Today, Professor Barry J. Gibson from the University of Sheffield delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Croatian Studies entitled ‘Time-Tripping from the Academy to the Icon: Negotiating Methodological Schisms and the Contested Legacy of Kurt Cobain’, as part of the institutional DIGI-HR research project.
Strong interest was evident even before the lecture began — the Šibenik lecture hall was filled to capacity, with demand for still more seats. The audience included sociology students, teaching staff and members of the DIGI-HR research team.
In his presentation, Professor Gibson discussed the relationship between history and collective memory, showing how social groups reinterpret past events from the perspective of current social circumstances. Central to his lecture was the concept of time-tripping, which he used to explain how the past is reconstructed and adapted to contemporary social needs, values and conflicts.
The first part of the lecture explored the development of grounded theory, one of the key qualitative methodologies in the social sciences. Professor Gibson outlined its development, internal theoretical disputes and different directions in contemporary methodological development, highlighting how academic debates about methodology often reflect broader changes within the social sciences and humanities.
Particular interest was generated by the section using Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's frontman, to illustrate how social memory is shaped through different personal, media and cultural narratives. Analysing memoirs and biographical accounts by people from Cobain's personal and professional life, Professor Gibson raised the question of who participates in shaping someone's historical legacy and how different interpretations create a socially accepted image of the past.
Barry Gibson emphasised the importance of understanding how societies shape and sustain historical narratives, particularly in divided and post-conflict communities. Examples of contemporary social conflicts demonstrated how collective memory can play an important role in shaping social identities, political attitudes and relationships with the past.
Students took the opportunity to speak with the guest lecturer and learn first-hand about the relationship between history and social memory, and the role of popular culture in shaping collective narratives.
Professor Gibson's visit is the second in a series of international lectures organised within the DIGI-HR project. On Tuesday, 5 May, Professor Christian Morgner from the University of Portsmouth also delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Croatian Studies on generative artificial intelligence as a ‘question laboratory’, as DIGI-HR continues to create opportunities for interdisciplinary discussion of contemporary social and technological change.