Lecture by Alice Semedo, 22.6., 14:00 - 16:00

The Department of Memory Studies at the Institute of Ethnology CAS invites you to the upcoming lecture “Slow Curating and Dissonant Memories: Regimes of Temporal Intelligibility and Curatorial Challenges” by Alice Semedo, Associate Professor of Museology at the University of Porto and researcher at CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre for Culture, Space and Memory.

The lecture will take place on Monday 22.6.2026, 14:00 - 16:00 (CEST) in the conference room (5th floor) of the Institute of Ethnology CAS, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1. To attend online via MS Teams, please use this link.

Abstract:
This lecture explores how dominant regimes of temporal intelligibility continue to shape curatorial approaches to memory through linear and coherent frameworks that privilege clarity, continuity and narrative closure, often reducing contradiction and unresolved tensions, particularly in relation to dissonant memories. Rather than understanding temporal organisation as neutral, the lecture approaches it as a site of epistemological and political negotiation that shapes what becomes visible, thinkable and sayable. In response, the lecture reflects on possible curatorial tactics capable of sustaining complexity, hesitation and temporal multiplicity, resisting the impulse towards premature resolution and opening space for other ways of encountering and engaging with the past. 

Bio:
Alice Semedo is an Associate Professor of Museology at the University of Porto and a researcher at CITCEM – Transdisciplinary Research Centre for Culture, Space and Memory. Her work is situated at the intersection of museums, heritage, memory and education, interrogating the ways in which societies remember, silence and reinterpret the past. She is particularly interested in the relationships between education, mediation and memory practices, exploring how museums participate in the public construction and contestation of the past particularly through engagements with contested, dissonant and historically marginalised memories.