Coral Memories. How Reefs Shape Cultural Imaginaries of Time in North America and Europe
Simon Probst (Vechta)
- Beginning:
- Thursday, 05 February 2026 14:15
We will welcome Simon Probst from University Vechta with his Keynote as part of the 7th Annual Graduate Workshop of the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies with the theme 'Memory Matters: Non-Human Agents in Memory Studies'
Abstract:
This keynote explores how corals shape natural-cultural memories in North America and Europe, foregrounding reefs as oceanic archives of planetary change and agents that shape cultural narratives. It examines how reef-building corals are made readable in the sciences as climate proxies and witnesses of deep time, while also circulating in literature, visual culture, and environmental discourse as metaphors that organize historical accounts, from imperial and national narratives to contemporary imaginaries of ecological crisis. Bringing together blue humanities, memory studies, and the history of science, the talk traces the cultural agency corals perform across laboratories, museums, literature, and artistic practices. Discussing mnemonic agency of corals through the theory of natural-cultural memory, the keynote reflects critically on the extractive, colonial, and epistemic conditions under which corals become natural archives and influence as material witnesses collective narratives of past, present, and future.
Simon Probst:
further information see here
Venue:
GS OSESUR, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg, Room 319 (3rd floor)
Please find the full programme of the 7th Annual Graduate Workshop here.
Interested people are welcome, registration is requested: gsoses.conference@ur.de
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