On December 13-14, Hafıza Merkezi will organize an international conference titled "Confronting the Past, Building the Future: Memory Studies with the Youth". The conference aims to contribute to the efforts to confront the past and to engage the youth with innovative approaches to collective memory.
Hafıza Merkezi Memory and Youth program aims to introduce young people from different cities across Turkey and from different social backgrounds to the fields of collective memory and memorialization, to increase their interest and knowledge and interest about these topics. The program creates a space for dialogue between the young individuals, who can share their own experiences, knowledge, and memories. It also gives us an opportunity to discuss the connections between past and present struggles.
In the third round of the program, which started in March 2024, we supported young people to contribute to memorialization efforts by producing their own projects, either individually or in small groups. This international conference will offer a platform for the project participants to share the methods and results of their original memorialization projects.
Date: December 13-14, 2024
Location: Anarad Hığutyun Building - Havak Hall, Papa Roncalli Str. Number: 128 Harbiye, Şişli İstanbul
🔁 Turkish-English simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
📤 For any questions, you can contact us at hafizavegenclik@hafiza-merkezi.org
The conference aims to create an environment of free thought and discussion, where participants can share their projects addressing issues such as state violence, racism, migration, gender, space and memory. Among our discussants are two experts from Armenia, Arsen Abrahamyan (Cultural and Social Narratives Lab) and Eviya Hovhannisyan (Heinrich Böll Foundation, Yerevan Branch). With roundtable meetings, interactive workshops, documentary screenings and memory walks, the event offers participants the opportunity to understand and experience the field of memory through different disciplines and practices. In the interactive workshops:
We will end the conference with a memory walk in Balat. This memory walk is the result of the creative collaboration of four institutions and individuals: the Cultural and Social Narratives Lab, with their Balat: Living Together project, the Hrant Dink Foundation, with their KarDes Multicultural Memory Tours guide, Karakutu Association, with their original methodology for interactive memory walks, and Sevcan Tiftik, who grew up in the neighborhood.
▶ Click here to view the brochure containing the project summaries of the participants.
9.00 - 9.30: Registration and Opening Speech
9.30 - 11.00: Memorializing Violence
Discussants: Eviya Hovhannisyan and Serhat Arslan
11.15 - 12.45: Memory Studies at the Intersection of Migration and Gender
Discussants: Ameda Karakuzu, Müzeyyen Araç and Waseem Ahmad Siddiqui
13.30 - 14.45: Roundtable: Oral History and Difficult Fieldwork Experiences
Moderators: Ruken Ay Adın and Şilan Es
14.45 - 15.55: Visual Testimonies: Documenting Exclusion and Discrimination through Documentaries
Discussants: Berke Baş and Nesrin Uçarlar
16.15 - 18.00: Interactive Memory Workshops
(The workshops will run concurrently, with participation limited to 20 persons per workshop.)
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10.00 - 11.30: Spatial Memories
Discussants: Arsen Abrahamyan and Fırat Genç
11.45-13.15: Roundtable: Where Are Memory Walks Headed?
Moderators: Ezgi Ceylan and Yiğit Göktuğ Torun
14.00-15.15: Closing Session
15.30 Departure for the Balat Memory Walk
The Truth Justice Memory Center extends its gratitude to the Consulate General of Sweden in Istanbul and the Olof Palme International Center for their contributions to the realization of this international conference and the Memory and Youth project. The content of the conference is solely the responsibility of the Truth Justice Memory Center and does not reflect the views of the supporters.