Culture of remembrance Music and Society in Interdisciplinary Media of Memory

29–31 October 2027, Dortmund

Interdisciplinary Conference

Call for Papers

Societies remember through the means provided by their culture: through music and sound, through literature and language, through rituals, monuments and institutions. The question of how musical and cultural memory is socially (re)produced, institutionally stored and transmitted through media has been re-examined in recent years, partly as a result of contributions from memory studies, media studies, sound studies and postcolonial theory.

The conference erinnerungsKULTUR will focus on the relationship between music, culture and the culture of remembrance – whereby culture is understood not merely as a medium that conveys and transmits memories, but as a formative element that generates, shapes and imbues memory with meaning. In this sense, for example, music, art, literature and cultural institutions are not neutral archives of the past, but active and reflexive entities operating at the intersection of individual experience, collective memory and political interpretative power.

In this context, the culture of remembrance is understood as a dynamic, open and conflictual process – not as a fixed heritage that merely needs to be managed, but as a field in which social identities are negotiated, power relations made visible and historical interpretations constantly renegotiated.

The erinnerungsKULTUR conference sees itself as a platform for dialogue between these questions and the people who engage with them from different perspectives: In this sense, it is intended not only as an academic stock-taking exercise, but also as an invitation to critical reflection on the social function of memory in the present.

We invite contributions from research and practice on the following topics:

● The culture of remembrance culture – What role do cultural contributions play in shaping remembrance culture, both historically and in the present? Which works have a particular history?

● Music and culture in communicative and cultural memory – How do commemorative concerts and anniversaries reflect and process culture in the collective memory?

● A special form of musical culture of remembrance? – As a time-bound art form, music itself relies on media that carry, transmit and transform it; how is this special case reflected in artistic form and media mediation?

● Politics of memory – To what extent are national, regional, diasporic and post-migrant discourses addressed in musical memory?

● Media of memory: music, literature, the internet – How does the medium shape the content?

● Forgetting, concealing, erasing – How does cultural exclusion work – and which ideological mechanisms structure the discourse?

● The past and present of anti-Semitism – How does the culture of remembrance affect the way we deal with contemporary forms of exclusion?

● On the role of memory institutions – What role do archives, libraries, broadcasters and museums play as repositories and selection bodies in editorial practice, canonisation and transmission?

● Representation in public spaces – How does the culture of remembrance manifest itself in public spaces, and what impact does this have?

● Digital and participatory media of remembrance – What significance do crowdsourced archives, fan communities, Wikipedia and social media hold as new actors in memory? And what opportunities and risks arise from this?

● Intersectional and diverse practices of remembrance – How do categories such as gender, race and class structure the culture of remembrance and its gaps?

Interdisciplinary contributions that link musicology, media studies, history, cultural anthropology, sound studies, sociology, postcolonial studies or related disciplines are expressly welcome. We particularly invite representatives from the cultural sector – from archives, memorial sites, orchestras, theatres and cultural institutions – who wish to speak from their perspective on participation in the culture of remembrance. Submissions from early-career researchers are expressly encouraged.

The opening keynote address will be delivered by Prof. Dr Melanie Unseld of the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.

Formats and practical details Slots of 30 minutes are planned for individual presentations (20 minutes for the presentation, 10 minutes for discussion). Round-table discussions and a concert-talk are also planned. The conference papers will subsequently be published in an anthology.

The conference will take place in person at the TU Dortmund University premises and will be held mainly in German, but presentations in English are also welcome.

Travel and accommodation costs are likely to be covered for speakers travelling from outside the local area.

Please send the following documents as a single PDF file by 13th September 2026:

• Abstract of the paper (max. 300 words)
• Short biography (max. 150 words)

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Dimanche 6 Septembre, 2026