Syndication from the Freedom of Thought Association website
Call for Papers — Issue 17 of the Freedom of Thought Journal
“The Crisis of Collective Memory and Academic Research”
Collective memory—its nature, meaning, and the processes of its formation, reconstruction, and its role in society—has been widely debated across sociology, philosophy, history, and other branches of the humanities and social sciences (Bergson, Deleuze, Halbwachs, Ricœur, Jung, Binner…). The importance of addressing this topic lies, among other things, in the pivotal role collective memory plays in the relation between the present and the future, as well as in the identity formation processes, social cohesion, and various forms of social action.
Our decision to focus on this theme in Freedom of Thought is prompted by the intense and often polarizing debates surrounding the history of 20th-century Iran (14th century in the Iranian solar calendar) and the strikingly divergent interpretations of historical events (e.g., 19 August 1953 coup, the 1979 Revolution…), symbolic places (Azadi Square, Cyrus the Great’s Mausoleum…), and historical figures (Reza Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Ruhollah Khomeini…) in contemporary Iranian society—what may rightly be termed a crisis of collective memory. The issue at stake here is not the historical events themselves, nor academic historical research per se, but rather the ways in which society perceives, internalizes, and attributes symbolic meaning to this past.
This pronounced divergence and fragmentation in collective remembrance weighs heavily on the collective consciousness of today’s Iran—despite the significant proliferation of historical research on 20th-century Iran in recent decades. Paradoxically, while scholarly output on Iran’s contemporary history has reached unprecedented levels, the interpretations of the past among social groups have become increasingly divergent and contradictory.
We have dedicated the central theme of Issue 17 of Freedom of Thought to this very subject. The aim is to critically examine the phenomenon of collective memory, its condition, functions, and role in today’s Iranian society. Proposed articles may approach the subject of collective memory in Iran from various perspectives, including but not limited to:
- Societal transformations and the fluidity of collective memory over time
- The meaning and scope of pluralism in collective memory
- Collective memory of social groups and the dialectics of past, present, and future
- The pace and fluctuations of social change and their impact on collective memory
- The role of media in shaping perceptions and receptions of the past
- Sources and agents of memory formation (places, education, actors and intellectuals, media, historical research…) and the evolution of collective memory
- The selective nature of collective memory and the phenomenon of collective forgetting
- Collective memory and the political sphere (state, civil society organizations, social movements…)
Note: Articles on other topics are also welcome for the journal’s open section.
Submission Deadline for Persian or English Articles: July 31, 2025
Please use the Chicago Notes and Bibliography citation style: [English Guidelines] / [Persian Guidelines]
Submit your article using the following form: [Link for Persian submission] / [Link for English submission]
Editorial Board — Freedom of Thought Journal
February 2025
