Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
Professor Dan Stone, Royal Holloway, University of London (19th July)
Professor Wulf Kansteiner, Binghamton University, USA (20th July)
Professor Aleida Assmann, University of Konstanz, Germany (20th July).
In the mid- to late-1970s, the afterlife of the Nazi extermination of Europe’s Jews entered into a new phase. Research has shown that there was never ‘silence’ per se around the genocide of the Jews in the immediate post-war decades, and notable developments did occur during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Yet it was in the 1970s that much greater strides were made, thanks in part to the international emergence of “the Holocaust” as a collective conception. By no means did this bring resolution or consensus, nor did it necessarily spur immediate confrontation with this dark past.
This conference is concerned specifically with what has happened in the ensuing decades since the mid- to late-1970s. Ours is the generation in which Holocaust memory has grown exponentially, expanding and extending at such a rate that it not only permeates Western culture and society, but now has global proportions. Nor is there any indication of this slowing down any time soon; instead, increased concern at the passing of survivors has given but further impetus to attempts to teach, learn, and remember the Holocaust, whilst its continued representation raises ongoing interest in its abstraction and appropriation.
We are inviting proposals which seek to explore and examine the development of Holocaust history and memory over the past four decades. We are especially interested in:
- The social, political and cultural memories of the Holocaust that have emerged over the past generation.
- What trajectories have these followed, how and why?
- What structural forces and individual agencies have driven these memories, and to what ends?
- Given that Holocaust memory has become a dimension of our contemporary condition, how have the fortunes of Holocaust history and remembrance interfaced and intersected with major historical events like the cessation of the Cold War, transnational trends such as Europeanisation and globalisation, and transcultural phenomena like human rights?
- To what extent have our social, political and cultural memories of the Holocaust allowed or prevented us from confronting other genocides and instances of man-made atrocity?
- And finally how do we begin to historicize the explosion of Holocaust memory, to determine what influence new threats and challenges – from climate change to the “war on terror” – exert on how we think and use the Holocaust?
For more information and submission of paper proposals please see http://www.holocausteducation.org.uk/courses-events/bahs-conference-2016-presence-holocaust-society-politics-culture/