Memory studies, literary studies, digital humanities, historiography, medical humanities, Anglo-Indian studies, machine studies, AR/VR/XR technology; heritage studies, space and modernity
IRIS Webinar
Centre for Memory Studies focuses on the emergent and exciting field of ‘Memory Studies’, which is interdisciplinary, transnational, and innovative in its enquiries and research possibilities. By positioning ‘memory’ as a tool as well as an instrument in re-construction at historical, psychological as well as broader cultural levels, this field facilitates dialogues between and across human-machine-organizational interfaces.
This research domain includes innovative VR/AR technology, textual study of national historical events, heritage studies, organizational behavior as well as brain science, in its complex frames to study human memory and forgetting at micro/neural as well as extended cultural levels.
In addition to combining intellectual strands from domains including (but not limited to) history, literature, architecture, psychology, cultural studies, trauma studies, neuroscience, and machine studies, the research at the centre aligns the field with the best practices in Digital Humanities, Cognitive Humanities, and Medical Humanities.
Drawing on the existing theoretical frameworks, the research from
the Centre aims to bridge cutting-edge research on cognitive psychology and cognitive narratology for a more complex research model on memory and storytelling through tools of heritage studies and architecture.
Research Gap: There are theoretical interventions in cognitive psychology and cognitive narratology which have led to emergence of concepts such as ‘plasticity’ and ‘chunking’ as processes of remembering and storytelling at neural/cognitive and broader cultural levels which examine how units of information are integrated and synthesized. However, these approaches, despite using similar technical terms, are currently disconnected.
We aim to approach the research problems in two ways.
by establishing a continuity with existing and ongoing research thereby situating our work and proposal in the global research map on memory studies;
by offering departures that would effectively help translate the theories and frameworks to tangible, technological, experimental, and experiential elements.
Memory studies is a relatively recent domain and its tools and methodology are still being formulated through a series of ongoing research and interventions, primarily from institutions, academies, and research centres in the West. The Memory Studies Association (MSA) is as of now the only professional global body which is facilitating collaboration and exchange between different memory studies groups/centres/networks.
The aim is:
to connect the micro/neural and the macro/cultural models of memory in ways which have not been attempted anywhere earlier.
to combine Memory Studies with Material Engagement Theory (MET) for a more complex examination of cultural materials and markers of memory and identity.
to offer an entirely original perspective on studies in national memory, history, and cultural identities, again drawing on innovative tools of technology.
to facilitate departures from Eurocentric approaches in terms of theoretical framework and worldviews.
The model of Memory Studies espoused at IIT Madras moves away from the big-event framework of this field prevalent in Holocaust Studies and Trauma Studies and offers a more complex model of slow memory, underlining the dailyness and quotidian quality of remembering and forgetting through matter, metaphors, and machines.
Through a careful calibration of various vectors of reality and re-membering operating in organic and synthetic ways, the Centre for Memory Studies at IIT Madras departs from a purely cultural understanding of memory and examines the interstitial quality of human-machine interfaces through which memory operates as an embedded as well as an extended and prosthetic performance. In doing so, the Centre studies not just the complex phenomenon of memory in the present but also engages with the future of memory.
This Centre will employ cutting-edge interdisciplinary research to reconstruct, digitize, and revisit events and experiences using VR/AR technology. This includes events/histories of regional/global and national/transnational importance including:
Jallianwala Bagh event
Bengal Famine
Chauri Chaura Revolt
Partition Studies
Space Mission using technology, artwork, and cultural studies
Jewish experience in Kerala
Anglo-Indian narratives in India and elsewhere
Memory studies is highly relevant in the Indian context, from
historical, political as well as technological standpoints. It bridges the gap between national history, technology, and storytelling, re-examining events, monuments, as well as experiences through theoretical as well as empirical frames. There are major events in Indian national history which may be re-examined and re-constructed through textual and technological tools. In the process, this proposed Centre will aim to become a unique and first-of-its-kind academic archive as well as an experimental platform to preserve as well as reconstruct events in our national memory and history.
The mural artwork on the Jallianwala Bagh event accentuated by the animation through Augmented Reality technology by TCS XR Lab Chennai offers a post-modern, immersive and experiential quality to the representation of the historical event. In the process, it highlights the humanities-technology interface that we think is imperative for the field of memory studies today.
Memory Studies is an interdisciplinary examination of modes
of re-membering and forgetting at the interface of private/psychological and shared/cultural vectors. It draws on cognitive and clinical psychology, literary studies, cultural studies, affect studies, machine studies, and material engagement theory, among other domains. It thus offers researchers a rich range of materials to examine and theorize, while also staying connected and relevant to the quotidian quality of remembering through food, cultural and domestic rituals, monuments, museums, language, and machines. In terms of career prospects, Memory Studies facilitates several possibilities in higher education academic positions and research, while also offering opportunities in political and cultural think-tanks, organizational behaviour studies, museum studies, and machine learning in industry.
Memory Studies, the way we aim to frame it, engages with events/organizations/experiences as sites that may be re-membered and re-presented from an interdisciplinary interface, using technology as well as tools and texts from culture. Drawing on cognitive studies and memory studies research, we offer a complex engagement with the affective and cognitive component of VR technology as well as the social and cultural extensions of the same. Accordingly, we believe that is perhaps the most fruitful future for Memory Studies as a discipline, to examine technology, art, fiction, and history all as narratives, as acts of storytelling whose narrativity is sometimes nested, sometimes hyperlinked, sometimes self-reflexive.
We aim to highlight three specific aspects:
The use of VR interactive platform:
for accentuating the immersive experiential quality of our engagement with events significant to the nation’s history and heritage, heritage monuments
digital storytelling through the theoretical framework of Memory Studies.
Exploring the relationship between memory, cognition, corporeality, and representation:
using a combination of AR/VR technology and Cognitive Studies
for examining, understanding, and archiving individual/collective/cultural/organizational memories
For curating organizational and musical memory through the affective form/medium of digital ‘opera’, and the technology of ‘Binaural audio’ to usefully explore memory, sound, and touch.
Recovering and archiving stories of communities/groups:
such as the Anglo-Indians and Kerala Jews whose identities are transnational
towards an approach that will digitally preserve particular linguistic variants/ethnic practices/rituals/cuisines as well as facilitate an extended relation between sensory and historical experiences
While the institutional presence and visible research groups are almost entirely based in Western/European academia, it is to be noted that some of these groups do use South Asia, including India as their site of study while engaging with events such as the 1947 Partition, 1857 revolt, Indian ocean maritime/colonial history, and Jallianwala Bagh event, among others.
There have also been projects engaging with exotic historical
monuments, archaeological sites, and ethnographic studies on mixed race communities, among others. This Centre, the first of its kind in India has already emerged as a major nodal point in memory studies in South Asia, as well as promoting international collaborations and knowledge partnerships with similar centres in Europe and in the USA.
Significantly, there is a rich repository of work done on cultural and collective memory from Indian academia which may be mapped on to Memory Studies. Some examples are: Partition Studies, Historiography studies on 1857 Rebellion, the event of Chauri-Chaura, Indo-Persian culture in Northern India, Medieval history and narratives in India, Studies on 1943 Bengal famine, and Studies on Creole communities in Kochi of Portuguese, Dutch and Jewish descent, among others. There is much to be curated from local and regional oral traditions and practices as well.
Nine doctoral scholars and a number of masters students in memory studies at the department of Humanities and Social Sciences in IIT Madras have been working on a range of topics including
Jewish and Anglo Indian diaspora
Memory, monuments, and public space
Food and memory
Modernity and gender
Memory and materiality in fiction
Memory, postmodernity, and
Postcoloniality
Memory and Ecology
Slow memory, dailyness, and domesticity
Memory, childhood, and adolescent narratives
PTSD narratives
Biopolitics, embodiment, and cognitive studies
Memory, Machine Learning, and Mixed Reality
Potential Impact
There can be several interesting ways in which the social and cultural components of space and embodiment may be revisited and re-examined through AR/VR technology and related 3-D interactive tools, especially in times such as this when the experience of touch and space-sharing has undergone a paradigm shift. We identify and anticipate three major and immediate impacts:
The emergence of an international and transnational network of scholars on Memory Studies, working with specialised and innovative tools from Digital Humanities, Cognitive Humanities, and Medical Humanities
To create a digital archive that may facilitate experiential access through AR/VR/XR platforms
To begin to integrate Humanities education with aligned technologies, bridging the theoretical as well as practical gaps.
The Honourable Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Minister for Education, lauded the endeavor and output of the first Memory Studies Workshop in Asia, conducted by the Centre in collaboration with the CCE, IIT Madras, on 26-30 April 2021.
Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi Director, IIT Madras at “Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landing”
Dr Roger Launius (Former Chief Historian, NASA) presented his book “Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landing” to the Memory Studies Research Network IIT Madras on January 21, 2020.
Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives of the Moon Landing Dr Roger Launius Former Chief Historian, NASA
Public Lecture on “Encoding, Effacing, and the Phenomenon of Forgetting” at the Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute in the University of St. Andrews on 18 November 2020.
Workshop on Extended Reality and Empathy with TCS and KLM Ducth Airlines on 26 March 2019.
Research Conversations in Memory Studies was a joint event between the Memory Studies Research Network at IIT Madras and the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform.
Curating Memory: A Workshop at University of Warwick featuring our industry partners XR Lab, TCS and the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.
Key Elements
The key elements in this research network are
A bridge between the cultural/heritage and the neural/psychological vectors and markers of memory
An organically interdisciplinary framework featuring a range of disciplines including psychology, history, machine studies, literary studies, heritage studies, and medical humanities
A robust research frame that lends itself to interdisciplinary and international collaborations and knowledge partnerships with media labs, brain science centres, machine studies centres, heritage studies centres, and historical archives.
Key Objectives
The Key objectives are as follows:
To establish the National Network of Memory Studies in India at par with the major centres in Europe and the USA
To offer the first institutional course on Memory Studies in Asia, drawing on a rich range of research from psychology, literary studies, machine studies, and cognitive studies
To facilitate the convergence of Memory Studies, Medical Humanities, and Digital Humanities
To use AR/VR/MR/XR technology in order to simulate and reconstruct cognitive, historical, and other varied immersive experiences
Expected deliverables of the research
1-2 Years
To set up a state-of-the-art XR Lab aligned to the centre, in collaboration with XR Lab, TCS.
To offer the first institutional course on Memory Studies in Asia, a plan that is already under way with the successful workshop on Memory Studies on 26-30 April 2021.
Visibility through collaborations, student-faculty exchanges, and joint international publications.
Attracting potential PhD and Postdoc research scholars with a more focused investment in Digital Humanities, Medical Humanities, and machine studies that could be aligned with memory studies.
To explore the possibility of joint PhD programmes with other international centres and facilitating international knowledge partners and prospective research hosts in programmes such as Humboldt and DAAD fellowships.
Activities to be initiated or continued
To establish research collaborations with leading groups in India and abroad leading to:
the first journal on Memory Studies in India and South Asia, with the immediate aim to get it Scopus indexed
peer reviewed joint publications and joint PhD supervision
international funding opportunities from academia and industry
partner with Memory Studies Association thereby becoming a significant global player in this research domain
To attract funding and contribute to the European Research Council projects in related domains
To produce a work based on binaural audio, aiming to patent the same
To build a network of Memory Studies scholars in India, thereby developing the centre as a pivotal group in South Asia
To develop an XR lab in IIT Madras, a fluid and immersive (physical as well as virtual) museum space for visitors and researchers
3-5 Years
To be recognized as the first Memory Studies centre in the world producing tangible research output through the use of AR/VR/XR tools
To offer various joint courses/programmes including Summer Courses, short term certificate courses, Diplomas, Masters and PhD programmes which are of global standard.
To design an AR/VR museum showcasing as well as reconstructing major events in Indian history through an innovative combination of technology and artwork.
To create and host Digital archives that may be accessed and contributed to from any part of the world. This platform will function not just as a repository but also an educational and informative site that could also act as a virtual tour where one could experience VR elements as well. This interactive archive would be globally relevant for research in Memory Studies, particularly heritage studies, cultural conservation studies, Digital Memory, and XR tools as part of a wider educational curriculum thereby highlighting the varied possibilities in this research domain.
The Centre at IIT Madras can function as a nodal point offering training and outreach programmes at school and college levels. NPTEL/SWAYAM could also be used as an effective platform in disseminating this knowledge.
Current status
First international Memory Studies Workshop in India and South Asia attended by 108 scholars conducted between April 26-30 2021.
Dr Avishek Parui and Dr Merin Simi Raj are selected as chairpersons of the Indian Network for Memory Studies, the first National Network for memory studies in Asia.
A Special Issue on Memory Studies in Media Watch journal, “Miscommunicating Memory” co-edited by Dr. Avishek Parui, which is the first journal issue on memory studies in India.
New sponsored project with Anglo Ink - Memory Studies and Anglo-Indian Identity: The Digital Archive Project.
Publication of the Book “Anglo Indian Identity: Past and Present, In India and the Diaspora” (co-edited by Dr Merin Simi Raj), which is the first scholarly work on Anglo-Indian identities from the perspective of memory studies.
Curating Memory: a collaborative workshop with the University of Warwick, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, and XR Lab, Tata Consultancy Services.
Plenary lectures/workshops in the University of Madras, University of Delhi, IIT Jammu, University of Calcutta, Manipur University of Culture, Jadavpur University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Christ University, Bharathiar University, Sahitya Akademi, Calcutta Comparatists, VIT Chennai, Banaras Hindu University, Kerala University, University of Lucknow, Hyderabad Central University, Sambalpur University, English and Foreign Languages University, and others.
The Honourable Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Minister for Education, lauded the endeavor and output of the Memory Studies Workshop.
Anglo Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora
Edited by Robyn Andrews (Massey University) and Merin Simi Raj (IIT Madras)
link
This book is the first scholarly work on Anglo-Indian Identities from the perspective of Memory Studies.
Indian Network of Memory Studies Launch Event, 16 June 2021 Plenary by Prof Astrid Erll, Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform, Goethe University and Rajendra Prasad Narla, Archivist, Tata Central Archives
“Memory and Storytelling: Examining Fiction as a Medium of Re-membering and Forgetting”, 9 July 2021 - Master Class at the International Memory Studies Conference in Warsaw
Symposium on ‘Food and Memory’ in collaboration with King’s College London/University of St. Andrews (forthcoming)
Symposium on ‘Memory in Anthropology’ in collaboration with Durham University (forthcoming)
Book Launches:
Culture and the Literary: Matter, Metaphor, Memory by Avishek Parui (forthcoming 2021)
Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora by Merin Simi Raj (edited with Robyn Andrews, Massey University)
Sponsored project with XR Labs, TCS - Animated Agents, Virtual Reality and Cognitive Theory: A Case Study of 360 Degree Procedural Training
Through a quantitative as well as a qualitative research framework, this project examines complex concepts such as trust, tactility, animation, and agency at the human-machine interface in real experiential time. This is a study on human-machine interface which could also potentially inform major company policies internationally. The outcome of this ongoing research should be available in public domain by the end of this year.
Sponsored Project with Anglo Ink - Memory and Anglo-Indian Identity: The Digital Archive Project
External Links
Raj, M.S. The Indulekha Moment and the Malayalam Literary Canon: On the Literary History of the Early Twentieth-century Novels in Kerala, South India. Vol. 13, No. 1, March, 2021. 1-12 Rupkatha DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n1.37
Parui, A. “The wakefulness was always beside me’: Sleeplessness, Embodiment, and Female Agency in Haruki Murakami’s ‘Sleep’. Special Issue on Health Humanities. Journal of Media Watch. 12 (1) 46-57, 2021 DOI: 10.15655/mw/2021/v12i1/205457
Parui, A. “Shadowy objects in the test tubes”: Biocitizenship, Disposable Bodies, and Wasted Lives in Hanif Kureishi’s “The Body” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go’. Vol. 12, No. 6, December, 2020. 1-6 Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities DOI: link (With Manali Karmakar)
Parui, A. “An umbrella made of precious gems”: An Examination of Memory and Diasporic Identities in Kerala Jewish Songs and Literature. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. 17 October 2020. DOI: link(With Shiji Mariam Varghese)
Parui, A. ‘These were made-to-order babies’: Reterritorialised Kinship, Neoliberal Eugenics and Artificial Reproductive Technology in Kishwar Desai’s Origins of Love. Journal of Medical Humanities. British Medical Journal (BMJ) 4 May 2019. (With Manali Karmakar) link
Raj, M.S. The politics of representation and the “ideal Malayalee woman”: Remembering Malayalam women’s magazines of the early 20th-century Kerala, South India. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Taylor and Francis. Volume 55, 2019. Pages 399-411.
(With Sruthi Vinayan) link
Parui, A. Memory and Meals: Remembering and Representing the Jewish cultural codes and Identity Markers in Esther David’s Book of Rachel . CASS Studies Journal.Vol 3 Issue 1 (March 2019) link(With Shiji Mariam Varghese)
Parui, A.“Victor’s Progeny: Premonition of a Bioengineered Age”. Literature and Medicine. Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 36, Number 2, Fall 2018. pp. 337-355. link doi:10.1353/lm.2018.0017(With Manali Karmakar)
Parui, A.“Imagine what it would be like to have a brand-new heart”: Biosentimentality and embodied-relationality in Change of Heart: A Novel.” Cogent Arts and Humanities. Vol 5 Issue 1. link(With Manali Karmakar)
Parui, A.“Embodiment and Entangled Subjectivity: A Study of Robin Cook’s Coma, Priscille Sibley’s The Promise of Stardust and Alexander Beliaev’s Professor Dowell’s Head”. Journal of Medical Humanities (Springer) (March 2018) (Co-authored with Manali Karmakar)linklink
‘Parui, A.“What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?”Agency, Fabulation and the Epistemology of the Storytelling Self in Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories.’ Special issue on Salman Rushdie in South Asian Review (2017)DOI: 10.1080/02759527.2014.11932954 link
Winner of the Meenakshi Mukherjee Prize 2019 for the best published paper. Indian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies.
Societal impact
Given the close connection between memory, identity, and history, the societal impact of Memory Studies is very significant. One of our first events in collaboration with TCS Chennai and KLM Dutch Airlines was on “Extended Reality and empathy”, exploring the need to generate a common reference point to enable dialogues between technology studies and research in humanities. The interests shown by two corporate firms – TCS and KLM – were tangible indicators of the many cognitive and theoretical components under Memory Studies.
The interest and association from XR Lab TCS, Tata Central Archives, MIT Media Lab, and KLM Dutch Airlines provide evidence towards an interest in this domain and proposed research work.
The connection between public events and memory and the need to re-visit them with experiential tools were already explicated in three different ways in our current research:
experiential recreation of a seminal historical event from the nation’s past (such as Jallianwala Bagh/Partition) focusing on the transition from past trauma towards a larger understanding of the present condition
digitally archiving the history of minority communities of mixed-race descent (Anglo-Indians, Kerala Jews etc) capturing their transnational identities
understanding the cultural significance of a technological event such as moon-landing which has had a transnational impact across historical times
Sustenance statement
The sustenance plan will focus on generating revenue through the following:
Faculty Development Programmes
Certificate courses/Summer courses/Workshops
The XR Lab space will aim to bring out products such as binaural audio that are of educational as well as commercial interest, and patent the same
Consultancy for projects where Cognitive humanities and AR/VR element emerge as strong tools
Consultancy for Digital Archiving projects (for eg: with Anglo-Ink, Chennai; Tata Central Archives) for archiving otherwise undocumented community/organizational memory
Our work on the convergence of AR/VR technology and heritage studies should generate major funding from Government as well as corporate sectors on conservation and reconstruction projects.
Besides the above, there is a significant possibility of the Centre to draw major international funding from the European Research Council. The nature and scope of the ERC projects resonate richly with our Centre and should be a significant source of future funding internationally. Additionally, our collaboration with XR Lab, TCS will continue to generate significant industry interests in terms of funding from stakeholders from sectors such as the animation industry, advertising, marketing, musicology, and heritage studies, among others.
Reference
First International Memory Studies Workshop
Hon’ble Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank lauded the Memory Studies Workshop, the first in India link
India Today: IIT Madras hosts Asia’s first International Memory Studies Workshop link
The Hindu: Indian Institute of Technology Madras hosts workshop on memory studies link
NDTV Education: IIT Madras Hosts International Memory Studies Workshop link
Data Quest India: IIT Madras Virtually Hosts Asia’s First International Memory Studies Workshop link
India Education Diary: IIT Madras Virtually Hosts Asia’s First International Memory Studies Workshop link
Mathrubhumi English: IIT Madras Hosts Asia’s first International Memory Studies Workshop link
ABP Education: IIT Madras hosts Asia’s first international memory studies workshop link
Times Now: IIT Madras hosts Asia’s first workshop on International Memory Studies link
Media Coverage
NDTV: IIT Madras Hosts Symposium On Apollo’s Moon Landing After 50 Years link
India Today: IIT Madras symposium: Former NASA Chief Historian explains significance of Apollo Moon landing Mission link
Times of India: IIT Madras organises annual International Memory Studies Conference 2019 link
Times of India: How AR/VR tools reinterpret history through Memory Studies link
Times of India: IIT -Madras, TCS conduct session on extended reality link
India Today: IIT Madras organises session on ‘Extended Reality and Empathy: An Interdisciplinary Perspective’ link
Education Times: IIT-Madras conducted session on Extended Reality link
DT Next: IIT Madras ties up with TCS on memory studies link
Highlight Event
Research Conversations in Memory Studies with the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform held on Nov 24, 2020
Technical/ Scientific Progress
New work done in the project
Research on food and memory, cognition and memory in collaboration with anthropologists, computer scientists, and machine studies experts.
Infrastructure developments
Setting up of the XR lab which is still a work in progress
Output
Workshops/Webinars/Symposia:
Memory Studies Workshop - 26-30 April 2021
Launch of the Indian Network for Memory Studies - 16 June 2021
Food, Memory, Machines Workshop - 17-20 August 2021
Book Launch: Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present in India and the Diaspora
Memory Cognition Literature Workshop - 9-12 November 2021
Curating Memory Workshop, University of Warwick - 9 March 2021
Masterclass by Dr Avishek Parui on “Memory and storytelling: examining fiction as a medium of re-membering and forgetting” at Convergences, the Annual Conference of the Memory Studies Association, Warsaw - 2 July
“Emergence, Convergence, and Digital Deterritorialization in Indian Higher Educational Memory Events post-COVID 19” a paper by Dr Avishek Parui and Dr Merin Simi Raj at Convergences, the Annual Conference of the Memory Studies Association, Warsaw- 5 July 2021
Publications:
Parui, A., & Raj, M.S. (2021). The COVID-19 crisis chronotope: The pandemic as matter, metaphor and memory. Memory Studies, 14(6), 1431-1444.Link
Raj, M.S. & Parui, A. (2021). They Shared Those Bits Of History”: Reading The Tainted As A Transnational Memory-Narrative. International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies, 21(1), 1-23.Link
Parui, A. (2021) ‘The wakefulness was always beside me’: Sleeplessness, Embodiment, and Female Agency in Haruki Murakami’s ‘Sleep’. Journal of Media Watch, 12(1), 46-57. doi:
Vinayan, S. & Raj, M.S. (2021). The Indulekha Moment and the Malayalam Literary Canon: On the Literary History of the Early Twentieth-century Novels in Kerala, South India. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 13(1), 1-12. DOI
Karmakar, M. & Parui, A. (2021). “Shadowy Objects in the test tubes: Biocitizenship, Disposable Bodies, and Wasted Lives in Hanif Kureishi’s “The Body” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go”. Medical Humanities section in Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. 12(6) doi
Media coverage:
Press Release: IIT Madras hosts Asia’s first International Memory Studies Workshop
India Today: IIT Madras hosts India’s first Memory Studies Workshop
The Hindu: Indian Institute of Technology Madras hosts workshop on Memory Studies
Mathrubhumi: IIT Madras Hosts Asia’s First International Memory Studies Workshop
Times Now: IIT Madras hosts Asia’s first workshop on International Memory Studies
NDTV: IIT Madras hosts international Memory Studies Workshop
The Indian Express: IIT Madras Launches Indian Network for Memory Studies
Business Line: IIT Madras launches Indian Network for Memory Studies
NDTV Education: IIT Madras Launches Indian Network For Memory Studies
News18: IIT Madras Launches Internship in Memory Studies, New Course in Pipeline
NFA Post: IIT Madras Launches Indian Network For Memory Studies
Mobility
Visits planned for PI, co-PIs, international collaborators and students (both inbound and outbound)
Visit planned to St.Andrews University, UK and Goethe University Frankfurt for PI and Co-PI
Relationship
Industrial Engagement
Curating Memory Workshop at the University of Warwick 9 March 2021.
Dr Ashok Maharaj and Lakshmi Deshpande (XR Labs, TCS) Resource Persons at Memory Studies Workshop 26-30 April 2021.
Dr Ashok Maharaj, Head, XR Labs TCS spoke at the launch event of the Indian Network for Memory Studies on 16 June 2021.
Sponsored Project: Animated Agents, Virtual Reality and Cognitive Theory: A Case Study of 360 Degree Procedural Training - Funded by XR Lab, Tata Consultancy Services
Rajendra Prasad Narla, Archivist at Tata Central Archives spoke on “The Genesis of an Archive” at the launch event of the Indian Network for Memory Studies on 16 June 2021.
Mr Thirukumaran Saravanan delivered a session on “Heightening the trip down history with Extended Reality Experiences” at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop on 12 November 2021.
University Engagement
MoU between IIT Madras and University of St. Andrews facilitated in November 2020, extended in 2021.
Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri and Prof Catherine O’Leary were resource persons at Food Memory Machines, 18 and 20 August 2021.
Session titled ‘Fabulation and Forgetting in Literature and Memory Studies’ by Dr Avishek Parui and Dr Merin Simi Raj at the Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute, University of St Andrews - 8 November 2021
Online Reading group Session on Astrid Erll’s “Memory Worlds in Times of Corona” conducted with Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute, University of St. Andrews on 2 December 2021.
The Masters teaching project, “Memory Studies in its National and International Contexts”, to be developed by the Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute at the University of St Andrews and the Centre for Memory Studies (IoE) at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, is supported by a grant from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme.
List of Universities (international): Goethe University Frankfurt, Warwick University, University of St. Andrews, Durham University, Glasgow University, Kingston University, University of Oxford, Nottingham Trent University, King’s College London, Massey University, University of Southern Illinois, Indiana University Bloomington, MIT.
List of Universities and Institutions (India): University of Madras, University of Hyderabad, NIT Trichy, IIIT Hyderabad, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi University, Central University of Tamil Nadu, University of Kashmir, Christ University, Bharathiar University, Stella Maris College, Sophia College, Mumbai.
Updates
Relevant Updates
Going Global Grant
The Masters teaching project, “Memory Studies in its National and International Contexts”, to be developed by the Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute at the University of St Andrews and the Centre for Memory Studies (IoE) at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, is supported by a grant from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme.
Slow Memory
Avishek Parui and Merin Simi Raj are Consultants at the COST Action on Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change.
Avishek Parui is part of the Advisory Board of the Memory Studies Association.
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