Judging the Past in a Post-Cold War World
Deadline: 31 May 2015.
The collapse of the Soviet Union accelerated the search for justice and truth on the part of many millions of people whose lives had been overshadowed by the cold war, in many countries, for nearly half a century.
Demands for justice and for recognition of suffering and loss have resulted in national Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, prosecution (or attempted prosecution) of state officials, politicians and military officers and the construction of monuments and memorials as sites of memory. They have inspired an outpouring of literary and artistic works, and a flourishing film and documentary industry. These attempts at settling the legacy of the Cold War are often marked, however, by on-going dissent and recrimination, as the past “refuses to pass.”
This conference aims to trace these various ways of judging the past both in the countries at the hot centre of the Cold War and in those that were swept up in the wake of its confrontations. How have we and how can we come to terms with a past that is still so present?
Concluding an Australian Research Council Discovery Project on this theme, the organisers seek discussion on any and all means of attempts at redress, for example, legal and social, or through the arts, media and literature.
We look forward to receiving panel proposals, as well as individual presentations.
Postgraduate contributions welcome
We especially welcome contributions on:
National Commissions of enquiry
Studies in individual countries
Retributive and restorative justice
Secondary victims Literary and artistic judgments
The second and third generations
The struggle to memorialise
Exile communities
History Wars and the politicization of the historian
Guidelines submission
The closing date for submission of proposals is 31 May 2015.
We ask for an abstract of 250 words from each individual presenter or panel representative. All abstracts will be refereed by the organizing committee, and the results notified by 30 June 2015.
For further enquiries please contact Colette Gilmour (Colette.gilmour@anu.edu.au) HRC
Date: 28 September, 2015 – 09:00 – 30 September, 2015 – 17:30
Venue: HRC Conference Room Bldg # 14, ANU
Katherine Hite (Professor of Political Science on the Frederick Ferris Thompson Chair, Vassar)
Henry Rousso (Directeur de recherche au CNRS Institut d’histoire du temps présent
Organising committee members
Prof Peter Read peter.read@anu.edu.auf
Dr Judith Keene judith.keene@sydney.edu.au
Dr Elizabeth Rechniewski elizabeth.rechniewski@sydney.edu.au
Prof Adrian Vickers adrian.vickers@sydney.edu.au
Dr Marivic Wyndham marivic.wyndham@uts.edu.au
Scientific Committee
Ann Curthoys (University of Sydney)
Joy Damousi (University of Melbourne)
Matthew Graves (Aix-Marseille University)
Tim Harper (University of Cambridge)
Judith Keene (University of Sydney)
Peter Read (Australian National University)
Elizabeth Rechniewski (University of Sydney)
Marivic Wyndham (University of Technology Sydney)
Henry Rousso (CNRS, Institut d’histoire du temps présent)
Adrian Vickers (University of Sydney)
