The year 2025 will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The brutal destruction of entire states, the tragedy of death, the wounds of survivors and, most importantly, the knowledge of the civilizational breakdown represented by the Holocaust and the Nazi ideology of extermination, have profoundly shaped our world. The complex heritage of WWII and its aftermath is reflected in current crises and conflicts; these conflicts, in turn, alter our historical perspective on the end of the Second World War. The 80th anniversary comes at a critical juncture. We are facing the end of the post-Cold War world order, which marks the end of the liberal and Western vision of the future. The promise of a new – and more just – world seems to have vanished for many generations, while wars and conflicts are at the forefront of our minds, often mobilizing military personnel and economic resources in the West.
Reflecting on the end of WWII in the context of complex global transformations provides the starting point for this series of international conferences, which will take place in three different capital cities that are symbolic places of the end of the Second World War and offer complementary perspectives today, three generations later:
- Berlin, Akademie der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
April 29th-30th 2025
- Paris, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
June 16th-18th 2025
- New York, Columbia University
September - October (exact date to be confirmed)
This series of conferences is jointly organized by Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University, Europa Universität Viadrina (Frankfurt / Oder), the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and Columbia University. The events will take place in Berlin, Paris, and New York throughout 2025. The series will examine the end of the war from a comparative historical perspective, whilst defining a specific thematic outlook for each of the three cities. The Berlin conference will focus on the situation in Germany and Eastern Europe. The Paris conference will reflect on colonial spaces, including the end of conflicts in North Africa and Asia. The New York conference will adopt a comprehensive approach and will explore the institutional foundations of the post-war world order.
Key comparative themes will include:
- The end of the war at a micro level (local and regional perspectives)
- Demobilizations (military, social, cultural) and the management of violence in order to restore civil society
- The treatment of victors and vanquished, of victims and perpetrators. The staging of victory: justice, revenge, and retaliation. Organizing and running post-war trials in different countries. Establishing policies in support of victims of the war and of Nazism
- Violence and post-war conflicts (Greek civil war, colonial wars, including in Indonesia and in North Africa)
- Geopolitical organization of the new world order
- Pathways towards a “new” culture of memory and commemoration relating to the end of the war
This conference series will aim to discuss themes relating to the end of the war by bringing to bear both a historical perspective and current global issues. Hence, regarding the “culture of memory and commemoration”, the objective will not simply be to retrace the history of the memory of WWII, but also to examine the fault lines, the evolutions, and the new forms of remembering the post-war years. Critical to this enterprise is the understanding of the transformations of history and memory in the face of contemporary crises and power relations. How do current conflicts alter our perspectives on the last year of the war and its aftermath? How does historiography address global and political challenges to established narratives, that had gone unquestioned until recently? Who decides which interpretations, meanings, and memory paradigms are valid today? Beyond national interpretations, what other frameworks of analysis are relevant here?
We look forward to receiving innovative analyses, new ideas and approaches, as well as new archival research (particularly visual materials), and new corpuses. This conference series also aims to support young researchers (doctoral and post-doctoral students). They are strongly encouraged to participate.
Researchers interested in presenting and participating in the Berlin conference (Eastern Europe focus) and in the Paris conference (colonial spaces) are invited to respond to this call for applications by December 15th 2024. A separate call for applications for the New York conference will be issued in December 2024. The conference language is English. Except for the public events in Berlin. There is no simultaneous translation
Applications should include a summary (300 words) indicating the theme(s) of their proposed contribution, along with a short biography. Applications should be sent to: conferenceseries4525@gmail.com by December 15th, 2024.
Applicants will be notified by the end of January 2025. Travel costs, accommodation and meals will be covered for all presenters. They are expected to attend the entire program of the conference.