Ars Memoriae Reading Group

Ars Memoriae – The Memory Studies Reading Group

Who Are We?

This reading group aims to promote and generate awareness about the upcoming discipline of memory studies while also recognising the pressing need to synthesise memory studies scholarship with purposeful cultural analysis.

Inspired by the Latin phrase ars memoriae, ‘the art of memory,’ our fortnightly reading group seeks to interrogate memory in all its forms while placing literary texts at the core of our conversations. As memories and the process of memory-making are fundamental to human existence, entering a dialogue with memory will inevitably require us to engage with pertinent questions of history, politics, sociology, psychology, and so on. While thinking outside the box is an essential aspect of critical inquiry today, the happening realm of memory studies, via its focus on memory, asks us a crucial question: What is a box, and do we really need one?

Ars Memoriae cordially invites all graduate students to participate in this communal and academic interrogation of memory, from the personal to the political, the local to the transnational, within disciplines and without, the ordinary to the extraordinary.

In addition to TORCH, we are also supported by the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing at Wolfson College.

Convenors:

For any queries or suggestions, please contact us - we would love to hear from you:

Shivani Arulalan Pillai – DPhil Candidate, Faculty of English (shivani.arulalanpillai@sant.ox.ac.uk)

Malavika P Pillai – DPhil Candidate, Faculty of English (malavika.pillai@sant.ox.ac.uk)

Smriti Verma – DPhil Candidate, Faculty of English (smriti.verma@wolfson.ox.ac.uk)

The Ars Memoriae Reading Group is part of TORCH Student Networks