The Viral Memory Ad Memoriam Institute, chaired by Laetitia Atlani-Duault, is an international interdisciplinary research and training project in the social sciences and health. The recurrence and acceleration of viral crises (human, animal, and plant), or those arising from and exacerbated by what anthropologist Dan Sperber calls “the contagion of ideas” (1996), pose major and urgent challenges to the social, political, scientific, and health structures of our societies. The Institute will address these major challenges through three axes:

– Remembering: collecting, interpreting, and comparing, across time, place, and contexts, the traces and memories of episodes of viral transmission and the contagion of ideas.

– Research to understand: share research, inform teaching and public policy, and participate in the development of strategies to prevent and prepare for future crises.

– Understand to act: contribute to the collective invention of new memory practices.

The Viral Memory Ad Memoriam Institute is an extension of the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute, becoming one of its programs.

The Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute was founded by Laetitia Atlani-Duault in May 2020 with Université Paris Cité. Its primary objective is to collect, archive, and analyze the traces and memories of the pandemic. From the outset, it has brought together multiple sectors (research, healthcare, associations, major religious communities, etc.) to reflect on the pandemic and build a common cause together.

The renewal of the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute as the Viral Memory Ad Memoriam Institute in December 2024 by Université Paris Cité has resulted in a triple level expansion:

– Thematic: Crisis of viral origin and that arising from what anthropologist Dan Sperber called the “contagion of ideas”

– Theoretical: Revisiting the concepts of virality and contagion

– Geographic: Transition to an international scale

and a new name to reflect this expansion

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