We are an interdisciplinary group of scholars in the humanities studying the tension between human cooperation and conflict. By examining past contexts, we uncover the drivers and consequences of collective action and discord. We aim to deepen our understanding of human relationships over the long-term and cultivate strategies for fostering cooperation and resolving conflict.
Our first series of meetings (September-December 2025), ranging from book talks, to reading group sessions, and film screenings featuring recent and forthcoming scholarly and artistic works by Australian and international researchers, writers, artists, and filmmakers develops the theme of “Writing Histories of Conflict and Cooperation in Unspeakable Times: Memory, Trauma, and Healing”
We describe the contemporary moment as Unspeakable Times—a term that gestures toward the difficulty of articulating experiences of violence, displacement, and historical rupture. These are times marked by silences in official narratives, the invalidation of witnessing and or manipulation of truth in a post-truth era, the erasure of marginalized voices, and the lingering effects of trauma that resist straightforward representation. They are also times of resistance and resilience in which marginalized subjects actively contest practices of silencing and historical erasure, asserting presence through acts of memory, testimony, and creative expression. By naming these conditions, we seek to interrogate the limits of language and historiography, and to explore how memory and storytelling may function as modes of both critique and healing.
Building on the concept of postmemory, developed by Professor Marianne Hirsch to describe the transgenerational impact of Holocaust trauma (Hirsch, 2012), and rememory, a term used by Toni Morrison to evoke the performative act of rewriting African American histories shaped by slavery (Morrison, 2019), the cluster will explore themes in colonial and post-colonial global history. Through collective engagement with journal articles, monographs, memoirs, and documentaries, we aim to foster critical dialogue around trauma, memory, and the possibilities of healing.
Our discussions will also consider the challenges and opportunities of bridging academic history writing with public history and critical heritage initiatives. If the inability to name violence perpetuates trauma, then naming and historicizing it may open new pathways for healing.
We hope to bring together an interdisciplinary cohort of scholars and artists with shared interests in history writing -including interdisciplinary methodologies and decolonial epistemologies- and to lay the groundwork for collaborative projects with academic and non-academic partners, including creative practitioners.