The 10th Memory Studies Association’s (MSA) Annual Meeting “Memory and Democracy” is taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of the largest countries in Latin America, located in the Global South. Since its creation in 2022, the Transformative Inclusivity Initiative (TII) has sought to make the MSA more inclusive in terms of welcoming memories, members, regions and the more-than-human planet. While we welcome the association’s efforts to push the boundaries and carry the annual meeting beyond the militarized borders of ‘the West,’ we think it crucial that the MSA’s most important annual event not only parachute into another, a different and distant site, but that this instalment also allows for the possibility of ongoing, critical and constructive debates to transform the association into a more welcoming, inclusive place of belonging.
We therefore support this annual meeting with a roundtable showcasing some of the concerns, debates and efforts to transform the MSA and the field of memory studies more generally to become a more inclusive place of belonging. Among these concerns are questions of languages, disciplines and neurodiversity. The circumstance that the annual meeting is taking place in Argentina this year brings home the obvious significance and continuing challenge to address questions of language, how concepts are discussed, translated and disseminated, which ones are remembered and recognized or forgotten. Since the association’s creation, concerns of inter- and transdisciplinarity have been just as central as the recognition that they are far less often or well achieved than they are called for. Last but not least, debates around and within the MSA have highlighted the increasing urgency to confront questions of neurodiversity, the significance of diverse forms of remembrance as well as the accessibility to memory concepts, discourses and methods to neurodiverse beings. This roundtable invites speakers and participants to reflect on, dissect and discuss questions of how the MSA and the field of memory studies more generally can become a more inclusive place of belonging.
Prof. Dr. Ruramisai Charumbira, Western University
20260730T154520260730T1715America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires7.3. Transformative Inclusivity Initiative: Transforming the MSA and Memory Studies Towards Inclusivity and BelongingSV101MSA Buenos Aires 2026buenosairesconference@memorystudiesassociation.org
