The Committee on Global Thought presents Orhan Pamuk, Joseph LeDoux, and Partha Chatterjee in an interdisciplinary conversation bringing perspectives from literature, neuroscience, and history to explore the ways in which we understand, think about, and study the past. <br /> <br /> Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Museum of Innocence, Istanbul, and creator of the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul<br /> Joseph LeDoux, Neuroscientist and researcher on memory and emotion, Author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self<br /> Partha Chatterjee, Political theorist and historian, Author of A Princely Impostor? and The Black Hole of Empire<br /> <br /> Moderated by Carol Gluck<br /> <br /> Inaugurating the international collaborative research project of the Committee on Global Thought: The Politics of Difficult Pasts: Memory in Global Context.

The Committee on Global Thought presents Orhan Pamuk, Joseph LeDoux, and Partha Chatterjee in an interdisciplinary conversation bringing perspectives from literature, neuroscience, and history to

Conversation on Memory: Literature, Neuroscience, History

November 19, 2013 • 6:30-8PM

Columbia University, CESPR Shapiro Center, Davis Auditorium

  • Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, and author of A Princely Impostor? and The Black Hole of Empire
  • Joseph LeDoux, Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, and professor of neuroscience and psychology, New York University, and author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self
  • Orhan Pamuk, Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, and author of The Museum of Innocence and Istanbul, and creator of the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul
  • Carol Gluck (moderator), George Sansom Professor of History and Professor of East Asian Language and Cultures

This discussion brought together path-breaking voices from three different disciplines to explore the ways in which we understand, think about and study the past. It inaugurated the new CGT Signature Research Initiative, Memory in Global Context: The Politics of Difficult Pasts, which examines the politics and culture of public memory by bringing together scholars of memory from the social sciences and humanities, cognitive science and neuroscience, and curators of historical and memorial museums.

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About the Politics of Memory in Global Context

Bringing together scholars of memory from the social sciences and humanities, cognitive science and neuroscience, and curators of historical and memorial museums to examine the politics and cultures of memory.

Politics of Memory in Global Context bannerThe Politics of Memory in Global Context is a Franco-American collaborative project that brings together scholars in the social sciences and humanities who work on collective or public memory; cognitive scientists, psychologists, and neuroscientists who work on individual memory; and curators of historical and memorial museums who present the past to the public.  The main museum partners are the Mémorial de Caen, the national World War II museum in France, and the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York.

Led by Professor Carol Gluck at Columbia, the project combines diverse disciplinary approaches and insists on considering its topics comparatively in global context in order to discern commonalities among them,  develop new analytic perspectives on the formation and operation of public memory, and  suggest policies for better political management of divisive memories within and between countries.

Learn more about the Politics of Memory in Global Context.