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              The 11th "Memory, Melancholy and Nostalgia" International Interdisciplinary Conference will take place on December 2-3, 2026, online (via Zoom platform) and on December 4, 2026, in-person at Holiday Inn City Centre Hotel in Gdańsk (Poland).

Organizer: InMind Support


Scientific Committee:

Professor Wojciech Owczarski – University of Gdańsk, Poland
Professor Niklas Salmose - Linnaeus University, Sweden

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Annual Theme: 

Memory, Melancholy and Nostalgia in a Rapidly Changing World

 

​While maintaining its interdisciplinary character, the eleventh edition of the conference pays particular attention to the ways in which memory, melancholy, and nostalgia are reshaped by contemporary global challenges. We especially welcome contributions addressing digital cultures, artificial intelligence, environmental change, migration, social transformations, and new forms of remembering and forgetting in the twenty-first century. Traditional perspectives on literature, history, philosophy, psychology, and the arts remain equally welcome.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

In our modern world, which some have argued to be disjointed while immersing itself ever deeper in crisis, the turning back to “the olden days” and the ensuing nostalgia constitute a noticeable phenomenon, both individually (the memory of biography) and collectively (the memory of history). Another important – and equally noticeable – phenomenon is the longing for something vague, indefinite or never existent. 

   Hence, during our interdisciplinary conference we would like to concentrate on the phenomena of nostalgia and melancholy. We are interested in all expressions of longing for the past, from the reassuring and action-propelling ones to those which paralyze us, leading to despair and utter dejection.

  We aim to explore the experience of nostalgia and melancholy in its multifarious manifestations: psychological, social, historical, cultural, philosophical, religious, economic, political, artistic, and many others. We will also devote considerable attention to how these phenomena appear and transform in artistic practices: literature, film, theatre, and visual arts. This is why we invite researchers representing various academic disciplines: anthropology, history, psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, politics, philosophy, economics, law, literary studies, theatre studies, film studies, memory studies, nostalgia studies, migration studies, consciousness studies, dream studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, medical sciences, psychiatry, cognitive sciences, design, project management and other disciplines.

   Different forms of presentations are encouraged, including case studies, theoretical investigations, problem-oriented arguments, and comparative analyses.

   We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the beginning of their careers, as well as students. We also invite anyone interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation.

   We hope that due to its interdisciplinary nature, the conference will bring many interesting observations on and discussions about the role of memory, melancholy, and nostalgia in the past and in the present-day world. 

  Our repertoire of suggested topics includes but is not restricted to:

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I. Memory and Affects

• unwanted memory

• nostalgia or melancholy?

• non-melancholic nostalgia

• nostalgia and longing

• the healing power of nostalgia

• nostalgia as an illness

• nostalgia and depression

• nostalgia and psychoanalysis

• collective nostalgia

• anticipatory nostalgia

• memory and emotions

• memory, trauma and resilience

• ecological grief/ solastalgia

• memory and wellbeing

• nostalgia and identity formation

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II. Common Experiences

• nostalgic epochs

• nostalgic nations

• nostalgic generations

• nostalgia and the myth of eternal return

• nostalgia, melancholy and totalitarianisms

• nostalgia and war

• nostalgia and melancholy of the expelled

• nostalgic patriotism

• nostalgia and nationalism

• nostalgia and gender

• nostalgia and religion

• nostalgia and language

• nostalgia and melancholy in the postmodern world

• nostalgia and postmemory

• digital nostalgia

• platform nostalgia

• social media and nostalgia

• nostalgia and populism

• memory politics

• cultural memory

• prosthetic memory

• diasporic nostalgia

• transnational memory

• memory and decolonization

• nostalgia after pandemics

​III. Individual Experiences

• return to childhood

• nostalgia for something indefinite

• nostalgia for the future

• nostalgia for a traumatic experience

• nostalgia, melancholy and old age

• nostalgia, melancholy and death

• nostalgia, melancholy and mourning

• nostalgia, melancholy and love

• nostalgia, melancholy and imagination

• nostalgic phantasms

• nostalgic dreams

• identity and memory

• false memories

• memory reconstruction

• memory and ageing

• nostalgia and life transitions

• memory and mental health

• embodied memory

• everyday nostalgia

• family memory

• intergenerational memory

​IV. The Arts

• nostalgia and melancholy as a theme in literature, film, and theatre

• nostalgic literature

• nostalgic cinema

• literature and the arts as a vehicle of memory

• literature, theatre and film in search of lost time

• nostalgic literary genres

• melancholic artists

• nostalgia in digital art

• nostalgia in video games

• virtual reality and memory

• memory in interactive media

• AI-generated memories

• photography and memory

• music and nostalgia

• museums and memory

• architecture and memory

• material culture and nostalgia

• digital archives

• memory and digital storytelling

​​V. Society

• nostalgia and political movements

• nostalgia, melancholy and memory places

• nostalgia, melancholy and memorials

• nostalgia, melancholy and community development

• nostalgia, melancholy and migration

• nostalgia, melancholy and meaning-making

• nostalgia, melancholy and drive to change

• nostalgia and travelling

• nostalgia and food

• nostalgia and climate change

• social media memories

• algorithmic nostalgia

• AI and collective memory

• digital heritage

• memory activism

• urban memory

• memory and place-making

• nostalgia and consumer culture

• brand nostalgia

• food heritage

• migration and belonging

• memory and reconciliation

• memory and human rights

• memory of pandemics

• memory of ecological crises

• climate grief

• memory and resilience

VI. Memory and Emerging Technologies

•  artificial intelligence and memory

•  algorithmic remembrance

•  digital afterlife

• online mourning

•  virtual memorials

• memory in the age of big data

• digital storytelling

• social media archives

• nostalgia in streaming culture

• synthetic memories

• AI-generated heritage

• virtual identities and memory

 

VII. Environmental Memory

• climate memory

• environmental nostalgia

• memory of landscapes

• environmental humanities

• memory of natural disasters

• memory of extinction

• memory in the Anthropocene

• nostalgia for nature

• environmental justice and memory

Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note to: conferencenostalgia@gmail.com  or by REGISTRATION FORM : 

•  onsite presenters -  by 30 September 2026 

•  online presenters - by 31 October 2026

The conference language is English.
Our email: conferencenostalgia@gmail.com

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NOTE: Our Conference Participants will have the opportunity to publish post-conference papers in a journal of the University of Gdańsk.