The guest speaker for this episode is Prof Astrid Erll (Goethe University Frankfurt).

Prof Erll presents a talk entitled ‘Coronavirus and Collective Memory’. In her talk and in the discussion that follows, Prof Erll reflects on the interrelation of collective memory and the pandemic, reviewing her mid-pandemic thinking with two years’ hindsight.

The talk in this episode (10.50-52.28) is a lightly edited version of the lecture Prof Erll delivered as the keynote at the Connecting Memories 2020 online symposium, which can also be viewed at https://youtu.be/C3HXF5ZoEA0. All other material is new.

This podcast is one of two extended specials to mark the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organisation’s declaration of a global pandemic on 11 March 2020.