Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS)

Memory Cognition Literature Workshop: Simon James, Alexander Easton, Vishnu Sreekumar, Thirukumaran Saravanan, Astrid Erll, Fritz Breithaupt, Jyotirmaya Tripathy, Avishek Parui, Merin Simi Raj, Simi Malhotra — Memory Cognition Literature Workshop. 9-12 November 2021.

Astrid Erll at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop. Lecture title: Why Memory Studies Needs the Cognitive Sciences: Beyond Two Cultures — Prof Astrid Erll at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop

Fritz Breithaupt at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop. Lecture title: How emotions in narratives are remembered. — Prof Fritz Breithaupt at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop.

Prof Simon James at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop. Lecture title: Dickens, Autobiographical Memory and Mental Time Travel. — Prof Simon James at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop.

Prof Alexander Easton at the Memory Cognition Literature Workshop. Lecture title: Memory for events across animals, children, and adults — Prof Alexander Easton at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop.

Dr Vishnu Sreekumar at the Memory Cognition Literature Workshop

Mr Thirukumaran Saravanan at the Memory, Cognition, Literature Workshop.

Book Launch. Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora. Edited by Dr Robyn Andrews and Dr Merin Simi Raj. 25 August 2021. Opening Remarks: Dr Sruthi Vinayan, IIT Madras. Welcome Address:Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras; Prof Jyotirmaya Tripathy, Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras; Prof Cynthia White, Pro Vice-Chancellor, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University. Chief Guest Address: Mr Barry O’Brien, President-in-Chief, All India Anglo-Indian Association. The Making of Anglo-Indian Identity: Dr Robyn Andrews, Massey University & Dr Merin Simi Raj, IIT Madras. Felicitation Address: Prof Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Emeritus Professor, Victoria University of Wellington; Prof Uther Charlton-Stevens, Volgograd State University. Concluding Remarks: Dr Avishek Parui & Dr Merin Simi Raj, Chairpersons, INMS, IIT Madras. In collaboration with Massey University and Indian Network for Memory Studies. — Launch of Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present in India and the Diaspora

Book Launch. Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora. Edited by Dr Robyn Andrews and Dr Merin Simi Raj. 25 August 2021. — Launch of Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present in India and the Diaspora

Food Memory Machines Workshop. 17 August 2021. On Culturally Embedding the Senses: Or Why Most Greeks Don't Eat Basil, For Example. Prof David Sutton, Southern Illinois University. — Prof David Sutton at the Food, Memory, Machines Workshop.

Food Memory Machines Workshop. 17 August 2021. "What unmakes us, makes us": Food and Identity in Narratives of the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition. Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri, University of St. Andrews. — Prof Catherine O'Leary at the Food, Memory, Machines Workshop.

Food Memory Machines Workshop. 18 August 2021. "What unmakes us, makes us": Food and Identity in Narratives of the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition. Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri, University of St. Andrews. — Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri at the Food, Memory, Machines Workshop.

Ms Bridget White-Kumar, and Prof Eugenie Pinto at the Food, Memory, Machines Workshop.

Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank lauds the Indian Network for Memory Studies in a tweet which says: "IITMadras has launched Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS), which will coordinate complex engagements with ‘memory’ from different institutes including cultural studies centres & neuroscience laboratories, and industry research on AI." — Honb'le Union Education Minister lauds the launch of the Indian Network for Memory Studies

The launch event of the Indian Network for Memory Studies: featuring Jyotirmaya Tripathy (top-left), Merin Simi Raj (top-right), Avishek Parui (centre-left), Bhaskar Ramamurthi (centre), Hanna Teichler (centre-right), Rajendra Prasad Narla (bottom-left), Astrid Erll (bottom-centre), and Ashok Maharaj (centre-right) — Launch Event of the Indian Network for Memory Studies on June 16, 2021

Honorable Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank's tweet about the Memory Studies Workshop at IIT Madras: @iitmadras recently hosted Asia's first workshop on Memory Studies virtually. — Honb'le Union Education Minister lauds the Memory Studies Workshop

The board for the Centre for Memory Studies at HSB 241-C in IIT Madras. — Centre for Memory Studies, IIT Madras

The Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS) is the first formal and national network in the field of memory studies in India and South Asia, formed under the aegis of the international Memory Studies Association (MSA), Amsterdam. The founders and chairpersons of the INMS are Dr. Avishek Parui and Dr. Merin Simi Raj, Assistant Professors in English and Memory Studies at IIT Madras.

Join the Indian Network for Memory Studies

The INMS seeks to produce and promote an innovative interdisciplinary engagement with the complex cognitive and cultural modes of memory. Associated with the Centre for Memory Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras through its founders Dr. Avishek Parui and Dr. Merin Simi Raj, this national network aims to study the processes of encoding and effacement that simultaneously inform acts of remembrance and re-construction in private as well as shared orders, and how such processes may be examined as well as represented by a range of fields such as fiction, history, media, urban geography, and technology. The INMS seeks to produce exhibitions, conferences, workshops, and special journal issues on a range of themes in Memory Studies, in collaboration with partners from academia and industry.

As the National Network from India, the INMS aims to academically accentuate as well as promote the rich research on imperialism, Partition, and post-colonial identities through the interdisciplinary lenses of memory studies. Along with producing historical research, the INMS will work in close association with MSA in order to effectively coordinate the complex engagements with ‘memory’ from different institutes in India, including cultural studies centres as well as neuroscience laboratories and industry-research on AI and related fields. The academic aim and research focus will include re-creation of Indian and South-Asian pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial events and identities using the model of memory as reconstruction, foregrounding the textuality and the technology informing processes of remembering.

All scholars in the field of memory studies in India are encouraged to be a part of the INMS. To join the INMS, fill the form above. For any queries, write to memorystudies@smail.iitm.ac.in. Membership in the INMS is entirely free. And always will be.