Memory & Movement

With ongoing scientific and sociohistorical discoveries and changes, the study of memory has developed dynamically, transculturally and transnationally.

In “Memory and Movement,” an interdisciplinary conference presented by the Graduate Center for Literary Research, scholars will examine the interplay between memory and movement through a wide range of perspectives and disciplines.

How, for example does memory guide forms of movement, and how does movement affect memory? How do we balance progress and preservation How does memory represent of redefine historical, social and political movements? And how do scientific and digital developments preserve, alter or reconstruct memory?

The one-day conference will take place Saturday, May 4, in the Wallis Annenberg Conference Room, 4315 Social Science and Media Studies Building. It will begin at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public.

Noted Dominique Julien, a professor in the Department of French and Italian and the faculty director of the Graduate Center for Literary Research, presentation topics will include the effects of neuroscientific discoveries and digital discourse on our understanding of individual and collective identify, the role of literature and art in thinking through trauma and transgenerational memories, the role of narrative in the possibility for healing after disaster and the power of memories held within buildings, structures and cities.

Michael Rothberg, the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies and a professor of English and of comparative literature at UCLA, will give the keynote address. “The Implicated Subject: Art, Activism, and Historical Responsibility” will examine the interconnections of art and activist movements to consider historical responsibility for regimes of domination, and offer ways to rethink resistance and solidarity across contexts and locations.

More information about the event, including a complete schedule, can be found at https://gclr.complit.ucsb.edu/conference.