- The challenges of memory policies are as multiple and diverse as the memories themselves.
- They are present at local, national, and international levels, especially at a time when we are adapting to new methods of transmission and dissemination
- In such complex times, we need to be attentive to the changes and continuities of public programmes in the framework of European policies and the new programming period for 2021-2027.
Against this background, we propose to take stock of the European policies of memory during a 3-day online meeting. This is the third edition of our annual conference and the aim is to promote debate among participants about the present and the future of memory policies. By doing so we hope to consolidate a forum for sharing best practices and new ideas that can contribute to the agenda of European remembrance projects in this new context.
Programme
December 9
4.00 p.m. – 4.15 p.m. (UTC/GMT+1) – Opening
Jaume Duch, Director-General for Communication and Spokesman, European Parliament
4.15 p.m. – 4.30 p.m. (UTC/GMT+1) – Presentation of the conference
Bibiana Crespo Martín, Vice-Rector for Internationalization, University of Barcelona | Constanze Itzel, Head of Unit, House of European History, European Parliament | Jordi Guixé, Director, EUROM
4.30 p.m. – 5.00 p.m. (UTC/GMT+1)
Challenges and opportunities of remembrance and citizenship policies
Alessandra Luchetti, Head of Department, Creativity, Citizenship and Joint Operations, EACEA | Daniela Bankier, Head of Unit, Programme and Financial management, DG Justice – European Commission
Chair: Jordi Guixé, Director, EUROM
5.10 p.m. – 6.30 p.m. (UTC/GMT+1) – First Panel
Will the past change the future?
Marianne Hirsh,William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Professor in the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality | Géraldine Schwarz, Journalist, documentary filmmaker, and author of the book “Those Who Forget. My Family Story in Nazi Europe” (2017) | Siobhan Kattago, Senior Research Fellow in Practical Philosophy at the Institute of Humanities and Semiotics at the University of Tartu
One of the main challenges for the development of European memory policies is how to deal with the experiences and stories of violence, fear, and shame stemming from collective crimes of the last century that are transmitted through inter and intra familiar relations. The notion of postmemory, coined by Marianne Hirsch, has become a priceless resource for understanding the affective attachment that the offspring of people involved in traumatic experiences holds to those events. Undoubtedly, Géraldine Schwarz’s awarded book, Those who forget: One’s Family´s provides a ground breaking example of the different and multifarious entanglements that are involved within the intergeneration transmission of memories, duties, and responsibilities. Her book sheds light on the controversial and conflictive forces underlying the remembrance of history of 20th century history. This roundtable is an opportunity for a dialogue between Marianne Hirsch and Géraldine Schwarz on the transmissions and interactions between different memories of the European 20th century and on their potential for teaching historical lessons to forthcoming generations.
The conversation will be moderated and conducted by Siobhan Kattago, a scholar whose research is focused on temporalities and European memory and who will surely help us to approach those problems from a broader perspective. The interdisciplinary discussion among these scholars and writers will undoubtedly provide an amazing opportunity from which to address and to think together how the traumatic and multifarious memories of the 20th stories of horror could give rise to a future in which those events will not unfold again.
December 10
10.15 a.m. -11.30 a.m (UTC/GMT+1) – Second Panel
Best practices, remembrance projects and dissemination strategies
Presenting: Making Memory Alive Together and other online campaigns (ENRS), the exhibition 1979, a People’s Parliament (Smashing Times), the projects Active Telling, Active Learning (YouNet APS), Migraid (UNED), Observing Walls (Muzej Novejse Zgodovine Slovenije), and #NeverAgain (SELMA: Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory, University of Turku), and the fourth issue of the EUROM magazine, Observing Memories
Chair: Gilles Pelayo, Head of Unit, Europe for Citizens programme, EACEA
11.40 a.m. -11.55 a.m (UTC/GMT+1)
Europe at 70: commemorating the Schuman Declaration
Martí Grau and Debora Righetti, Jean Monnet House, European Parliament
12.00 p.m. -12.30p.m. (UTC/GMT+1) – Third Panel
Priorities and structure of the new EU programs on remembrance and citizenship
Johannes Börmann, programme manager, European Remembrance strand, Europe for Citizens Programme, DG Justice, and Jutta Koenig-Georgiades, Policy Officer, Europe for Citizens Programme, European Commission, DG Justice
Chair: Oriol López, EUROM
12.45 p.m. -13.30 p.m. (UTC/GMT+1) – Closing session
State of the Art: Memory as a Guarantee of civil values and cohesion?
Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Chair, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, European Parliament | Chair: Jordi Guixé, EUROM