testimony prevent recognition of other testimonial forms, both socially as well as privately?; How does trauma theory allow us to face the experiences of catastrophes that result from natural disasters, ecological devastation, etc.?
Areas of Study:
To meet the goal of this symposium, we invite Memory Scholars to send their proposals of participation in any of the following topics:
• Memory, forgetfulness, forgiveness and (in) justice
• Memory and history
• Memory and its neuropsychophysiologic processes
• Memory, identity and society
• Memory and violence
• Memory through art
Requirments for participation:
• 20 minute presentation (plus 10 minutes for questions)
Or:
• A visual (poster)
Requirements for posters:
All posters must be in English.
The best format of the poster is on Photoshop, in PDF. The poster must be 90x120 cm in a vertical design. It must include an introduction, objectives, analysis, conclusions & bibliography. Images on the subject are recommended. As examples, posters from Symposiums of previous years can be found here:
http://ri-urbanhistory.org.ua/en/projects-en/192-memory-history-forgetting-new-social-perspectives
The poster should be just in electronic form.
Besides, we kindly ask authors of each poster send a video file with “greeting in English” (names of authors, country, name of the university, the name of the poster, several words about the topic, wishes for participants of the symposium). Your full video record should be 20-30 seconds. If there are two authors, ideally, both authors should be on screen together, or the camera should go from one of them to the other. This video will be shown at the plenary session of the Symposium. Later it will be on the website.
Upon completion of the Symposium each author of the poster will receive a certificate from Mexico.
Deadline:
Posters + the video files must be sent till November 4, 2015. E-mail: Lyman@ukr.net
OrganizingCommittee:
Victoria Pérez, Igor Lyman, Victoria Konstantinova, Eloísa Cruz De la Serna, Iryna Konovalenko, Karen Cárdenas Almanza
Logistics Committee:
María Fernanda Puga López, Angélica Xanat Cuellar García, Diana Patricia Meneses Velázquez
For further information please contact:
Prof. Igor Lyman E-mail: Lyman@ukr.net