Members of the Department of Sociology took part in the XXXIII annual ASEN Conference at the University of Edinburgh on the issue of "Nationalism and Memory"

From April 7 to 11, 2024, members of the Department of Sociology of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Associate Professor, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences Abetova Z.T. and Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Head of the Department of Sociology, Mukhambetova K.A. took part in the XXXIII annual conference of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), which was held at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). This year, the theme of the conference was "Nationalism and memory".

The plenary speakers of the conference were Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University College Dublin, Leah David (researcher on the globalization of human rights and the politics of memory, specialist in historical sociology; qualitative research methods) and Jeffrey K. Olick, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia, author of numerous publications on collective memory, critical theory, trauma, the history of sociological theory, and editor of the six-volume Cultural History of Memory, published by Bloomsbury. As part of the traditional Anthony D. Smith Lecture on April 9, Lars-Erik Söderman, Professor of International Conflict Studies at ETH Zürich, spoke on the topic “Nationalism and State Transformation: Changing Borders, Historical Legacy and Conflict.”

The thematic areas of the conference included 8 panel sessions. A team of researchers from the Department of Sociology of the L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University made a presentation on the topic: "Post-memory discourse in Kazakhstan" (Zeinep Abetova et al., https://asen.ac.uk/conference/abstracts/#C6 ) in Panel session C6 "National Stories". The study presented the results of studying the cultural memory of young people as agents of post-memory.

In addition, for the purpose of potential scientific cooperation, the process of negotiating a memorandum with Hugo Gorringe, Head of the Department of Sociology at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, has begun. The next conference #ASEN2025 will be held from April 23 to 25, 2025 on the topic "Nationalism and Borders" at the Central European University in Budapest (Hungary).