9th Genealogies of Memory international conference (Warsaw)

Who shapes the contemporary vision of the 1990s? May we speak of "myths of transformation," and if yes – how do they look like across different countries of the former Eastern Bloc? These are just some of the questions which will be reviewed during this-year's conference organised within the Genealogies of Memory series by the "European Network Remembrance and Solidarity" in cooperation with LMU Munich. The conference will take place in Warsaw between 28 and 30 October 2019.  Professor Dr Martin Schulze Wessel, Chair of East and Southeast European History at LMU and speaker of the Graduate School, will deliver a keynote lecture about "Universalist and Particularist Policy Legitimations in the Transformation Period" on Thursday, 30 October.

The early 1990s witnessed some of the most wide-reaching and ambitious economic transformations. The transition from planned economies to free market systems has forever remolded the societies of the former Eastern Bloc. Its effects were felt across all social spheres. On one hand this involved emergence of new consumer goods, freedom of travel, aspirations for ‘catching up’ with the West, rise in entrepreneurial activity. On the other – sudden deindustrialization and high unemployment rate, increase in crime, as well as fraud schemes accompanying privatization.

30 years after the watershed of 1989, dozens of researchers from across the continent will reflect on the impact these phenomena have had on the identity and memory of the Central and Eastern European societies. Keynote speakers include Johanna Bockman (George Mason University), Thomas Lindenberger (Hannah-Arendt-Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden), Adam Mrozowicki (University of Wrocław) and Martin Schulze Wessel (Ludwig-⁠Maximilians-⁠Universität Munich). Among the discussed topics are, among others, depictions of the 1990s in film and on Instagram, moral assessments of economic transitions, post-1989 changes as seen from the point of view of different social groups, as well as the current echoes of the transformations.

The event is held in English.

Further information on the conference: https://enrs.eu/genealogies2019.

Program

https://enrs.eu/genealogies2019#programme.

 

"Myths, Memories and Economies: Post-Socialist Transformations in Comparison" | 9th Genealogies of Memory international conference

Where: Warsaw – University of Warsaw Library ul. Dobra 56/66

When: Monday to Wednesday, 28-30 October 2019

Registration: Free entrance, but prior registration is required at: events.enrs.eu/genealogies2019.

Organiser: European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS)

Co-organiser: Ludwig-⁠Maximilians-⁠Universität München (LMU Munich)

Cooperation: Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw; Institute for Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; University of Exeter; Leverhulme Trust; Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe