Vestiges of Memory:
Intersections between photography and autobiographical memory

“I cannot penetrate, cannot reach into the Photograph.
I can only sweep it with my glance, like a smooth surface”
(Barthes, 2000: 106)

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the International research symposium that focuses on the intricate relationships between photography and autobiographical memory, which is scheduled to take place on 18 July 2024 at
The University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, UK.

This interdisciplinary event aims to explore ways in which 21^st century artists, photographic practitioners and other researchers attempt to reach and rummage beyond the smooth surface of the photograph, and contemplate its relationship
and contributions to the construction of autobiographical memory.

We invite scholars, artists, academics, practitioner-researchers, researcher-practitioners, and other professionals doing research into relationships between memory and images created through the “frightfully speculative eye” (Deleuze, 1990: 243) of the photographic camera to propose papers and panels that explore,
but are not limited to the following themes:

• Mnemonic devices, prosthetic memory and artificial memory
• Photographic archives and collections
• Photography, the self and the politics of identity
• Familial photography and memory
• Places, spaces and loci in autobiographical memory
• Remembering the everyday
• Photographs as remnants
• Postmemory, trauma and grief
• Gender, memory and photography
• Photography, remembering and forgetting
• Photography, memory and emerging technology
• Embodied memory and photography
• Photography, culture and heritage
• Autobiographical memory, collective memory and photography

Submission Guidelines

We welcome abstract submissions for individual 20-minute papers or proposals for panels. Please submit a 300-word abstract, including a title and 7-10 key words, along with a brief biography (100 words) and/or an application to chair a panel of speakers
on one of the above themes. Entrees need to arrive by midnight on Friday 12 April 2024.

Submissions should be sent to: vestigesofmemory@uca.ac.uk

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline: Friday 12 April 2024 (midnight)
• Notification of Acceptance: 26 April 2024
• Symposium Date: 18 July 2024

Our ambitions are to later publish presented papers through a special issue of an academic journal (TBC), and to build on this event to form a network of practitioner-researchers whose work centre on relationships between photography and memory.

If you have any queries, please email the organiser, Dr Sara Andersdotter: vestigesofmemory@uca.ac.uk.