We are pleased to welcome you to Days and Memory, the blog of the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies (HGMS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. HGMS provides a platform for cutting-edge, comparative research, teaching, and public engagement related to genocide, trauma, and collective memory. We hope that this blog will serve as an opportunity to publicize and report on our local activities and to provide space for wide-ranging, open discussion of issues pertinent to genocide, trauma, and memory studies. The title of the blog is drawn from the brilliant Holocaust survivor and writer, Charlotte Delbo, whose book Days and Memory remains an innovative cornerstone of Holocaust literature.
While based in Illinois, HGMS is part of various international networks, including Mnemonics: Network for Memory Studies and NITMES: Network in Transnational Memory Studies. The discussions on our blog will thus speak to an international audience of scholars and practitioners. We are committed to a broad and comparative vision of the fields of genocide, trauma, and memory studies and this blog will engage with questions of violence and remembrance in transnational and transcultural terms.
We welcome the submission of short blog posts on relevant matters from any interested parties. We envision the blog as a site for book reviews, conference reports, manifestos, and provocations as well as reflections on urgent political matters and timely theoretical problems.
We hope you’ll visit us regularly, post comments, and join in the conversation! Please feel free to share the blog widely!
