Balzan Prize Research Group

From 2018 to 2020, the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Konstanz is hosting a Research Group funded by the Balzan Prize that was awarded to Aleida and Jan Assmann in 2017 for their work on Cultural Memory. The research group’s fellows are conducting research on

Reconstructing Memory in the City – Transnational and Local (European) Sites of Memory

European memory is often conceived of as a supra-national memory to be shaped and imposed in a top down process. The focus of our project, however, is on the dynamics of collective memory as it is shaped by initiatives and movements from below. Emphasis is being put on (European) cities and local actors that respond to new social, political and cultural challenges in their built environment. A basic tenet of the project is that towns and cities are a crucial context for the negotiation of the past in a time of radical change.