• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer
  • Accessibility options
University of Brighton
  • About us
  • Business and
    employers
  • Alumni and
    supporters
  • For
    students
  • For
    staff
  • Accessibility
    options
Open menu
Home
Home
  • Close
  • Study
    • Courses and subjects
    • Find a course
    • A-Z course list
    • Explore our subjects
    • Academic departments
    • Visiting the university
    • Explore: get to know us
    • Upcoming events
    • Virtual tours
    • Chat to our students and staff
    • Open days
    • Applicant days
    • Order a prospectus
    • Ask a question
    • Studying here
    • Accommodation and locations
    • Applying
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Transferring from another university
    • The Student Contract
    • Clearing 2022
    • International students
    • Fees and finance
    • Advice and help
    • Advice for students
    • Advice for parents and carers
    • Advice for schools and teachers
    • Managing your application
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Apprenticeships
  • Research
    • Research and knowledge exchange
    • Research and knowledge exchange organisation
    • The Global Challenges
    • Centres of Research Excellence (COREs)
    • Research Excellence Groups (REGs)
    • Our research database
    • Information for business
    • Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
    • Postgraduate research degrees
    • PhD research disciplines and programmes
    • PhD funding opportunities and studentships
    • How to apply for your PhD
    • Research environment
    • Investing in research careers
    • Strategic plan
    • Research concordat
    • News, events, publications and films
    • Research and knowledge exchange news
    • Inaugural lectures
    • Research and knowledge exchange publications and films
    • Academic staff search
  • About us
  • Business and employers
  • Alumni, supporters and giving
  • Current students
  • Staff
  • Accessibility
Search our site
Very grainy de-focused black and white image showing soldiers in a wide terraced street. Middle ground standing with rifles, foreground walking towards camera with helmets and rifles. Civilians on pavement and walking across the road. Image of Belfast str
Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories
  • What we do
  • Join us for study, work or visit
  • Who we are

Welcome to the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories

The Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories at the University of Brighton fosters research excellence in modern cultural history and cultural memory studies.  

Our researchers investigate the complex relationships between past, present and future, foregrounding subordinate and marginalised history and memory in relation to official narrative, and focusing on questions of power, identity and experience.  

The Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories is committed to historical research that challenges social inequalities, oppressions and injustices, interrogates received meanings of the past, and produces alternative accounts that help to generate transformative thinking and politics. 

Emphasising the plural 'histories', our interdisciplinary centre brings together researchers with related and complementary interests, providing a focus for research development and a platform for engagement with the wider academic community and partners working outside of higher education.

  • Latest activities, events and opportunities - visit our Memory Narrative and Histories blog site.
  • We welcome new members and associates at the Centre for Memory, History and Narratives. Please visit our 'Join us for study work or visit' page.

 

PhD applicants - find out more about studying within the centre

Contact the centre regarding membership enquiries, doctoral study, research collaboration or to receive regular news.

Memorynarrativehistories@brighton.ac.uk 

  

Colour photograph of dancers, showing two figures in vintage dresses and shoes on a lit panel colour-block dancefloor.

What we do

Grainy coloured photograph. Children together with older figures examine brightly coloured cloth outdoors.

Join us for study, work, visit

Black and white indoor image of working group. Long tables. Two women at a table with threads and equipment dominate. Further tables and men in waistcoats and ties.

Who we are

Our latest research activity 
Visit our blog site for work-in-progess, events and opportunities. 

Our research in detail
Explore our centre on the university database of research and knowledge exchange.
 

Drs Deborah Madden and Zeina El Maasri together

An introduction from the directors of Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories, Dr Deborah Madden and Dr Zeina Maasri.

The Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories is a unique centre for historical research located at the University of Brighton. Our uniqueness stems from three principles that shape our approach and the way we work.

Unlike more narrowly-focused research centres, Memory, Narrative and Histories embraces the full spectrum of practices developed to make sense of 'the past', of historical processes, and of temporal experience.

Our investigations range from oral history, life writing and testimony, to forms of cultural representation in the popular media, literature and the creative arts; from memory and commemoration to the creation and use of archives and collections; and from scholarship in cultural, social and political history to local and community history and public heritage. This eclectic breadth of interest enables us to ask questions about the interconnections and synergies that exist between these practices and the cultural circulation of meanings that result. 

The Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories promotes interdisciplinary research enquiry and dialogue. We bring together researchers who approach their mutual interests from diverse angles, utilising research methods, concepts and theories from history, cultural studies and memory studies, and drawing also on, inter alia, literary, visual and screen studies and narratology to explore forms of representation in the past and about the past; on social anthropology and cultural geography to address relations between temporality and space/place; on psychoanalysis and sociology to situate understandings of the past, present and future within structures of selfhoods and society.

Our interdisciplinary research is organised principally, but not exclusively, according to themes which link individuals with cognate interests: in racism, Empire, colonialism and their contestation; in war, conflict and 'post-conflict' transformation; in health, illness and recovery; in cultural heritage; and in transnational histories and memories. 

The research centre aspires to produce research which is  transformative with respect to political violence and oppression, social inequality and injustice. In this, we recognise a necessary relationship between academic scholarship and the many kinds of historical knowledge created outside the academy, by artists, activists, curators, teachers and other professionals, and by communities and social groups in the course of everyday life. Our centre affords a space for connection and conversation between people from different locations who share our conviction that history and memory are profoundly important in present circumstances and in relation to needs and imaginings of the future. 

Membership of the research centre is open to all University of Brighton staff and postgraduate researchers with relevant interests, with Associate Membership an option for colleagues outside the University. We welcome enquiries for supervision from prospective doctoral students ­– our PhD members play a crucial role in the vibrancy of the centre’s research culture – and for engagement and collaboration from academics and practitioners; and we invite contact from anyone who is simply interested to attend one of our programme of public events.

Dr Deborah Madden and Dr Zeina Maasri

Visit our blog site of work in progress, current opportunities and events

 

 

Read more from our updates, events and work-in-progress on our CMNH blog site.

Back to top
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn icon

Contact us

University of Brighton
Mithras House
Lewes Road
Brighton
BN2 4AT

Main switchboard 01273 600900

Course enquiries

Sign up for updates

University contacts

Report a problem with this page

Quick links Quick links

  • Courses
  • Open days
  • Order a prospectus
  • Academic departments
  • Academic staff
  • Professional services departments
  • Jobs
  • Privacy and cookie policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Libraries
  • Term dates
  • Maps
  • Graduation
  • Site information
  • Online shop
  • COVID-19

Information for Information for

  • Current students
  • International students
  • Media/press
  • Careers advisers/teachers
  • Parents/carers
  • Business/employers
  • Alumni/supporters
  • Suppliers
  • Local residents