TRACTS stands for ‘Trace as a research agenda for climate change, technology studies, and social justice’. TRACTS is a COST Action (2021–2025) that brings together scholars from disciplines of the social sciences and humanities with artists, decolonial activists, memorialization experts and legal professionals to bridge current cultural, political and geographical gaps in research on traces. The network is open and inclusive and you can join any time.
Our vision
The aim of this network is to reformulate the state-of-the-art in the research on traces through interdisciplinary networking and research coordination. An inclusive network on traces in the context of the current pressing challenges of social justice, climate change and technology can inform transformative research agendas and create new paradigms in the social sciences and humanities in Europe and beyond.
We understand trace broadly as a phenomenon (an object/trail/ruin/archival record/memory/etc.) that is both a mark and a track of the past and the future, that can be found and followed in the present. In particular the action is focused on rethinking how we work with traces ethically, methodologically, and conceptually. We believe the best way to do this is through an interdisciplinary network of global scholars.
What we do
The action consists of meetings, training schools, scientific missions, and grants. In these events the focus is on experimental, interdisciplinary, creative and socially engaged means of collaborating and sharing research.
By bringing together scholars, practitioners, and activists from a range of different disciplines and interest areas, we hope to establish links across the existing literature and research and identify new directions for those of us working with traces. The intention is that the outcomes of working together should range from the scholarly to the practical, to the experimental!
For more information about TRACTS please click here.
