IIT Madras Arranges International Memory Studies Workshop

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Centre for Memory Studies hosted an International Memory Studies Workshop. IIT Madras’s virtual workshop on memory studies was Asia’s first and it precedes the official release of the Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS). Held between April 26 and April 30, the workshop was attended by over 100 participants from all over the world.

A number of participants, an IIT Madras statement said, recognized the academic as well as the deeply existential need to engage with the field of Memory Studies in the current pandemic world where memory, connectivity and empathy emerge as vital human attributes.

The workshop provided a scholarly platform to train and mentor doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in Memory Studies and facilitated the emergence of research methods and innovative, interactive, immersive tools in Memory Studies with the aid of digital technologies.

This international workshop on Memory Studies, the first of its kind in Asia, precedes the official launch of the Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS), the first national network in the field in Asia under the aegis of the International Memory Studies Association, Amsterdam. The launch of the INMS will take place in mid-June 2021 through a virtual event at IIT Madras, the statement added.

The XR Labs, TCS Chennai, headed by Dr Ashok Maharaj, is one of the industry partners of the Centre for Memory Studies, IIT Madras. The XR Lab has been collaborating with IIT Madras on projects using Augmented reality (AR) / Virtual reality (VR) tools and 360-degree procedural training.