CFP: (Trans)national Memory Spaces: The Franco-German Friendship as Case Study for Memory Studies

The organizers of a conference in Aachen, Germany in May of 2023 are calling for paper proposals on the topic of the preconditions of individual narratives of commemoration (sociology of literature, media sociology) and their implications for theories of memory. Submissions are due by October 1, 2022.

The conference wishes to analyze and describe the dynamics between, on the one hand, the national(ist) and the transnational/global and, on the other hand, top-down and bottom-up processes of memory. The case study is the French-German Friendship, which has been institutionalized by the 1963 Élysée Treaty. 

The organizers are particularly interested in the role of Jewish intellectuals and artists in these processes. If the Jewish diaspora in Europe is to be considered the prime embodiment of a Europe beyond the nation-states, we need to analyze and discuss its prominence in the post-national framework of commemoration that was and is the French-German friendship. Critical questions about the functions of memory in case studies are equally welcomed.