Research Group on Transgenerational Memory

Overview

The question may arise: why is it important for a social researcher to deal with the “past”? But we might also ask: what is the “past”? Are the narratives of myths, the ‘factual’ and ‘common knowledge’ of history handed down through generations and/or taught in school, the ‘real’ and ‘objective’ accounts of the ‘past’? Is it not possible that the ‘past’ is as socially constructed a meaning for the present as any other aspect of our culture?  If we reflect on these questions, we can see that in our research focusing on the ‘present’, it is essential to interpret cultural and social memory.

The relevance of these questions, which our research team is also exploring, is underlined by the fact that we are witnessing a global phenomenon today called the “memory crisis”. The term ‘memory crisis’ is used in recent international social science research on memory to describe the ‘current obsession’ with the ‘past’, which manifests itself in society from the search for identity in personal memory, through the market for gene testing and genealogical research, to the production of political and/or nationalist mythologies.

In addition, cultural and social memory is of paramount importance for oppressed, segregated, discriminated ethnic, social, gender and sexual minorities in their identity politics and legal struggles. From this perspective, interdisciplinary social science research on memory also allows for a deeper understanding of social tensions and problems.

In summary, our group aims to operate an interdisciplinary social science platform that interprets the social and cultural meanings of intergenerational processes of memory and forgetting by coordinating related research, organising scientific forums, workshops, conferences and promoting scientific and scholarly publications. The main objective of our research workshop is also to make the results of relevant research not only accessible to students of the ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences, but also to involve students in the ongoing research. In this way, our students can gain research experience by joining our research group, in addition to their studies. As a first result of this, we welcome the first research project of our group, investigating the Holocaust remembrance of generation Z, using qualitative social science methods since the beginning of the spring semester of 2024/2025.

Research group members

  • Richárd PAPP, habil. associate professor, ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences

  • György CSEPELI, professor emeritus, ELTE ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences

  • Mária HELLER, habil. associate professor, ELTE ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences

  • Máté KISS, assistant professor, ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences

Keywords

cultural memory, transgenerational research, qualitative methods, commemorative rituals, modern myths 

Outputs

Papp, R., & Csepeli, G. (2025). The presence of absence. transgenerational local memory of the Holocaust among Hungarians. Studia Humanistyczne AGH, 23(2), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.7494/human.2024.23.2.6625

Planned research topics

  • Continuation of the research on Transgenerational Holocaust-memory in Central Europe conducted in 2022-2024, led by Richárd Papp and supported by the Visegrad Fund

  • Qualitative social science research on social memory among Generation Z

  • Identity politics and memory politics in Central Europe and their impact on transgenerational memory

  • Mythic - cultural memory and nationalism

  • Meanings of memory in minority cultures

  • Historical and literary narratives in school textbooks in terms of remembrance and forgetting

  • Memory as manifested in commemorative rituals

  • Memory through symbols

  • Analysis of memory signs, visible or invisible in public social spaces

  • Analysis of individual life stories and family histories

  • Memory patterns in the media and on the Internet and their impact on memory narratives of different generations

Contact information

Richárd PAPP (leader)
Department of Cultural Anthropology
Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest (ELTE)
papp.richard@tatk.elte.hu / pappriki@gmail.com

Máté KISS
Department of Cultural Anthropology
Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest (ELTE)
kiss.mate@tatk.elte.hu