The Faculty of Sociology at the University of Warsaw invites submissions for the international conference Grievable Lives, Digital Afterlives: Memory in an Age of Connectivity, which will take place on 2 December 2026 in Warsaw, Poland.
The event is organised within the framework of the research project Memory in the Making: Early Grassroots Commemorations and Digital Activism in Wartime Ukraine and seeks to explore emerging forms of memory-making shaped by war, displacement, and digital connectivity.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, memory has become a crucial terrain of civic engagement, political struggle, and cultural transformation. Across Ukraine and within diasporic communities — particularly in Poland — grassroots commemorative practices have proliferated outside institutional frameworks, often circulating through digital platforms such as Telegram, Instagram, and TikTok.
The conference invites critical reflections on the intersections between memory activism, wartime experience, and digital media. Suggested themes include:
- grassroots and vernacular commemorative practices
- digital memory and platform-specific forms of remembrance
- affective, sensory, and embodied dimensions of memory activism
- ephemeral memory forms, including stories, live streams, and temporary memorials
- “nonuments”
- online remembering communities
- memory as civic engagement and resistance
We particularly encourage interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, anthropology, media studies, history, cultural studies, political science, and related fields. The symposium also welcomes submissions from practitioners, NGO representatives, journalists, artists, museum and heritage professionals, and others engaged in memory work beyond academia.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit:
- an abstract (250–300 words)
- a short bio (100–150 words)
Panel proposals should include a 150-word panel description and individual abstracts.
Submissions should be sent to: mitm.project@gmail.com
There is no conference fee.
Timeline
- Call opens: 18 May 2026
- Submission deadline: 30 June 2026
- Notification of acceptance: mid-July 2026
