MEMPOP at the MSA Conference 2025 in Prague
MEMPOP at Memory Studies Association conference, Prague, 14 – 18 July 2025
This year’s MSA conference reflects a growing recognition of the intersection between memory and populism, with an entire thematic track dedicated to exploring how populist politics mobilize memory, reshape narratives of the past, and challenge dominant regimes of remembrance. The prominence of this track within the conference program testifies to the increasing scholarly and public relevance of this intersection, particularly in the context of rising political polarization, contested histories, and grassroots memory practices across Europe and beyond.
The ERC project Memory and Populism from Below (MEMPOP) hosted by the Institute of Ethnology at the Czech Academy of Science, plays an important role in shaping this year’s MSA conversation. As part of our contributions, MEMPOP team organized a roundtable “Popularizing Remembrance: Populism, Pop Culture and Memory Politics,” which will take place on July 15. Moderated by our Principal Investigator Johana Wyss, two discussants from the MEMPOP team, Franz Graf and Astrea Nikolovska, will sit together with two more research projects that deal with popular forms of remembering: Mnemonic Aesthetics and Strategies in Popular Culture (University of Ljubljana and University of Rijeka), and European Memory Politics: Populism, Nationalism, and the Challenges to a European Memory Culture (University of Victoria).
Beyond this, MEMPOP researchers will present their work throughout the conference program. Diana Vonak will speak on July 17 at the panel Moving Material Memories: Uses of Heritage during the Russo-Ukrainian War, while Laura Mafizzoli, Ioana Brunet, and Jitka Králová will present on July 18 at the panel Balancing Remembrance and Moving On: Rethinking Historical Legacies in Post-Displacement Regions, chaired by Johana Wyss. In addition to leading this session, Johana is chairing several panels within the Memory and Populism track, providing intellectual leadership across the strand and helping shape the direction of this growing field. Johana is also the conference’s Family Facilities Coordinator, showing commitment to advancing critical, comparative, and ethnographically grounded research on memory and populism from below. Together, these contributions reflect MEMPOP’s strong engagement with the conference theme and our commitment to advancing critical, comparative, and ethnographically grounded research on memory and populism from below.
In the first session of the conference, Johana Wyss and Astrea Nikolovska, who are also co-chairing the Memory and Populism Working Group of the Memory Studies Association, hosted the business meeting with numerous scholars working within the memory and populism track. The meeting served as a space to reflect on ongoing research, share updates from the field, and discuss future directions. It aimed to establish a community of researchers interested in the intersection of memory and populism and to create a platform for further collaboration, exchange, and visibility within this emerging field.
We’re sharing a few photos from the opening session and invite you to stay tuned to our social media channels for more updates on MEMPOP’s participation at this year’s MSA conference.
