Jenny Wüstenberg

Cookies are baked, tree is up & decorated, Semmelknödel are prepped. Now it’s time for me to delete LinkedIn & Bluesky from my phone for 2 weeks. I hope you can also slow down for a bit. Wishing you happy holidays and a very happy start to 2026 to you and yours!!

‼️ More ideas welcome!

❓ Could we have done even more to slow down? No doubt: we could have created device-free sessions? Met for longer, but with more breaks & more opportunities for movement 🧘 (yoga, hikes)? Integrated writing/planning retreats into the conference, to create time for teams to work together?

🌿 Engaging with place - trying to understand where you are, connecting with the natural world & ⛲ historical traces - not only helps to clear our heads when we are "knowledge-exchanging", but facilitates learning together and from each other & means we are less exhausted at the end of a meeting.

Workshops, informal sharing sessions, 🦶 walks & talks - all these make so much sense to connect people!

the conventional panel format rarely permits enough time for anyone to get their ideas across, while almost nobody (especially in times of constant connectivity) can focus for long under those circumstances.

🗣️ Creating settings that allow for conversations to flow in multiple & unexpected directions is not rocket science!

🐌 I was struck again by the power of making ⏱️ time to get to know each other as people (not "just" as professionals) & how those "in-between" & 🤩 fun moments are at least as important as the formal, scheduled ones. Slow meetings will continue to be at the heart of our approach.

🪂 There is more work to be done here to make such occasions accessible.

We will be able to learn so much from how these 🌍 collaborations develop. I was really happy that some of these partners joined the conference, but I would like to do more next time to make sure it is attractive & possible for more of them to attend.

🤝 All of these projects are working with stakeholders from the outset; they fundamentally shaped how projects were conceived of, even before their evaluation & funding. Societal "impact" wasn't just tacked on at the end.

I am so glad to have a front row 🪑 seat to how this research evolves over the next 2-3 years.

💃 What a privilege it is to be able to learn from these cutting-edge & transformative projects, led & run by people who really care - about our planet, about meaningful connections with other species & across communities, about shaping institutions & policies that work for the better.

But we can also consider how we may harness such dominant framings & make them work for us, productively driving attention to the issues we care about. 🎭 Humanities are absolutely crucial to both these tasks.

⚠️ It's crucial to be critical of the 👎 crisis framing that currently dominates & interrogate what work this framing does, what questions & whose voices it may obscure, & how we might go about reframing and historicizing what is currently happening.

After slowing down a bit & taking time to reflect, here are some key points that emerged for me from our hashtag#KnowledgeExchangeforSlowHope Kick-Off Conference for researchers in 10 humanities-led projects on crisis, funded by HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area). A 🧵

So great to have you here @liminalwater.bsky.social !

German far right setting agenda as opponents amplify its ideas, study finds Normalisation of far-right stances likely to affect success of such parties at ballot boxes across Europe, say researchers

“Political communication by mainstream parties plays a central role in the electoral success of the far right” - no shit! Unsurprising but important study. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

And that's a wrap on the Slow Memory COST Action! We're so grateful to all our colleagues, partners, friends and collaborators who grew this Action into a blossoming network that will bear its fruit still in the years to come. We will still post about our resources in the coming weeks – stay tuned!

Mixed emotions as I travel home from
Ghent after our very final @slowmemo.bsky.social retreat. I am proud of what we’ve accomplished, excited to see how we collaborate next, a bit tired - but most of all so thankful that I got to work with this absolute dream team for 4 years. Miss you already!!

YouTube video by Smartphone Free Childhood US Smartphone Free Childhood US - "Let's Change The Norm"

youtu.be/h_xwJ5u9I8o Great short way to explain why smartphones are so harmful for kids. Not that I have figured out a way to protect mine from them effectively. But changing the norm is essential.

New statue on National Mall celebrates ‘long-lasting bond’ between Trump and Epstein Bronze statue by an anonymous creator shows the two men frolicking and holding hands with a foot kicked back in joy

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... Fantastic example of memory activism.

Slow Down How You Remember! "New perspectives to shape our collective past and future". How do we remember in an age of fast-moving change? How can slowing down our approach to memory open new ways of engaging with Europe’s past...

historia.europa.eu/en/exhibitio...
If you are nearby, please join us on *Oct.2 at 4 PM* at the House of European History in Brussels for discussions, refreshments & tours through the "Presence of the Past" exhibition to celebrate 4 years of research & engagement on @slowmemo.bsky.social. Register 🔽

Dropping off our oldest kid at uni today and feeling all the feels.

Why Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian matters | Kimberlé Crenshaw and Jason Stanley The president’s assault on US museums, education and memory is a critical dimension of his fascist aims

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fascinating study by @findingnature.bsky.social argues that lack of nature connectedness is “a key root of the environmental crisis” and finds around 60% decline in use of “nature words” in books between 1800 and 2020 #slowmemory

Although we only saw each other once or twice a year at Memory Studies gatherings, I cannot imagine them without Wulf. He was always incredibly warm & engaging, even when he was provocative, which he loved being. What a catastrophe.

‘The ocean is spitting our rubbish back’: Italy’s museum of plastic pollution Faded items dating back to 1950s have been found on Italian beaches, underscoring plastic’s problematic longevity

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Clearly something for the
@slowmemo.bsky.social list.

The Happy Family books were a staple of both my and my kids childhood. Sad news.

The @memstudiesassoc.bsky.social conference in Prague is drawing to a close tonight and I can only congratulate Katerina Kralova, Rose Smith & the whole team! It was wonderful to talk to so many people about @slowmemo.bsky.social and hang out with the crew!