4-7 March 2024 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

This joint project offers the opportunity to present and discuss current research projects in the fields of memory studies, media studies, history, political science, German studies, and Austrian studies with fellow early career scholars and international experts.

The 4th Vienna-Jerusalem Graduate School focuses on complex relations within and between memories and memory cultures. All over the world we see that the Holocaust has become an emblematic historical reference point for other atrocities and their representations. Thanks to the global transfer of tropes and icons, knowledge and expertise, this has translated into a broad range of phenomena in the field of memorialization and musealization. On the one hand, what travels is the historical imperative of “never again”, the respect of human rights and being a role model for remembrance and musealization of other atrocities. On the other hand, this opened space for comparisons, controversies and in extreme cases of Holocaust distortion as well as claims that Holocaust memory is overshadowing the memory of colonialist and imperialist pasts.

Against this backdrop, this Graduate School seeks to explore how the memorialization and musealization of the Holocaust, genocides, war, violence and colonialism “travel” around the world and come into dialogue. How are their templates, models and examples being used, challenged or explicitly rejected through this symbolic and material travel? The focus lies on memorial museums, memorial sites, monuments and other materialities of remembrance, but also on film, photographs, digital and social media, oral and public history as well as activism. We are interested in analyzing the diverse ways in which forms of memorialization and musealization come into exchange and become entangled – not only regarding the Holocaust, but also with respect to other memorial debates. How does this travel of ideas and tropes challenge the simple victim-perpetrator dichotomy (e.g. by focusing on beneficiaries and facilitators) and bring into view the grey zones of complex positionalities (resistance, resilience)? How far are new memory alliances or contested memory spaces established? Which role do spaces of memory – physical, cultural and digital – play in the process of creating relational memories? Which global trends regarding the representation of gender, sexualized and sexual violence as a form of crimes against humanity and genocide can be detected? Finally, which role do the worldwide distribution of material and human remains and their exhibition play in this “globalization of memory”?

We invite proposals dealing with particular case studies as well as conceptual and theoretical questions related to national and transnational memories, memory institutions, memorial sites, mediated memory, digital environments, traveling, connected, networked, relational, multilayered or multidirectional memory.

Proposals referring to the following three interrelated fields are particularly welcome:
- References to the Holocaust and other genocides when commemorating/exhibiting one’s own suffering
- Gender, sexualized/sexual violence and memory
- Digital and other forms of memory activism
- The impact of images and visual media on establishing relational and entangled memories

The successful candidates are required to actively participate in the Vienna-Jerusalem Graduate School (in person) and present their research in a fifteen-minute oral presentation. Confirmations of

acceptance will be sent by the end of October 2023. The Austrian participants should plan the day before and after the Graduate School for arrival and departure. The organizing institutions will cover flight expenses and accommodation costs in Jerusalem for participants from Austria. Financing remains subject to final approval.
Language: English
Organization team:
Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Ljiljana Radonić (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Heidemarie Uhl (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Application: Please send a one page proposal together with an up-to-date CV to:
mseuro@mail.huji.ac.il.