In a context marked by the rise of denialist attitudes and the manipulation of the past, the international conference “Twisting the Past: Questioning Historical Revisionism” offers a space for critical reflection on the current challenges to democratic memory. Organized within the framework of the European project Power of Personal Stories Confronting Oblivion, the conference will bring together experts from different fields to examine how distorted narratives about the recent past are constructed, disseminated, and challenged.
Throughout the day, discussions will address issues such as the links between Francoism and the Holocaust, historiographical debates on the Civil War and the dictatorship, and the role of social media in the transmission of historical knowledge. The meeting seeks not only to highlight the risks of pseudo-historical revisionism, but also to promote strategies of resistance through academic research, critical education, and rigorous public dissemination.
Aimed at researchers, educators, students, and professionals in the field of memory, the conference aspires to generate a plural and committed dialogue in the face of attempts to distort the past and trivialize its consequences.
Organizers: European Observatory on Memories of the Solidarity Foundation UB and Commissioner Spain in Freedom. 50 Years in collaboration with the Center for International Historical Studies (CEHI) of the University of Barcelona.
Cover image: Equestrian statue of Franco, held in the storage facilities of the Museum of History of Barcelona (MUHBA) after the exhibition “Franco, Victory, Republic: Impunity and Urban Space” (El Born CCM, 2016). Photograph © Julia Schulz-Dornburg.
Programme
The programme is available for download in Spanish and Catalan.
All panels will be held in Spanish
12:00 – 12:30 PM – Welcome and opening session
12:30 – 2:00 PM – Panel: Francoism before the Holocaust
Chair & moderator: Marta Simó (ISOR -UAB)
- Santiago López Rodríguez (Uppsala University – UU)
Eighty years later… Francoism before the Holocaust from historical research - César Rina Simón (UNED)
Normalization and uses of anti-Semitism during the Second Republic and Francoism
2:00 – 4:00 PM – Lunch break
4:00 – 5:00 PM – Keynote
Uses and abuses of historiographical revisionism: Francoism in comparative perspective
- Xosé M. Núñez Seixas (USC)
Presentation by: Queralt Solé (UB)
5:00 – 5:30 PM – Coffee break
5:30 – 7:00 PM – Panel: New channels of knowledge transmission: threats and opportunities
Chair & moderator: Laia Gallego (UB)
- Josefa Mesa (@josefinetable)
Franco never tweeted and is now trending topic: historical memory, the far right, and social networks - Mikel Herrán (@putomikel)
Nostalgia and increasingly rosy legends: new National-Catholic populisms
7:00 – 7:45 PM – Book Presentation
FRANCOFACTS. Disassembling the fake news about the Franco regime. 2025, Ed. Pasado y Presente
With Fernando Hernández Sánchez (UAM), authors of the book.
Morerated by Paola Lo Cascio (UB)
Survey
This activity is co-financed by the European Commission and for its evaluation we kindly ask your collaboration in filling out this survey. It will take about 10 minutes, and you will need the information indicated below. Thank you very much!
- Reference of the Project: 101194553
- Type of activity: Mutual Learning
- Title: European Memories Conference
- Duration of the event in days: 1
- In Person
- University of Barcelona