From witnessing stones and talking rivers to breathing ruins: Since the early 2000s, a growing number of theories in the field of new materialism have swept the humanities and social sciences. This has prompted further interest in the agentive potential of matter, artifacts, and things (Plate et al. 2023) and led to the rejection of dualisms between subject and object, human and non-human (Barad 2007, Bennett 2010, Barcz 2020). Scholarship at the crossroads of material ecocriticism and memory studies (Jones 2007, Domańska et al. 2020) has increasingly turned to the role of the non-human, the elemental, and the material in shaping cultural memory. Especially in marginalised contexts or contested spaces, the agency of such non-human actors has the potential to subvert dominant narratives of the past and therefore provides fertile ground for a deeper academic engagement.

The 2026 Graduate Workshop Memory Matters: Non-Human Agents in Memory Studies, organised by the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at the University of Regensburg, invites participants to explore entanglements between material culture and memory studies. Over the course of two days, we aim to foster interdisciplinary dialogue among early-career scholars, including doctoral researchers and postdocs in the fields of cultural studies, (comparative) literature, art history, environmental history, and anthropology. We also welcome applications from scholars working at the intersection of the humanities and the natural sciences.

Rather than viewing materials, objects, geographical strata and the environment as mere backdrops or passive settings, we seek to highlight how they function as both archives of (collective) memory and as agents that foster memory practices outside, beyond, and, at times, against well-established institutions and dominant narratives. The workshop should serve as a platform to address theoretical difficulties that arise from focusing on materialities in the context of memory studies and as a venue to present empirical case studies. We invite contributions that can include, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• Which frameworks allow us to read materials and matter as active participants in cultural remembrance?
• How do matter, things, and the natural world bear traces of historical events, violence, resistance, or continuity?
• How do they engage with dominant historical discourse, and how do they challenge or subvert it to create counternarratives?

We welcome research addressing the themes of the workshop in any context from around the world. Contributions featuring East and Southeast Europe, or the Americas, as well as comparative studies, are particularly welcome given the focus of the expertise in Regensburg. The workshop will be held in English.
To apply, please send an abstract of a maximum of 400 words and 5 keywords and a short biographical note of around 100 words in one PDF document to gsoses.conference@ur.de. The application deadline is October 1st, 2025. Successful applicants will be notified by November 1st, 2025.

The Graduate School can reimburse travel costs of up to 150 EUR and cover accommodation costs in Regensburg for up to two nights. For international applicants, additional funding will be considered.

In case of any inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us at gsoses.conference@ur.de. We look forward to receiving your application! The organising committee, Anni-Lotta Hamer, Elisa Mucciarelli and Teona Ivashchenko.

References: Barad, K.: Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2007.
Barcz, A.: Environmental Cultures in Soviet East Europe. Literature, History and Memory. London: Bloomsbury Publishing 2020.
Bennett, J.: Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2010.
Domańska, E.: “The Environmental History of Mass Graves.” Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2020, pp. 241-255.
Jones, A.: Memory and Material Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007.
Plate, L. et al. (ed.): Materials of Culture: Approaches to Materials in Cultural Studies. Bielefeld: transcript 2023.