History Matters: Spaces of Violence, Spaces of Memory

New School for Social Research
April 23-24, 2004

The 7th Annual Committee on Historical Studies, Sociology Department, and International Labor and Working Class History journal joint conference

Keynote Speaker: Eviatar Zerubavel, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University

From Tianamenn Square in Beijing to the Maison des Esclaves on Goreé Island in Senegal, sights of social confrontation, spaces of violence, provide a framework for the construction of history, the places of memory. The urban waterfront, the rural battlefield, the domestic interior are alls spaces of memory and sights of contestation. Both historians and sociologists have examined the ways in which space and memory inform the construction of social and historical narratives. How do spaces of violence function as spaces of memory? How does the spatial structure crystallize events in memory, and further, how can spatial re-structuring change the way violent events are memorialized?

The Seventh Annual Sociology and Committee on Historical Studies Conference at the New School invites you to participate in the on-going discussion about relation between sites of violence and memory. Topics are limited to:

• Symbolic violence and representation
• Memory and the body in pain
• Urban spatial contestation
• Memory and memorialization
• Restructuring and forgetting
• Silence and the negation of memory
• Politics of memory
• Virtual space, virtual memory, real violence

Submissions for the conference must include an abstract of 500 words or less, all relevant contact information and current curriculum vitae. Submissions of full panels are welcome. A full version of all papers will be requested one month before the conference. All abstracts must be received by January 1, 2004.