13th Scientific International Conference
“Ohrid –Vodici, 2025”
Ohrid, 17-19 January 2025
“COLLECTIVE MEMORY, MEMORY POLITICS AND CONTEMPORARY IDENTITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF LOCAL, REGIONAL AND GLOBAL CONFLICTS AND ALLIANCES”
Collective memory, one might plausibly argue, often plays an important role in politics and society. Such claims are by now commonplace in scholarly as well as political discourses. Indeed, the term collective memory has become a powerful symbol of the many political and social transitions currently under way, though there is also something broadly epochal about our seemingly pervasive interest in memory. New regimes seek ways to settle the residues of their predecessors, while established systems face a rise in historical consciousness and increasingly pursue a politics of regret.
According to Benedict Anderson , the nation, and every other group, in particular ethnic group, is imaged (but not invented) community: it is imaged because a member of a large group never will meet all members of a group, but they in her/his consciousness are there and it takes a certain kind of friendly relationship toward to them. This type of relationship is based on a sense of a strong horizontal friendship and solidarity. Communities differ themselves primarily on the way of how they are imaged".
Collective memories are memories shared by a group that influence their identity as a community. Studies tend to focus on either the choice of the past (how memory agents mobilize the past) or the weight of the past (how the past affects the individual or the group). A “sociomental topography” implies a pronouncedly cognitive focus, and looks at how the past is registered and organized in our minds. Therefore, a researcher is primarily interested not in what actually happened in history, but in how we remember it. Many experiences are truly forgotten and not everything that occurs is recorded in our mind.
History, for scholars studying memory, is not only a problem of the past, but it is a response to the demands of the present: the anthropologist’s interest is not only what actually happened; but wants to uncover how a certain historical content is used in the actual process of construction of identity.
In empirical work, particularly on questions like that of the role of memory in politics, it means being open to the variety of different forms and meanings of the question. It means remembering both that memories are produced in public and in private spheres, at the tops of societies and at the bottoms, as reminiscence and as commemoration, as personal testimonials and as national narratives, and that each of these forms is important; it also means remembering that these different forms of remembering are not always equally important for each other (e.g., the personal experience of leaders, under some conditions, is more important than those of “ordinary” people, but not always), though it also means that they are always relevant to some degree; there is, as we have seen, no personal memory outside of group experience and that does not take some stand on “official” and “unofficial” collective versions. We can no more speak of the collective memory than we can speak of a pre-social individual memory, even if we include both side by side; an infinity of social and neural networks are constantly at play with one another, meaning that different kinds of structures are always relevant and that their relevance is always changing.
SUBMISSIONS OF PAPERS or POSTERS
The Conference is open to individual submissions for papers and proposals for panels. All applications for papers and panels must be sent to the e-mail: conference.vodici2025@gmail.com,
by 20 December 2024. The papers accepted upon the assessment of the Program Committee will be notified via email by 27 December 2024. Application for papers should content:
- Title of the papers or poster
- Abstract (in English only) not more than 300 words for individual papers, including the main argument and conclusions;
- Abstract (in English only) not more than 300 words for panel proposals, including abstracts of panel papers;
- Name and title of the author/s of the paper;
- Short bio of the author(s) of the paper, not more than one paragraph;
- E-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the author(s) of the paper.
- Size for poster has to be 50x75 cm.
CONTACTS
contact@ceadvre.eu
conference.vodici.2025@gmail.com
Contact person:
Marina Vrvcoska MA (marina.vrvcoska@gmail.com), viber: + 38970422287
Organization Committee
- Aleksandar Manasieski, Ph.D. , Center for Advanced Researches, Skopje
- Dorina Daiu, Ph. Candidate, Institute for Studies on Crimes and consequences of the Communism in Albania, Tirana
- Marina Vrvcoska M.A., Center for Advanced Researches, Skopje
- Verica Dzijanovska , Center for Advanced Researches, Skopje
- Igor Panev M.A., University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje.
TOPICS OF INTERESTS
We invite scholars, PhD and MA students, researchers and practitioners in history, anthropology, sociology, cultural heritage, political science, economy, tourism sciences, psychology, media, architecture, museology, archiving, audio-visual arts, information sciences/ technologies, archeology, history of art, geography, and all related fields to submit papers on any topic related to conference theme. Papers may reflect on a wide spectrum of issues related to identity, collective memories and memory politics, and to the specific topics listed below:
- tarnsmediality and genres of transcultural memory;
- collective memories of center and peripheries: silenced mnemonic communities;
- memory used and abused by power and politics and strategies of resistance;
- digital mnemonic communities;
- traumatic memories and collective identities;
- remembering for the future: memories of resistance and social activism;
- endangered and engendered memories: the intersections of gender, environment and memory nation and canon: differences of heritage and memory narratives in different contexts;
- Memories and politics as justification or reference for contemporary conflicts or alliances;
- Memories, memory politics and tourism development
- Memories and cultural heritage
- Memories and folklore
- Collective memories, literature and art
Deadline for Application: 20 December 2024
Notification of Acceptance Decisions: 27 December 2024
Registration: 9 January 2025
Conference: 17-19 January 2025
CONFERENCE LANGUAGES:
Conference languages are Macedonian and English
Other information
CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE
All registered participants will be granted a certificate of attendance at the end of the conference.
CONFERENCE BOOKLET
All abstracts accepted to the Conference will be published as a conference booklet.
VENUE
The conference will be hold in Ohrid, Republic of North Macedonia, at the premises of the Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts (House of Uranija).
SCHEDULE
Conference will begin on 17 January 2025 and will end on 19 January 2025.
On 17 January 2025, publication (Conference proceedings) from the 12th Conference Vodici-Ohrid, 2024 ", will be promoted and disseminated.
REGISTRATION
Participation fee- EUR 100
Registration, conference materials, welcome reception, snacks, certificates.
On-line Participation through ZOOM platform includes book of abstracts, on-line access, and certificates.
PUBLICATION
Publication of papers will be double- blind peer-reviewed. Journal (conference proceedings) will be registered in The Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL). The dissemination process of content included in CEEOL includes the following discovery systems: Google Scholar, ProQuest´s Serial Solutions, Summon, Primo Central, Alma, EBSCO´s EDS Discovery Service and Knowledge Base, TDNet and OCLC.
Any additional costs for publication will be announced later. Only papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication.
ACCOMMODATION
The participants will cover accommodation costs. Organizing committee may facilitate or propose proper accommodation.
TRAVEL
Participants will be responsible for paying their travel expenses.
THE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Rubin Zemon, Ph.D. Centre for Advanced Researches, Skopje, North Macedonia
Izabela Agardi Ph.D., Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg, University of Pannonia, Hungary
Fariz Khalili, Ph.D. MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage, Baku, Azerbaijan
Ahmet Aytac, Ph.D. Aydin Adnan Menderes University, Izmir, Turkey
Veselin Popov Ph.D., Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Science
Elena Marushiakova Ph.D.. Honorable Professor of the University St. Andrews, Scotland United Kingdom
Veronika Wittman Ph.D., Johan Kepler University, Linz, Austria
Meli Shopi, Ph.D. University Alexander Xhuvani, Elbasan, Albania
Juraj Marushiak Ph.D., Institute of Political Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Valery Engel Ph.D., Global Research Network of CTED of the United Nation
Milica Jokovic Pantelic Ph.D., Institute for Social Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia
Dejan Metodijeski, Ph.D. University Goce Delchev, Stip, Skopje, North Macedonia
Ana Chupeska Ph.D., Univeristy St. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, North Macedonia
Mustafa Ibraimi Ph.D., Univesity Mother Theresa, Skopje, North Macedonia
Kubilay Akman, Ph.D., Usak University, Usak, Turkey
Stephan Breu Ph.D., Pestalozzi University, Miami, USA
Jasminka Simić, Ph.D. Editor- in – chief, Radio-Television of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
Zoran R. Vitorovic, DID Ph.D, Editor-in-Chief, Global Processes Journal, Miami, USA
