Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović and his colleagues from several European universities have won a COST Action award funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, worth a total of £500,000, for a four-year research network project titled TRACTS: Traces as Research Agenda for Climate Change, Technology Studies, and Social Justice. The project starts in September 2021.
TRACTS brings together scholars from disciplines of the social sciences and humanities with artists, decolonial activists, memorialization experts and legal professionals to bridge current cultural, political and geographical gaps in research on traces. In response to the recent waves of populism, actors as diverse as environmentalists, human rights activists, and curators have been confronting and creatively deploying the legacies of the 20th century. This shows no sign of abating in a Europe marked by rapid technological, environmental and socio-economic changes. As such, mapping the challenges in the realms of social justice, climate change, and technological impact on society requires reflecting on and producing new understandings regarding traces. An inclusive network on traces in the context of pressing challenges of social justice, climate change and technology can inform transformative research agendas and create new paradigms in the social sciences and humanities in Europe and beyond. This Action gathers a critical mass of scholars and practitioners at a crucial juncture of the European project. Focusing on the conceptual, methodological and ethical challenge of traces, TRACTS develops a comprehensive research coordination and training program, including experimental knowledge production and training for future research leaders. TRACTS will host symposia, workshops, and research meetings to provide a platform for collaboration and exchange to advance the state of the art in different fields. These will lead to deliverables such as joint publications and a special issue on TRACTS advancements, a Traces Atlas, an online repository on traces research and a series of newsletters and podcasts.
TRACTS will have five Working Groups:
- Trace as ethical, methodological and conceptual challenge
- Traces and Social Justice
- Traces and Climate Change
- Traces and Technology
- Dissemination and Science Communication
The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is an intergovernmental organization established in 1971. It is the longest-running European funding framework for international cooperation in research and science across Europe. COST provides support for the promotion of international cooperation and networking in the scientific and research community.