- The UB will remember the farewell if the International Brigades with the seminar “History and Memory of the International Brigades. An East-West look”, organized by the Solidaritat UB Foundation European Observatory on Memories and Pavelló de la República CRAI Library”
- The seminar aims to debate and transmit the historical memory of the international volunteering that took part in the Spanish Civil War through recent researches, highlighting the role of the Brigade women and other minority collectives
- The session, which will take place on October 26 in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building of the UB, is part of the International Week of the International Brigades, coordinated by the Amical of the International Brigades in Catalonia with the support of the Barcelona City Council
- Historian Rémi Skoutelsky, adjunct researcher at the 20th century Social History Center of University Paris I, will present the opening conference
The University of Barcelona remembers the 80th anniversary of the farewell of the International Brigades (1928-2018) with the international seminar “History and Memory of the International Brigades. An East-West look”. Organized by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) of the UB Solidarity Foundation and the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library in collaboration with the Consortium for International Studies Abroad (CASA), the colloquium aims to transmit the role of the volunteers during the Spanish Civil War, focusing on the way these people are remembered worldwide. Moreover, it will put emphasis on the participation of women in the International Brigades and the role of the volunteers in the French resistance and the fight against Nazism in Europe once the conflict ended in Spain, including the role some brigades played in the post-war governments in Eastern Europe countries. During the day, people will be able to visit an exhibition with posters, magazines, and documents on the International Brigades, organized by the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library of the UB.
This activity is part of the program for the Week of the International Brigades, coordinated by the Amical of the International Brigades in Catalonia with the support of the Barcelona City Council. Attendance is free but online registration is required. The seminar will take place on Friday, October 26, from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building of the UB. The opening count on the attendance of the vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Social Action of the University of Barcelona, Maite Vilalta; the director of EUROM, Jordi Guixé, and the director of Pavelló de la Republica CRAI Library, Lourdes Prades.
The opening conference will be delivered by the historian Rémi Skoutelsky, adjunct researcher at the 20th Century Social History of the University Paris I, an expert on the Spanish war. Skoutelsky will present a global view of the International Brigades, from the social history perspective. Its intervention will be followed by a presentation of the Digital Information System on International Brigades (SIDBRINT). Launched by the University of Barcelona, this portal offers content in eight languages (German, English, Spanish, Catalan, Basque, French, Galician and Italian), edited by thirty-three researchers from nine Spanish universities and two European ones.
The morning session will finish with the first roundtable on memory and history of International Brigades. Dutch writer Yvonne Scholten, editor of the project on Dutch volunteers Spanjestrijders, will highlight the role of brigade women in the Dutch case. Lecturer Rocío Velasco de Castro, from the University of Extremadura, will tell the experience of Arabian members of the brigades in the Spanish Civil War with the paradox of the Moroccan case. Last, Inga Oleksiuk, a researcher at the University of Szczecin (Poland), will treat the volunteers from Eastern Europe with her grandfather experiences, Ukrainian Mihail Oleksiuk.
The afternoon session will start at 4 p.m. with the second expert roundtable on the memory and history of the members of the brigades. The first conference will be presented by Vjeran Pavlakovic, a researcher at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Rijeka (Croatia), and will treat the contemporary memory of International Brigades in the former Yugoslavia states. Professor Robert Coale, from the University of Rouen (France), will explain the case of North-American members of the brigades. The roundtable will end with a presentation by the historian Antonio Selva Iniesta, director of the Center for research and documentation of the International Brigades (CEDOBI). The seminar will close with the presentation of the research projects by three students from the Department of Contemporary History of the University of Barcelona, chaired by the lecturer Magí Crusells.
(Images: Pavelló de la República CRAI Library | University of Barcelona)
