Judisk Kultur

Collective Memory and Holocaust Remembrance Today
Lördag 29 november 19.00–21.00
Söndag 30 november 11.00-17.00 
Konstakademien, Fredsgatan 12/hiss från Jakobsgatan 27c

Biljetter

Contact: info@judiskkultur.se

A century ago, in 1925, French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs published the book The social framework of memory (Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire). In it he coined and developed the idea of “collective memory”, how memory is not only something personal but a shared form of human experience. From the 1970s onward this idea was revived and explored in the new field of Memory studies, including both collective and cultural memory. From the outset a core topic was the memory of the Holocaust, how it had been both forgotten, repressed, and why it needed to be reactivated and mobilized both as a way to honor the victims of the past and for the purpose of justice, repair, and reconciliation in the present. In Russia, the movement Memorial was founded in the wake of the Helsinki accord, to counter the collective trauma of Stalinism. Celebrating Halbwachs work, the symposium will present a broad picture of the current state of memory studies, as both an academic discipline and as a form of social activism in talks and seminars with some of the leading international scholars in the field.

Participants: Aleida Assman, Victoria Fareld, Talya Feldman, Jeffrey Olick, Alexandra Polivanova, Hans Ruin, Rachel Spicker, Rebecka Katz Thor, Malin Thor Tureby, Maja Thrane.

Music from Stolen Music (Stulen musik): Sofia Winiarski, Maria Winiarski, Simon Bång

Reading: Hannes Meidal.

Preliminary program

Saturday 29/11
19.00–21.00
Opening session and reception

German Memory Culture
Aleida Assmann & Hans Ruin
followed by reception

Sunday 30/11
11.00–12.00
Commemoration and Its Discontents
Jeffery Olick & Victoria Fareld

12.00–13.00
Memory in Conflict – Memorial
Alexandra Polivanova & Maja Thrane

13.00–13.15
Music and Reading
Sofia Winiarski & Hannes Meidal
from Stolen Music

Lunch 13.15–14.00

14.00–15.00
Collective Memory and Art
Talya Feldman & Rachel Spicker - Wir sind hier (We Are Here)

15.00–16.30
The Future of Holocaust Memory
Aleida Assmann, Jeffery Olick, Malin Thor Tureby & Rebecka Katz Thor
Moderator Hans Ruin

Aleida Assmann is Professor emerita of English and literary studies at the University of Konstanz, and one of the world leading scholars in memory studies, collective memory and cultural and communicative memory.

Victoria Fareld is Professor of History of Ideas. Together with colleagues from other disciplines, she founded a reaserchers network for Cultural Memory studies at Stockholm University.

Talya Feldman is media artist who generates social transformation through artistic and educational projects that offer alternative and reparative narratives to violence.

Hannes Meidal is one of Sweden's most prominent actors who works at the Royal Dramatic Theater.

Jeffrey Olick is Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia. Hw is a major figure in cultural sociology and social theory and has made significant contributions to the interdisciplinary field of memory studies.

Alexandra Polivanova is member of the Board of International Memorial, an organisation helping to rehabilitate victims unjustly persecuted and repressed during the Soviet years.

Hans Ruin is Professor of Philosophy and director of Memory Studies Platform at Södertörn University

Rachel Spicker is social scientist and systemic counselor as well as a supporter of the survivors of the antisemitic, racist and misogynist attack in Halle and Wiedersdorf on Yom Kippur 2019.

Rebecka Katz Thor is researcher and head of museum development at the Swedish Holocaust Museum.

Malin Thor Tureby is Professor of History. Her research revolves around oral history, culture heritage history, migration and minorities studies, Holocaust studies and Jewish history.

Maja Thrane is an author, translator, and critic. She volunteers regularly as aid worker in Ukraine with the Swedish organization Operation Change, most recently with the project Books for Ukraine.

Sofia Winiarski is the musical director of the project Stolen Music, based on Anders Rydell's book, that lifts up the dark chapter of a world of music that disappeared during the Holocaust.

The symposium is a collaboration between the Swedish Holocaust Museum, Jewish Culture in Sweden and

the Memory Studies Platform at Södertörn University in Stockholm.

Thank You: Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet), The City of Stockholm (Stockholms stad) and Stockholm Region (Region Stockholm).

Photo: The Empty Library (Bibliothek). A memorial by Israeli sculptor Micha Ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the Nazi book burnings that took place in the Bebelplatz in Berlin on May 10, 1933.