Stories, Memory, and Method: Rethinking How We Study the Past – A Workshop with David Mwambari

How do we study memory in societies marked by displacement, conflict, and loss? Please come join David Mwambari in a workshop that will explore creative and collaborative approaches drawing on orature, arts-based practices, and qualitative research to reimagine how we gather and understand life narratives.

The workshop will begin with a talk on how to diversify methodological approaches in memory studies, using examples from David’s ERC-funded TMSS project, which documents the experiences of displaced communities in six countries across Europe, the US, and Africa. The second part will then shift into a participatory workshop, where participants will co-create conversations around practices that can deepen and expand the ways in which we listen to, learn from, and document stories of the past that have multiple meanings today.

Programme:

13.30 – Walk in and welcome 

13.45 – 14:45 – Talk by David Mwambari about his project

14.45 – 15.00 Coffee Break

15.00 – 16:00 Workshop 

16.00 Borrel

Seating is limited, so please register via this link.

David Mwambari’s passion is to teach, build bridges, and connections across geographies, disciplines, and communities, even when it’s uncomfortable to do so. He enjoys teaching, research, and writing for different publics. He is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at KU Leuven and principal investigator of the European Research Council–funded Life Narratives of Violence Among Refugees from Africa’s Great Lakes Region (AGLR). The multidisciplinary team is conducting research in six countries in Europe, the USA, and East and Southern Africa. He serves on the core faculty and board of the Oxford Consortium on Human Rights in Oxford, UK, and the Centre for Mediation in Africa at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Mwambari has led collaborative workshops across Africa, Europe, Australia, and Latin America, and has published widely on the politics of memory, gendered peace and security, and qualitative research in conflict settings. His publications include Navigating Cultural Memory: Commemoration and Narrative in Postgenocide Rwanda (Oxford University Press, 2023), which won the APCG Best Book Award at the African Studies Association conference in Chicago (2024) and the MSA First Book Award at the Memory Studies Association conference in Prague (2025). His other widely read works across disciplines include peer-reviewed journal articles, such as “Local Positionality in the Production of Knowledge in Northern Uganda” (International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2019) and “Covid-19 and research in conflict-affected contexts: distanced methods and the digitalisation of suffering” (Qualitative Research, 2022, co-authored). And in non-academic outlets: “Africa’s next decolonization battle should be about knowledge,” Al Jazeera Online, 2019. His community and academic work have won international awards.