Citizens, policy makers and academics have long struggled with how to deal publicly with experiences of human rights violations, dictatorships and totalitarianism. During the two consecutive remembrance years 2014 and 2015, the active promotion of reconciliation and commemorative policies has become regarded as a tool that can foster resilience in times of crisis, especially in Europe. Educators and politicians have therefore paid increasing attention to Memory Studies – a field that has until recently been relatively specialized and thus lacks a clear set of definitions, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies.

The inherent interdisciplinarity of the field has led to a wealth of different approaches, methods and techniques that we will map and build upon in two panels organized for the next Conference of Europeanists taking place in Philadelphia, April 14-16, 2016. After a successful launch of the Research Network on Transnational Memory and Identity in Paris in 2015, we now seek to undertake some groundwork, in order to make more rigorous and cumulative memory research possible.

This particular panel critically reflects on new concepts and methods in Memory Studies.