International MEPOST Project Workshop “Moral Emotions and the Memory of Industrial Transformations”

About the Workshop

This workshop intervenes in the rapidly expanding scholarship on the memories of (de)industrialization. Moving beyond the dominant focus on ruination and nostalgia, it explores the wide spectrum of moral emotions associated with the transformation of industry. It situates post-socialist transformations alongside industrial restructuring and economic shifts elsewhere, allowing for a comparative and transnational perspective on emotions and memory in social, cultural and political realms.

The workshop will be hosted by MEPOST project (Remembering (De)industrialisation: Moral Emotions in the Memory of Post-Socialist Transformation in Lithuania and Poland), which examines communicative and cultural memories of (de)industrialization in Lithuania and Poland. By integrating memory studies with the sociology of emotions, the project develops the concept of the Mnemonic Emotion Narrative (MEN): a story through which moral emotions about the past are articulated, revealing the social norms and values that are activated in the remembering process. The MEN functions as an analytical tool for mapping moral emotions in the context of abrupt socio-economic change.

Broadening the inquiry beyond Poland and Lithuania, this workshop explores the emotional dimensions of memory of (de)industrialization across diverse national and institutional contexts. It particularly welcomes contributions on either locally or transnationally embedded experiences of industrial transformation, focusing on the ways in which their emotional repertoires and memory articulations often challenge, contest or exist on the margins of national narratives. We also invite comparative perspectives examining how different national and local contexts shape the MENs attached to (de)industrialization – and how these play out differently across communicative and cultural memory.

Thematic Scope

We welcome paper proposals addressing the following themes, understood broadly and comparatively:

• Moral emotions in socialist and post-socialist industrial memory, e. g., contempt, anger, shame, pride, sympathy, gratitude in memories of socialist industrialization and post-socialist reorganization;
• Mnemonic Emotion Narratives (MENs) across global contexts of (de)industrialization. How do MENs form, circulate, and compete in different national and local settings?
• Communicative memory and lived experience of (de)industrialization. Oral histories, biographical interviews and the social experience of industrial decline as expressed in everyday remembering.
• Cultural memory, industrial heritage, and memory activism. Museums, memorial sites, and forms of activism that represent, reframe or contest official industrial memory.
• The emotional turn in museum representations of industrial heritage. How institutions curate emotional narratives in exhibitions representing industrial pasts.
• Methodological approaches to emotions in collective and cultural memory. Innovative frameworks and methods for studying the relationship between emotion, narrative, and memory at individual and collective levels.

Submission Guidelines

We invite proposals for individual papers (20-minute presentations). Proposals must be submitted in English by completing this form and must include the following:

• An abstract of 250 words outlining the research question, theoretical framework, methodology, and main findings
• A short biographical note (up to 100 words) and institutional affiliation

For any further practical information, please do not hesitate to contact the organisers at mepost@tspmi.vu.lt.

Key Dates

Submission deadline: 10 June 2026

Notification of acceptance: 1 July 2026

Workshop: the workshop will take place on 5–6 November 2026 at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Details:

• There is no workshop fee.
• The workshop will take place in English.
• Live participation only.
• Participants are kindly asked to cover their own travel and accommodation costs.
• Vilnius is served by Vilnius International Airport (VNO), approximately 7 km from the city centre and easily reachable by public transport and taxi. Vilnius is also easily accessible from Kaunas Airport, which is about 100 km away and can be reached by bus or taxi in about 1.5 hours
• Vilnius offers a wide range of accommodation options to suit different budgets and preferences, from international hotel chains to boutique guesthouses and short-term apartment rentals, many of which are conveniently located close to the venue.
• Coffee breaks and lunches will be provided during the workshop.

Download the CfP in PDF here.

Gabriella Szabó: Moral Emotions in Divided Societies: Past, Present, and Future

Senior Research Fellow at the ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

Szabó’s research focuses on moral emotions in political communication, moralising rhetoric, and the management of emotions in electoral campaigns. She is the editor of Managing Moral Emotions in Divided Politics: Lessons from Hungary’s 2022 General Election Campaigns (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

Olivier Luminet

Professor of Psychology and Research Director at the Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS), UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain), Belgium

Luminet’s research explores the intersections of emotion, identity, and memory at both individual and collective levels, with particular expertise in flashbulb memories, mechanisms of collective memory formation, and intergenerational transmission of memories related to political events.

TBA.

Vilnius University

Jogilė Ulinskaitė – Principal Investigator

Kamilė Raudoniūtė – Researcher

Aušra Teleišė – Researcher

Gabija Januškaitė – Undergraduate Researcher

University of Warsaw

Joanna Wawrzyniak – Principal Investigator

Rimantė Jaugaitė – Postdoctoral Fellow

Krzysztof Florek – Doctoral Researcher

The MEPOST project is co-hosted at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University and at the Center for Research on Social Memory, Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw.

This workshop is part of the MEPOST project that has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No S-LL-25-5, and the National Science Center (NCN) Poland, agreement No 2024/52/L/HS2/00283 in the framework of bilateral cooperation program DAINA.

If you have any questions, please contact us by email at mepost@tspmi.vu.lt.