In Search for Transcultural Memory in Europe - ISTME

In Search for Transcultural Memory in Europe (ISTME) aims to go beyond the nationally oriented memory studies that tend to reify the bond between culture, nation and memory. Instead we investigate the transcultural dynamics of memory in Europe today. Studying how memories of the troubled twentieth century are transmitted and received across Europe, this COST Action explores the tension between attempts to create a common European memory, or a unitary memory ethics, on the one hand and numerous memory conflicts stemming from Europe’s fragmentation into countless memory communities on the other.

Drawing on recent theoretical insights that point to the importance of memory migration, mediation and new media ISTME seeks to develop new methods for studying and comparing effects of memory transmission over cultural borders. ISTME aims to develop European memory studies theoretically and methodologically by focusing on transculturality, agency and reception - and to contribute to finding ways of accommodating memory conflicts.