This panel aims to critically explore the evolving field of memory policies by addressing key conceptual, theoretical, and empirical challenges identified in recent scholarship. Although a growing body of literature engages with the topic, it remains fragmented: memory policies are often under-conceptualised and frequently conflated with broader notions such as memory politics. To bridge this gap, the panel seeks to reposition memory policies within a public policy framework, emphasising their procedural nature through which governments and other actors design and implement interventions to shape collective representations of the past for present and future purposes. Contributions are invited to examine the multifaceted nature of memory policy-making, with particular attention to how memory policies operate across different stages of the policy cycle. The panel also welcomes contributions that analyse the diverse objectives and effects of memory policies. These may range from fostering democratic peace and promoting justice to cultivating exclusionary identities or whitewashing past injustices. It encourages comparative and interdisciplinary approaches that investigate how policy entrepreneurs, across both institutional and non-institutional contexts, influence these outcomes at multiple levels of governance. Special attention will be given to the global unevenness of existing research, which remains heavily Eurocentric, as well as to the need to expand empirical inquiry beyond dominant post-World War II European case studies. By bridging memory studies and policy analysis, the panel aims to enhance conceptual clarity and contribute to a more systematic understanding of how societies govern the past in turbulent political contexts. Finally, the panel actively encourages participation from early-career researchers and PhD students, welcoming their contributions to this emerging and dynamic field.
Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- Conceptual relationship between memory politics and public policy
- Policy processes in the institutionalising collective memory
- Input of policy entrepreneurs in shaping memory policies
- Multilevel governance of memory policies
- Memory policies in democratic and authoritarian contexts
- Comparative perspectives on memory policies across regions
- Impact of conflicts on memory policy-making
