Call for Chapter Contributions: Beyond "Never Again." Democratic Memory, Transitional Justice and the Politics of Remembering

Edited by: Nfor N. Nde Nyambi (Villa College, Maldives)

This edited volume is part of the Democratic Memory, Transitional Justice and Historical Memory series. It will include a Foreword by Professor Brusil Miranda Metou. The Editor invites chapter proposals that examine the relationship between democratic memory, transitional justice, and the politics of remembering in societies confronting legacies of violence, authoritarianism, conflict, and mass atrocities.

The expression “Never Again” has for decades become one of the defining moral commitments of the modern international order. Yet contemporary societies continue to struggle with denialism, historical revisionism, competing narratives, selective remembrance, and renewed forms of political violence. This volume asks what happens when memory itself becomes contested and explores how law, politics, institutions, culture, heritage, archives, and public narratives shape the ways societies remember, interpret, and negotiate difficult pasts.

Moving beyond traditional studies of transitional justice institutions, this collection places memory at the centre of analysis, examining its role in democratic reconstruction, accountability, reconciliation, victim recognition, and political legitimacy. Adopting an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the volume welcomes contributions from scholars working in law, political science, history, sociology, criminology, anthropology, memory studies, heritage studies, peace and conflict studies, philosophy, cultural studies, and related disciplines. Early-career scholars are especially encouraged to submit.

Topics and Themes

Authors may address, from whatever perspective they consider appropriate, topics including, but not limited to the following:

• Reimagining “Never Again”: The evolution of “Never Again” as a global norm; democratic memory; collective remembrance; historical justice; memory, trauma, recognition, and democratic reconstruction.

• Law, Institutions and the Governance of Memory: Truth commissions, criminal trials, reparations, constitutional memory, memory laws, archives, documentation, international criminal justice, and the role of legal institutions in constructing historical narratives.

• Contested Histories and Comparative Transitional Justice: Comparative perspectives on memory politics and democratic transitions, including experiences from Spain, Argentina, Rwanda, South Africa, Colombia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other post-conflict or post-authoritarian societies.

• Memory Beyond Institutions: Memorials, museums, monuments, cultural heritage, literature, cinema, art, public commemorations, political symbolism, survivor testimony, digital memory, artificial intelligence, misinformation, historical revisionism, and the future of remembrance practices.

• Emerging Perspectives: Indigenous memory, environmental memory, gender and memory, intersectionality, decolonising memory, youth and intergenerational remembrance, memory activism, and other innovative approaches to democratic memory and transitional justice.

Submission Process

Please submit the following:

• A 300–500-word abstract

• A short biography (approximately 150 words)

• Institutional affiliation

• Contact email

• Five keywords

To: nyambi.nfor@villacollege.edu.mv cc nnfornde@gmail.com

Subject: Abstract Submission – Beyond "Never Again" Edited Volume

Accepted contributors will be invited to submit an original 6,000–8,000-word chapter (including footnotes and references).

All submissions must be written in English. Chapters must be original, unpublished, and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style citation system. All submitted chapters shall undergo editorial review and anonymous peer review prior to inclusion in the volume.

Important Timeline

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 December 2026

• Notification of Acceptance: 15 January 2027

• Submission of Full Chapters (6,000–8,000 words): 30 June 2027

• Peer Review Feedback: September 2027

• Submission of Revised Chapters: 31 October 2027

• Submission of Final Manuscript to the Publisher: 28 February 2028

The editor particularly welcomes original and theoretically informed contributions that critically interrogate the intersections between memory, law, democracy, justice, political violence, historical responsibility, and democratic resilience. Comparative, interdisciplinary, empirical, doctrinal, and innovative methodological approaches are especially encouraged. Scholars from all geographical regions and career stages are warmly invited to contribute to this volume.