Aggregator

Organiser: Austrian-Polish Opus-Weave (FWF-NCN); project Non-Ukrainians in Revolutionary Ukraine, 1917-1921 (NURU); Polish Academy of Sciences; University of Vienna (Department of Eastern European History, University of Vienna) Host: Department of Eastern European History, University of Vienna Location: Campus of the University of Vienna Postcode: 1090 City: Vienna Country: Austria Takes place: In attendance Dates: 03.09.2026 - 05.09.2026 Deadline: 31.05.2026 Website: https://nuru.univie.ac.at/  

This conference explores the 1917–1921 revolutionary period by shifting focus to the non-Ukrainian populations, who shaped the region’s social and political landscape. While traditional narratives prioritize state-building, this event examines how diverse groups navigated shifting empires, inter-ethnic violence, and legal frameworks like "national-personal autonomy." By analyzing grassroots agency and transnational networks, we aim to provide a more holistic history of the interactions and survival strategies that defined this diverse space.

 

Nationalities and National Diversity in Revolutionary Ukraine, 1917–21

Conference Theme

The revolutionary upheaval from 1917 to 1921 is among the most influential periods in modern Ukrainian history. The dissolution of the Romanov and Habsburg empires unleashed layered social, political, economic, and cultural transformations and reconfigured ethnic hierarchies in the Ukrainian lands. Ukrainian state-building efforts were accompanied by new ideas and understandings of sovereignty and nationality rights from differing sides. Meanwhile, the period of civil war and revolution that followed imperial collapse was marked by inter-ethnic violence and pogroms. Therefore, tracing the variety of agency and experiences of those not identifying as or not being recognized as Ukrainian is central, not marginal, to understanding the revolutionary processes in the Ukrainian lands.

Ukraine was a linguistically, culturally and religiously diverse space. Non-Ukrainians, among them Poles, Jews, Russians, Germans, Greeks, Belarusians, and Moldovans/Romanians, made up about a quarter of the population. In 1918, the implementation of the law on “national-personal autonomy” marked a brief yet significant attempt to reconcile Ukraine’s state-building with the cultural and political rights of its nationalities. Including non-Ukrainian groups and individuals and their interactions with the emerging and rivaling authorities is crucial to understanding the legal and political history of this period. Exploring non-Ukrainians’ activities and interactions in civil society provides a fuller picture of the revolution’s social, economic and cultural history. This conference therefore aims to reconceptualize revolutionary Ukraine by examining the experiences, interactions, and the political, cultural, and socio-economic influences of non-Ukrainians from a transnational and grassroots perspective.

Thematic Axes

We welcome diverse approaches to the topic. Potential thematic axes include but are not limited to:

- Internal Group Dynamics: We are particularly interested in papers that deconstruct these groups as homogeneous blocks and explore internal conflicts over social and economic hierarchies, gender relations, regional and urban-rural divides, and the challenges of national mobilization. Was national belonging “situational”? Under which circumstances and how did individuals flexibly adapt their identity in response to official categorization and national hierarchies?

- Civil Society, Cultural and Socio-economic Dynamics: In which civil organisations and institutions did non-Ukrainians organize themselves? Were they able/willing to draw on pre-revolutionary organizational structures, or were they built from scratch? Which goals did non-Ukrainians set themselves to achieve greater cultural, social, and economic emancipation? How did they utilize new social norms in civic society to achieve these goals? Which role did urban and rural environments play in self-organization? How were established cultural or religious norms and traditions challenged?

- Transitional Statehood, Regime Changes and Legal Frameworks: How did non-Ukrainian populations navigate the rapid governmental and regime changes (Ukrainian nationalgovernments, White Army, Anarchists and various Soviet governments)? What were the intellectual origins of these diverse regimes’ approaches to national diversity? Which concrete legal and constitutional projects did the constant political and military upheavals bring about for non-Ukrainians and what did it mean for them on a local level? How did various groups and individuals respond to processes of minoritization and other top-down state policies?

- Transnational Relationships and Networks: How did non-Ukrainians in Ukraine interact with supposed kin states (e.g., Poland, Germany, Greece) or co-nationals and co-religionists in the former empires? How did these external links influence local survival strategies,political goals and migration patterns? How did non-Ukrainians react to and interact with occupation troops sent by their kin?

- Interactions between Nationalities: This includes joint support of and resistance to nationalization/minoritization policies, as well as cross-ethnic initiatives focused on local self-government, relief work, the cultural sphere, socio-economic reform or gender equality. Where and how did different communities find common ground? How did inter-ethnic and religious networks structure solidarity, support and relief? How did local neighborhoods or villages mobilize, cooperate and/or antagonize? Which inter-ethnic conflicts and competitions arose in the revolutionary context?

- Experience of Violence and Survival Strategies: We are interested in papers that investigate the intersection of nationality, class, and sex as well as urban-rural dynamics of violence, antagonization, and stigmatization. How did different national, social and gendered groups and actors employ diverse coping mechanisms and self-defense strategies during the chaos of the revolution?

The conference’s keynote lecture will be delivered by Serhy Yekelchyk (University of Victoria, BC).

Submission Guidelines

We invite scholars at all career stages. Applications by PhD students are particularly encouraged. Contributions from the fields of history, social sciences, and cultural studies are welcome. A publication of selected papers in a special issue is planned as a result of the conference.

Proposals should include:
- An abstract of no more than 350 words outlining the research question, the primary source base, and the paper’s contribution to the conference theme.
- Short CV

Please send your proposal by 31 May 2026 to nurukraine.iog@univie.ac.at in a single PDF.

Practical Information:
- Language: The conference language will be English.
- Notification: Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision by June 12th, 2026.
- Travel & Accommodation: Accommodation will be fully covered by the organizers. Reimbursement of travel costs will be available upon request.

Organiser: Helen Gibson / Sebastian Jobs, FU Berlin Location: Wilhelm von Humboldt-Saal, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 8 Postcode: 10179 City: Berlin Country: Germany Takes place: In attendance Dates: 08.05.2026 - 10.05.2026  

This conference will address the trajectory of these recent controversies about modes of policing in the U.S. by focusing on phenomena and institutions that highlight the long history of policing and resistance in the United States and North America at large. We invite scholars to contribute their insights on the topic of policing in fields from legal history to social history, cultural history, and neighboring disciplines. We are especially interested in submissions that foreground historically marginalized knowledge and standpoints, and that are self- reflexive in their framing.

 

Law and Order: Modes of Policing and Resistance in American History

Annual Conference of the Historians of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA)

Some of the most controversial debates in American politics over the past several years have revolved around modes of law enforcement and policing. Abortion has been rendered illegal in numerous U.S. states since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Teaching critical race theory (CRT), which draws connections between racism and American legal institutions, has been criminalized in states across the country. Violent practices of policing Americans who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) have led some to demand defunding the police. Opponents of antiracist teaching, meanwhile, have criticized the insights of Black Studies, African American Studies, Pan-African Studies and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) Studies as left-wing attempts to police and suppress freedom of speech and have dismissed them as mere political correctness or wokeness.

This conference will address the trajectory of these recent events by focusing on phenomena and institutions that highlight the long history of policing and resistance in the United States and North America at large. We invite scholars to contribute their insights on the topic of policing in fields from legal history to social history, cultural history, and neighboring disciplines. We are especially interested in submissions that foreground historically marginalized knowledge and standpoints, and that are self- reflexive in their framing.

Programm

Friday

2:30–3:00 p.m. Opening Remarks
Helen Gibson, Sebastian Jobs, John Woitkowitz (Berlin)

3:00–5:30 p.m. Policing Gender and Sexuality
Chair: Nadja Klopprogge (Tübingen)

Nicole Sara Colaianni (Heidelberg)
No Checks and Balances: Corporate Policing of ‘Sexual Harassment’ after the Faragher and Ellerth Supreme Court Decisions

Mona Raeisian (Marburg)
From Welfare to Warfare: Legal Sterilization as Policing in Care and Reform Institutions

Ted Richthofen (Bonn)
Policing Gender: Bootleggers, Policewomen, Crossdressing, and the KKK during Alcohol Prohibition in Colorado

Andrew Wells (Kiel)
Cato’s Rape: Race and the Policing of Sex in Colonial New York City, 1664-1763

6:30–8:00 p.m. Keynote
Chair: Helen Gibson (Berlin)

Mia Bay (Cambridge, UK)
The Streetcar Wars: Everyday Violence in Making American Segregation

Saturday

9:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m. Roundtable: Precarious Archives – Accessibility, Erasure and Opportunities
Chair: Sebastian Jobs (Berlin)

John Woitkowitz (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) and Kristen Iemma (Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin)

11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Early Career Scholars Forum

Panel 1 (Adolf von Harnack-Saal)
Chair: Andreas Etges (München)

Sujato Datta (Berlin)
Bombs, Bureaucracy and Business As Usual: The British Indian Agent-General in Washington
and the Second World War

Richard Julius Lange (Heidelberg)
More than Paradise and Power? Accessing the Origins of Post-Cold War Transatlantic Differences

Anja Stopfer (Regensburg)
Of Pastors and Presidents, of Providence and Patriotism – The “Christian” and the “National” in American Christian Nationalism

Lesar Yurtsever (Berlin)
The Sound of Liberalism: Music and U.S. Turkish Relations from 1927 to 1960

Panel 2 (Wilhelm von Humboldt-Saal)
Chair: Jessica Gienow-Hecht (Berlin)

Katharina Isaak (Münster)
Caught between Revolution and Repression – The Russian-Language Press in the United States during the First Red Scare

Lisa Gersdorf (Erfurt)
Singing, Hiking and Politics: German Youth Movement in North America, 1920–1940

Caroline Bühler (München)
Women Making Money: Labor Unions and Feminized Professions in U.S. Economic Culture (1960–1990)

Alexander Brackebusch (München)
Morality Amendments: Interest Group Collaboration, Moral Panics and Conservative Backlash in the Second Half of the 20th Century

Panel 3 (Theodor Fontane-Saal)
Chair: Manfred Berg (Heidelberg)

Jana Huneke (Köln)
High School Bully, Boss Bitch, and Angry Black Woman: Figurations of Mean Femininity in the United States, 1950–1990

Iremsu Kul (Frankfurt)
The National Black United Front and the Struggle Against Racial Violence

Ylva Kreye (Mainz)
Whose Surveillance Is It Anyway? The Role of Migrant Knowledge and Visions of Autonomy in Progressive-Era Social Reform Efforts

Lea Kröner (Berlin)
Indigenous Missionaries and Colonial Power in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia

3:00–5:30 p.m. Policing Migration and Empire
Chair: Mischa Honeck (Kassel)

Grit Grigoleit-Richter (Passau)
Racialized Law and Order: Historicizing Border Enforcement at the Texas-Mexico Border

Layla Koch (Heidelberg)
(Un-)Lawful Fathers, Infant Nation: Paternalist Narratives of Law and Order in the 1830s Cherokee Deportation Crisis

Charlotte Lerg (München)
Orange Jump Suits and Sketchy Legality. The Trials before the Guantanamo Bay Military Commission in Visual Journalism

Silke Hackenesch (Köln)
Ideal Immigrant, Precarious Citizen: International Adoption and U.S. Immigration Policy in the Late 20th Century

7:00–8:30 p.m. Business Meeting

Sunday

9:00–11:00 a.m. Concepts and Theories of Policing
Chair: Marlene Ritter (Berlin)

Anthony Obst (Berlin)
The Mythical Foundations of “Law and Order”: From Thomas Hobbes to John Adams

Felix Krämer (Erfurt)
Racial Capitalists’ Constitution? Whiteness as Property, the American Revolution and Beyond

Vanessa Vollmann (Passau)
Resisting the Allegation of “Wokeness” through Critical Race Theory Counter-Dialogue

11:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Policing of Order
Chair: Silvan Niedermeier (Erfurt)

Nina Mackert (Hamburg)
Risk, Race and the Policing of Disease in Early 20th Century Public Health

Julian Windhöfel (Erfurt)
“Policing Black Labor for White Property” – Planter Class and Freedmen’s Bureau during early Reconstruction in Louisiana, 1864–1868

Berlin/Germany   Veranstalter: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur Veranstaltungsort: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Kronenstraße 5 PLZ: 10117 Ort: Berlin Land: Deutschland Findet statt: In Präsenz Vom - Bis: 19.03.2026 - Deadline: 19.03.2026 Website: https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/veranstaltungen/netzwerktagung-sinti-und-roma-der-ddr-und-im-vereinten-deutschland  

Die Geschichte der Sinti in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone und der DDR sowie die Erfahrungen von Sinti und Roma im vereinten Deutschland sind nur punktuell erforscht und finden in der historisch-politischen Bildung vergleichsweise wenig Beachtung. Jedoch prägten fortwirkende antiziganistische Denk- und Handlungsmuster die Lebensrealitäten der Minderheit über 1945 hinaus – in staatlichen Institutionen ebenso wie im Alltag.

 

Sinti und Roma in der DDR und im vereinten Deutschland. Historisch-politische Bildungsperspektiven auf soziale Marginalisierung und kulturelle Selbstbehauptung

Die wenigen Überlebenden des nationalsozialistischen Völkermords, die nach 1945 dauerhaft im Osten Deutschlands lebten, sahen sich trotz des politischen Neuanfangs mit weiterbestehenden antiziganistischen Strukturen konfrontiert. In Verwaltung, Polizei und Justiz wirkten personelle und ideologische Kontinuitäten aus der NS-Zeit fort: Von den DDR-Behörden diskriminiert und kriminalisiert, wurden viele Sinti in der DDR nicht als Opfer des Nationalsozialismus anerkannt und blieben von Entschädigungen ausgeschlossen.

Die Geschichte ihrer Verfolgung, aber auch die Kultur und Traditionen der Community blieben weitgehend unbekannt. In der Gesellschaft hielten sich zudem tief verwurzelte Stereotype, die den Alltag der Sinti in der DDR prägten und ihre soziale wie kulturelle Teilhabe einschränkten. Mit dem Ende der deutschen Teilung trafen unterschiedliche biografische Erfahrungen innerhalb der Community aufeinander, während alte und neue Formen der Diskriminierung fortbestanden.

Die Tagung stellt diese historischen und gegenwärtigen Konstellationen in den Fokus und fragt in einem geweiteten Blick nach Formen sozialer Ausgrenzung sowie kultureller Selbstbehauptung, Selbstorganisation und Erinnerung. Im Zentrum der Veranstaltung stehen fachliche Impulse zur Geschichte von Sinti und Roma in der DDR und nach 1989, eine Diskussion mit Podiumsgästen aus Wissenschaft, Zivilgesellschaft und Selbstvertretungsorganisationen sowie praxisorientierte Austauschformate.

Ziel der Veranstaltung ist es, die Geschichte der Sinti und Roma, ihre Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen einem Fachpublikum aus der historisch-politischen Bildungsarbeit zugänglich zu machen und Räume für Austausch und Vernetzung zu eröffnen. Die Tagung richtet sich an Engagierte aus Selbstvertretungsorganisationen sowie aus Museen, Gedenkstätten, Vereinen, Initiativen, Bildungs- und Kultureinrichtungen, die sich mit der Geschichte der DDR, der Teilung und Einheit Deutschlands auseinandersetzen.

Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei. Da es sich um eine Präsenzveranstaltung handelt, sind die Plätze begrenzt. Um Anmeldung wird gebeten.

Programm

10:00 Begrüßung

10:15 Interaktives Kennenlernen

10:45 „Sinti und Roma in der DDR und nach 1989“ – Dr. Katharina Lenski, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

11:15 Kaffeepause

11:30 Podiumsdiskussion „Zwischen Ausgrenzung und Selbstbehauptung: Kontinuitäten von Antiziganismus und Wege der Selbstvertretung seit 1945“ mit:
- Talina Connolly, Bildungsbotschafterin gegen Antiziganismus, Studierendenverband der Sinti und Roma in Deutschland
- Dr. Katharina Lenski
- Peter Leu, Pfarrer i.R. Evangelische Verheißungskirchengemeinde Neuenhagen-Dahlwitz
- Gjulner Sejdi, Vorsitzender von Romano Sumnal – Roma und Sinti in Sachsen e. V.
Moderation: Dr. Jenny Baumann & Dr. Christine Schoenmakers, Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung

13:00 Mittagsimbiss

13:45 World Café „Bildungsperspektiven: Empowerment, diskriminierungssensible Vermittlung und transkulturelles Erzählen“
1. Thema: Sabina thaj o Elvis (Sabina und Elvis). Ein Leipziger Kurzfilmprojekt als Empowerment für die Community und als Bildungselement für die Mehrheitsgesellschaft – Daniel Weißbrodt, Romano Sumnal – Roma und Sinti in Sachsen e. V.
2. Thema: Diskriminierungssensible Vermittlung und Zeitzeugenarbeit am Beispiel einer Ausstellung zum Paragrafen 249 des DDR-Strafgesetzbuchs – Dr. Eva Fuchslocher, exhibeo e. V. & Dr. Peter Keup, UOKG e. V.
3. Thema: Vielstimmige Erinnerung vermitteln: Chancen und Grenzen transkultureller DDR-Geschichte – Minar Quayim, Gedenkstätte Lindenstraße Potsdam

15:30 Zusammenfassung der World Café-Ergebnisse

15:45 Closing Statement

16:00 Ende der Tagung

Weitere Informationen zu Anmeldung, Anfahrt und Barrierefreiheit finden Sie unter: https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/veranstaltungen/netzwerktagung-sinti-und-roma-der-ddr-und-im-vereinten-deutschland

Kontakt

c.schoenmakers@bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de

Organiser: Sebastian Willert, Dubnow Institute; Eliana Hadjisavvas, Birkbeck College; Sebastian Musch, Osnabrück University (Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow) Host: Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow Postcode: 04103 City: Leipzig Country: Deutschland Takes place: In attendance Dates: 07.12.2026 - 08.12.2026 Deadline: 27.03.2026  

The annual conference at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow examines the crucial role of humanitarian aid and relief efforts, as well as the contributions of individuals in supporting migrants both during their journeys and upon their arrival. By exploring these historical trajectories in the context of eroding empires, we will reflect on the implications for contemporary debates surrounding diversity, mobility, and belonging. In doing so, the conference aspires to foster conversations that not only enrich our understanding of past movements but also discourse on migration and mobility in the present. We look forward to your proposals!

 

The Age of Humanitarianism. Jewish and other global migrations between Empire and Decolonisation

The 20th century witnessed profound waves of Jewish migration and displacement on a global scale. Empires often served as important arrival hubs for Jewish migrants, yet they were also sites of persecution and uprooting. The decades between the 1910s and the 1970s – stretching from the decline of the Ottoman Empire to struggles for independence across Africa and Asia – were marked by colonial expansion and decolonisation, extreme violence, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and fundamental shifts in the concepts of borders, citizenship, and humanitarian governance. During this long era of imperial fragmentation starting after the First World War and the onset of decolonisation, the upheavals of war, genocide, and political repression compelled many to seek new lives in unfamiliar – and often hostile – places, making migration a defining aspect of the modern Jewish and (non-Jewish) experience. At the same time, the persecution and violence of other minorities throughout the world led to large-scale domestic and international forced migrations.

Networks of support, hospitality, and solidarity proved crucial in this situation. Improving access to migration pathways enabled individuals to navigate restrictive border regimes, often determining the success of relocations, escapes, and onward journeys. In an emerging era of humanitarianism, individuals, relief actors, and various stakeholders coordinated efforts to facilitate travel, acquire necessary documentation, distribute food supplies, secure employment and/or work permits, and support the arrival of newcomers. This context prompts several questions: How did the history of empires shape and influence patterns of humanitarianism and migration throughout the 20th century? In what ways did decolonisation impact humanitarian efforts, networks, and the experiences of migrants? How can we analyse the mechanisms of connection, resilience, and adaptation that emerged among refugees and humanitarian actors across the diverse imperial landscapes?

These and other questions stand at the center of an international conference at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig, which is funded by the Alfred Landecker Foundation. It is organised by Sebastian Willert (Dubnow Institute), Eliana Hadjisavvas (Birkbeck College), and Sebastian Musch (Osnabrück University) and aims to broaden the focus on empires and migration to a more comprehensive global perspective. The conference will examine the interconnections and relationships among various humanitarian support and solidarity networks, including grassroots movements, traditional concepts of hospitality, and professional organisations that facilitate, support, and organise migration. It seeks to create a comparative approach to analyse how different cultures and regions respond to migration and the various support systems in place. Against this backdrop, this conference will examine the dual role of empires as both havens of refuge and catalysts of forced migration.

Aiming to critically interrogate the complex interconnections between different world regions, we particularly encourage contributions that examine lesser-studied geographies, including migrations, in and across the SWANA-region, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Americas, and the former Soviet Union. Our discussions will delve into the multifaceted experiences of Jewish migrants, exiles, and refugees, examining their contributions to society, the economy, and the enduring legacies of their presence. We intend to delve into the crucial role of humanitarian aid and relief efforts, as well as the contributions of individuals in supporting migrants both during their journeys and upon their arrival. By exploring these historical trajectories in the context of eroding empires, we will reflect on the implications for contemporary debates surrounding diversity, mobility, and belonging. In doing so, the conference aspires to foster conversations that not only enrich our understanding of past movements but also discourse on migration and mobility in the present.

Submission Details
Please submit an abstract of 350 words outlining your proposed contribution and a brief academic biography (max. 200 words) in a single pdf document. Travel and accommodation will be covered by the conference’s budget. Additionally, we intend to publish a curated selection of papers in a special issue.

Submissions should be sent by 27 March 2026 to Sebastian Willert at the Dubnow Institute via email: willert(at)dubnow.de

We look forward to your proposals and to a stimulating scholarly exchange on Jewish and other global migrants between empires and decolonisation, focusing on the intersection of migration and humanitarian studies.

Contakt

Sebastian Willert, Phd
Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow
Goldschmidtstraße 28
04103 Leipzig
willert@dubnow.de

Osnabrück/Germany   Veranstalter: Museumsquartier Osnabrück; AK Historische Lernorte der Konferenz für Geschichtsdidaktik (Museumsquartier Osnabrück) Ausrichter: Museumsquartier Osnabrück Gefördert durch: Konferenz für Geschichtsdidaktik PLZ: 49078 Ort: Osnabrück Land: Deutschland Findet statt: In Präsenz Vom - Bis: 16.04.2026 - 17.04.2026 Deadline: 31.03.2026  

Tagung des Arbeitskreises Außerschulische Lernorte der Konferenz für Geschichtsdidaktik
Museumsquartier Osnabrück, 16. und 17. April 2026

Anmeldung bis 31. März 2026 unter igelmann@osnabrueck.de

Angesichts der aktuellen politischen Entwicklungen stellt sich die pessimistische Frage, ob Demokratiebildung ein Auslaufmodell ist. Im deutschsprachigen Raum ist die politische Bildung eng mit der historischen verbunden. Insbesondere im Kontext der Aufarbeitung der nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen hat sich parallel zur umfangreichen Forschungsarbeit – in Wissenschaft wie als lokaler Graswurzelbewegung – über die Jahrzehnte eine breite Landschaft erinnerungskultureller Begegnungsorte entwickelt, die Herzstücke historisch-politischer Bildung sind. Und obwohl empirisch längst belegt ist, dass ein Gedenkstättenbesuch nicht automatisch gegen rechte und menschenfeindliche Ideologien „immunisiert“, so werden diese Einrichtungen doch im Wege einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit der Geschichte über das Gedenken an die Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen hinaus zu zentralen Bausteinen für ein besseres Verständnis der Demokratie als schützenswerter Gemeinschaftsform.

Gedenkorte als Lernorte dienen mithin neben der historischen Aufklärung auch der Vermittlung demokratischer Werte, etwa durch Gedenkveranstaltungen und pädagogische Angebote, die das Bewusstsein für Menschenrechte, Toleranz und Zivilcourage fördern sollen. Umso bitterer ist die Erkenntnis, dass das Amalgam einer intensiven, über Jahrzehnte reichenden Aufarbeitung offensichtlich nur eine allzu dünne Schutzschicht gegen Demokratiefeindlichkeit, Antisemitismus und Rassismus ausformen konnte. Die lange sicher geglaubte Demokratie scheint nicht mehr selbstverständlich Stabilität zu verkörpern.

Welche Rolle können unter diesen Bedingungen Gedenkstätten, Museen, Dokumentationszentren etc. als historisch-politische Bildungs- und Begegnungsorte spielen? Welchen Herausforderungen müssen sie sich in ihren Aufträgen auf struktureller Ebene, aber auch in der alltäglichen Arbeit stellen? Verstehen sie sich als Trainingsräume für einen offenen gesellschaftlichen Disput? Können sie mithelfen, die von bestimmten Kreisen forcierten Polarisierungen und Freund-Feind-Schemata zu überwinden? Wie öffnen sie neue Räume für ein zivilgesellschaftliches Miteinander unter humanem Vorzeichen? Lässt sich mit ihrer Unterstützung wieder „mehr Demokratie wagen“?

Programm

Donnerstag, 16. April 2026

10.30–12.00
Freie Führungsangebote
(Anmeldung erforderlich unter: gollmann@osnabrueck.de)
10.30: Angebot A: „Gedenkstätte Gestapokeller“ (Schloss)
10.30: Angebot B: „Die Villa_“ (Museumsquartier)
10.30: Angebot C: „Felix-Nussbaum-Haus“ (Museumsquartier)

Opening
12.00: Empfang / Anmeldung / Erfrischung

Eröffnung

12.30: Begrüßung
Nils-Arne Kässens (Direktor Museumsquartier Osnabrück)

12.45: Einführung
Andrea Brait, Christine Gundermann (Sprecherinnen Arbeitskreis Außerschulische Lernorte) und Thorsten Heese (Museumsquartier Osnabrück)

13.00–13.45: Keynote
Iris Groschek, Stiftung Hamburger Gedenkstätten und Lernorte

1. Sektion:
14.00–15.30: Ansprüche
Moderation: Frank Britsche, Leipzig

14.30–15.00
Museen als Lernorte für Frieden
Gabriele Danninger, Salzburg

15.00–15.30
Antifaschistische Waschmaschinen oder Orte kritischer Mündigkeit? Gedenkstätten und Spannungsfelder der Demokratiebildung
AK Räume öffnen

15.30–16.00
Mehr als „nur“ Technik: Historisch-politische Bildung in Industriemuseen
Arndt Macheledt, Heringen

15.30–16.00: Tee- und Kaffeepause

2. Sektion
16.00–17.30: Pädagogik
Moderation: Daniel Gollmann

16.00–16.30
Zwischen Normierung und Diskurs. Herausforderungen der Lehrerprofessionalisierung für schulische Gedenkstättenbesuche
Felix Ostermann/Martin Schlutow/Christian Winklhöfer, Münster

16.30–17.00
Betroffenheit und/oder historisch-politisches Lernen – Erwartungen österreichischer Lehrkräfte an Gedenkstättenbesuche
Andrea Brait, Krems

17.00–17.30
Beziehungsarbeit als Voraussetzung und ein kritischer Blick auf Gegenwartsbezüge – Perspektiven von Gedenkstättenpädagog:innen auf Herausforderungen ihrer Arbeit
Freya Kurek, Köln

18.00: Empfang im Friedenssaal des Historischen Rathauses
Katharina Pötter, Oberbürgermeisterin der Stadt Osnabrück
Sprecherinnen des Arbeitskreises

Ausklang des Tages
Gespräche bei Getränken und Catering

Freitag, 17. April 2026

Start in den Tag
8.30: Ankommen mit Tee und Kaffee

3. Sektion
9.00–10.30: Orte
Moderation: Christine Gundermann

9.00–9.30
Vom Lern- zum Erinnerungsort – das Hadwig-Schulhaus der Pädagogischen Hochschule St. Gallen
Catrina Langenegger/Thomas Metzger, St. Gallen

9.30–10.00
Eine Villa_ für Demokratie. Das Forum für Erinnerungskultur und Zeitgeschichte
Thorsten Heese, Osnabrück

10.00–10.30
Lernort Stasi-Zentrale. Archivpädagogik und historisch-politische Bildungsarbeit auf dem „Campus für Demokratie“
Nina Ziesemer, Berlin

10.30–11.00: Tee- und Kaffeepause

4. Sektion
11.00–12.30: Teilhabe
Moderation: Thorsten Heese

11.00–11.30
Dialogräume schaffen im partizipativen Ausstellungsprojekt Anti-Anti 2.0
Franziska Dunkel, Stuttgart

11.30–12.00
Lust und Leid der historisch-politischen Bürgerschaftsforschung – von der Euphorie über die Empirie zum echten Miteinander
Hiram Kümper, Mannheim

12.00–12.30
„Vieles sind ja Vermutungen …!“ Kontroversität in musealen Lernspielen
Jessica Kreuz/Simon Baumgartner, Passau

12.30–13.15
„Mehr Demokratie wagen“ – eine Bilanz der Tagung
Abschlussdiskussion mit
Sebastian Weitkamp, Gedenkstätte Esterwegen
Thorsten Heese, Osnabrück
Oliver Plessow, Geschichte der Didaktik, Universität Rostock
Moderation: Christine Gundermann

13.15–13.30
Verabschiedung

14.00–15.30
Freie Führungsangebote
(Anmeldung erforderlich unter: gollmann@osnabrueck.de)
13.30: Angebot D: „Gedenkstätte Gestapokeller“ (Schloss)
13.30: Angebot E: „Die Villa_“ (Museumsquartier)
13.30: Angebot F: „Felix-Nussbaum-Haus“ (Museumsquartier)

Kontakt

andrea.brait@donau-uni.ac.at

Vienna/Austria   Veranstalter: L'Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft PLZ: 1010 Ort: Wien Land: Austria Findet statt: Digital Vom - Bis: 02.02.2026 - 31.08.2026 Deadline: 31.08.2026 Website: https://lhomme.univie.ac.at/de/lhomme-z-f-g/  

„L'Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft" widmet sich in der Ausgabe 1/2028 dem aktuell höchst relevanten Thema „Protest". Einzureichende Vorschläge für Ausätze dazu können an ältere Arbeiten zu diversen historischen Protestformen seit dem Mittelalter anknüpfen und diese – methodisch-theoretisch neu fundiert – weiterentwickeln.

 

„Protest“, Ausgabe von „L’Homme. Z. F. G.“ (1/2028)

Die „No-Kings-Proteste“ und andere öffentliche Demonstrationen gegen die Trump-Regierung in den USA, die Proteste in Belarus, der Türkei, Serbien und – gegenwärtig eskalierend – im Iran, wo Frauen in den letzten Jahren immer wieder auch gegen eine ihnen vom Mullah-Regime auferlegte Kopftuchpflicht aufgetreten sind, oder die seit 2012 aktive „One Billion Rising“-Bewegung gegen Gewalt an Frauen und Mädchen, die landesweiten Frauenstreiks in der Schweiz 2019 und 2023 … das sind nur einige Beispiele der jüngsten Zeit, die zeigen, wie aktuell das Thema Protest ist. In einer Welt, in der autoritäre Regime und rechtspopulistische oder rechtsextreme Bewegungen sowie kriegerische Gewalteskalation zur Durchsetzung politischer und nationaler Interessen vielerorts die Oberhand gewinnen, wehren sich gleichzeitig immer mehr Menschen gegen diese Entwicklungen. Sie treten millionenfach gegen Entdemokratisierung und die Ausgrenzung und Verfolgung von Minderheiten, das Zurückschrauben erkämpfter Rechte, liberaler oder geschlechteregalitärer Positionen auf – oft unter Einsatz ihres Lebens.

Die gewählten Protestformen sind dabei vielfältig und facettenreich. Sie knüpfen einerseits an tradierte Formen des Protests gegen Obrigkeiten, Unterdrückung und soziale Missstände an und gestalten sich andererseits erfinderisch, kreativ, treten lautstark an die Öffentlichkeit oder werden im Geheimen, im Untergrund praktiziert … was je nach divergierenden nationalen, politischen, sozialen, ethnischen, altersspezifischen, religiösen Kontexten unterschiedlich ausgestaltet wird und dabei immer auch ‚vergeschlechtlicht‘ verläuft – ganz abgesehen davon, dass Frauen oder Mitglieder der LGBTQIA+-Community nicht nur an vielen Protestbewegungen partizipieren, sondern auch ihre eigenen Formen des Protests entwickeln.

Vor diesem aktuellen Hintergrund wird sich die Ausgabe von L’Homme. Z.F.G. 1/2028 dem Thema Protest widmen. Einzureichende Vorschläge dafür könnten an ältere, vor allem in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren veröffentlichte frauen- und geschlechtergeschichtliche Arbeiten zu historischen Protestformen seit dem Mittelalter anknüpfen und diese – methodisch-theoretisch neu fundiert – weiterentwickeln (z.B. in Bezug auf Bauernkriege, Ketzerbewegungen, „Weiberkriege“ und „Hungerkrawalle“, städtische Aufstände und Unruhen, Revolutionen, Streiks und ArbeiterInnenbewegungen, StudentInnenbewegungen, Proteste in den diversen Frauenbewegungen, in der Antikriegsbewegung, der Umweltbewegung, antikoloniale Protestformen …). Dabei sollen auch Verschiebungen oder Veränderungen der Perspektiven, Ansätze und Themen der feministischen Protestgeschichte deutlich werden – sei es in Hinblick auf Akteur:innen oder die Anbindung an politische/soziale Bewegungen, oder sei es hinsichtlich der Konstruktion historischer Leitfiguren für erfolgreichen, aber auch niedergeschlagenen Protest. Das gilt ebenso für die untersuchten Formen und Motive, deren Bandbreite durch globale Dimensionen von Protest zusätzlich erweitert wird. Von Interesse sind außerdem nicht nur bewegungsorientierte, sondern auch individuell praktizierte Protestformen.

Wir bitten um Proposals (in Deutsch oder Englisch) im Umfang von etwa einer Seite sowie einen kurzen CV bis spätestens Ende August 2026, an die L’Homme-Redaktion sowie an Christa Hämmerle und Ingrid Bauer. Die Abgabe der Beiträge (im Umfang von jeweils ca. 50.000 Zeichen inkl. Leerzeichen), die dann einem Peer-Review-Verfahren unterliegen, ist für Ende März 2027 geplant.

lhomme.geschichte@univie.ac.at
christa.haemmerle@univie.ac.at
ingrid.Bauer@plus.ac.at

Kontakt

lhomme.geschichte@univie.ac.at
christa.haemmerle@univie.ac.at
ingrid.Bauer@plus.ac.at

Stuttgart/Germany   Veranstalter: Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart; Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg Veranstaltungsort: Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Tagungszentrum Stuttgart-Hohenheim / online Gefördert durch: Vereinigung von Freunden und Förderern der Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart e.V. PLZ: 70599 Ort: Stuttgart Land: Deutschland Findet statt: Hybrid Vom - Bis: 05.03.2026 - 05.03.2026 Deadline: 04.03.2026 Website: https://www.akademie-rs.de/vakt_26359  

Ob „Stadtbild“, „Ausländer“ oder „Migrantin“, ob „Flüchtlingswelle“ oder „Einwanderungsland“: Wie wir über Einwanderung nach Deutschland, die einwandernden Personen und die sich dadurch verändernde Gesellschaft sprechen, ist nicht nebensächlich. Sprache prägt Wahrnehmung und schafft Tatsachen. Politische, gesellschaftliche und mediale Diskurse stehen nicht im luftleeren Raum, sondern in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang mit Gesetzgebung, Bürokratie und individuellen Lebensläufen. Das gilt heute genauso wie zu Zeiten der „Gastarbeiter:innen“ oder in den Debatten um die Einschränkung des Asylrechts Anfang der 1990er Jahre.

 

Einwanderungsgeschichte(n) – Wie wollen wir Migration erzählen?

Wir wollen im Vorfeld der baden-württembergischen Landtagswahl diskutieren, wie wirkmächtig das Sprechen über Migration ist und wie wir – sowohl aus historischer als auch aus aktueller und praktisch-politischer Perspektive – zu neuen Narrativen über das Einwanderungsland Deutschland gelangen können.

Welche roten Fäden ziehen sich durch die Vorstellungen und Erzählungen über Einwanderung und Einwanderer:innen nach Deutschland? Wie wird rassistisches Wissen konstruiert und weitergetragen – und was können wir ihm entgegensetzen? Kann die Erinnerung an die lange deutsche Einwanderungsgeschichte für aktuelle Diskurse konstruktiv fruchtbar gemacht werden? Welche Folgen haben Rückkehrdebatten für Politik und gesellschaftliche Diskurse? Wie könnte Sprechen und Handeln über Flucht und Migration dem Menschen zugewandt und sachorientiert gestaltet werden? Und schließlich: Wie erleben Menschen mit relativ junger „Migrationsgeschichte“ die Diskurse in Deutschland und Europa? Wie können – auch aus migrantischen Communitys heraus – gelingende, konstruktive Erzählungen entstehen?

Darüber kommen wir ins Gespräch mit:

PD Dr. Maria Alexopoulou, Migrationshistorikerin (Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung Berlin/Universität Mannheim)

Klaus Barwig, langjähriger Leiter des Fachbereichs Migration und Menschenrechte an der Akademie und Mitgründer der „Hohenheimer Tage zum Migrationsrecht”

Mazen Mohsen, syrisch-deutscher Musiker (Marbach)

Programm

Donnerstag, 05. März 2026, 18:00 Uhr
Tagungszentrum Stuttgart-Hohenheim und online

Referent:innen

PD Dr. Maria Alexopoulou
Maria Alexopoulou studierte Geschichte und Philosophie an der Universität Heidelberg, promovierte an der Freien Universität Berlin und habilitierte sich an der Universität Mannheim. Aktuell ist sie Leiterin eines Projekts am Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung der TU Berlin und Privatdozentin am Historischen Institut der Universität Mannheim. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte sind die Migrations- und Rassismusgeschichte. Dazu liegen zahlreiche Beiträge von ihr vor, u.a. das Reclam-Sachbuch „Deutschland und die Migration. Geschichte einer Einwanderungsgesellschaft wider Willen“ (2020). Sie ist langjähriges Mitglied der Mannheimer Migrant*innen-Selbstorganisation Die Unmündigen e.V. sowie eine der Sprecherinnen der Sektion Rassismus im Rat für Migration.

Klaus Barwig
Klaus Barwig leitete den von ihm aufgebauten Fachbereich Migration und Menschenrechte an der Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart von 1981 bis 2018. Im Jahr 1985 begründete er die Hohenheimer Tage zum Migrationsrecht, die sich seither zur bedeutendsten migrationsrechtlichen Veranstaltung in Deutschland entwickelt haben. Für seine Verdienste u.a. als Mitbegründer der Zeitschrift für Ausländerrecht und -politik, der migrationsrechtlichen Reihe im Nomos-Verlag und des wissenschaftlichen Netzwerkes Migrationsrecht sowie als Berater u.a. der Deutschen Bischofskonfe-renz, der Robert-Bosch-Stiftung und der IHK Stuttgart wurde er 2019 mit dem Bundesverdienstkreuz ausgezeichnet.

Mazen Mohsen
Mazen Mohsen stammt aus Syrien, wo er sein Musikstudium absolvierte, bevor er 2015 nach Deutschland kam. Bekannt wurde er durch seine Teilnahme an der 11. Staffel von „The Voice of Germany“ sowie durch zahlreiche Konzerte und Musikprojekte. Aktuell absolviert er eine musikalische Weiterbildung an der Waldorfhochschule als Fachlehrer für Musik in Mannheim. Zusätzlich ist er aktiv als Sänger und Musiker beim interreligiösen Verein Trimum tätig und trat bereits gemeinsam mit dem Beethoven Orchester Bonn auf. Außerdem sang er in der Philharmonie Stuttgart.

Einführung und Moderation

Nure-Laura Boga, Fachreferentin Integration und Migration, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg

Tengiz Dalalishvili, Fachreferent Europa und Internationales, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg

Dr. Konstanze Jüngling, Fachbereichsleiterin Migration und Menschenrechte, Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart

Dr. Johannes Kuber, Fachbereichsleiter Geschichte, Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart

Kontakt

Anastasiia Pototska: pototska@akademie-rs.de

Organiser: Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum – Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte (Romy Köhler; Ruth Schilling; Antje Schmidt; Felix Schürmann) Hostg: Romy Köhler; Ruth Schilling; Antje Schmidt; Felix Schürmann Location: Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum – Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte Potscode: 27568 City: Bremerhaven Country: Deutschland Takes place: Hybrid Dates: 28.05.2026 - 29.05.2026 Deadline: 02.03.2026 Website: https://www.dsm.museum/  

This explatory workshop at the German Maritime Museum will discuss the maritime dimension of collecting in colonial contexts. It aims to foster dialogue between researchers and practitioners of maritime history, colonial history, collection history, provenance research, and museum professionals from the fields of documentation, data curation, and digitisation. It invites an exchange of insights, methods, and challenges in current research, digitisation and outreach projects. Key objectives include enriching debates on colonial object provenances by highlighting the significance of maritime milieus and illuminating the interconnections between maritime and colonial history.

 

Maritime Infrastructures of Collecting in Colonial Contexts

Since the 2000s, questions concerning the provenance of objects that arrived from colonial contexts and are held in the collections of European museums, universities, and other institutions have fueled societal, political, and academic debates. Reconstructing such provenances is systematically linked to discussions about the possibilities – and challenges – of ethically appropriate ways of dealing with ancestors, human remains, and particularly sensitive objects. Despite all the differences regarding contexts of acquisition or appropriation, most objects from colonial contexts share a largely overlooked similarity: they were transported by ship and passed through ports. As a result, they circulated within a maritime environment with a specific set of infrastructures that transported them from their contexts of origin to other regions and situations around the world. Among the various worlds to which objects shipped from the colonies belonged, the maritime world deserves more scholarly attention than it has received to date.

The maritime dimension of collecting in colonial contexts, briefly outlined here, will be discussed at an exploratory workshop at the German Maritime Museum in May 2026. The workshop aims to foster dialogue between researchers and practitioners of maritime history, colonial history, collection history, provenance research and museum professionals from the fields of documentation, data curation, and digitisation. It invites an exchange of insights, methods, and challenges in current research, digitisation and outreach projects. Key objectives include enriching debates on colonial object provenances by highlighting the significance of maritime milieus and illuminating the interconnections between maritime and colonial history. The topic is embedded in a focus area at the museum and will be further developed through subsequent events.

As an overarching theme, the workshop explores how maritime infrastructures reshape our understanding of colonial contexts. It asks how stories of the translocalisation of objects via ships and ports can be communicated to a wider public through formats such as digital representations, data publications, and exhibitions. It further examines which perspectives on the relationships between maritime history and colonial history can be developed, what is required to make such stories tangible and comprehensible, and how multidisciplinary approaches can open up new ways of understanding the interconnections between these two fields.

In Germany, current debates on these issues typically focus on German colonial rule and thus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The workshop, however, explicitly provides space for examining the colonial empires of other powers and earlier periods as well.

Proposals for contributions (for the first workshop) may address the following topics, but are not limited to them:
- Understood in a historical-anthropological sense, “maritime infrastructures” encompasses not only material structures such as ships or port buildings, but also the social and cultural frameworks underpinning economic and logistical processes. What characterised maritime infrastructures in contexts of colonial rule, and how did they shape the translocalisation of objects from colonies to Europe? What difference did it make for objects to cross not only the border between colony and metropole, but also the threshold between terrestrial and maritime environments? In what ways did passenger, merchant, and mail ships acquire a specifically colonial dimension? And to what extent did it matter whether objects were transported on civilian or naval ships?
- The cargo space available on ships and the loading facilities in ports regulated the quantity, size, and weight of objects that could be transported from colonies to Europe. Transport by ship and through ports could also leave material traces on objects. To what extent did awareness of the conditions, limitations, and risks of shipping influence collecting practices in the colonies? How did transport-related damage, for example from moisture, affect the documentation of collections and the exhibition of objects?
- In addition to ships and seamen, other actors involved in moving collected objects are of particular interest. These include diplomats, academic and non-academic museums staff, travelers, traders, missionaries, dockworkers, shipping workers, and porters who delivered objects to colonial ports. All were shaped by specific forms of mobility and experiences of belonging and exclusion, and were positioned within a field of dependencies and constraints. What were the relationships between these actors and practices of “collecting”? What negotiations, requirements and conflicts arose within these interactions?
- Many “collectors” in the colonies relied on extensive networks, including local associates and intermediaries, middlemen and merchants at trading hubs, and buyers and researchers in Europe. How significant was the participation of seamen, dockworkers, and shipping entrepreneurs in these often transnational or transimperial networks of collecting? To what extent did they initiate collecting themselves, what kind of objects did they “gather” in the colonies, and what might they later have contributed to museums? Can seamen who collected independently be distinguished as a distinct type of collectors? How can their significance be made visible in collections and their digital representations?
- Not every ship that transported objects from colonies reached its intended destination. After accidents, confiscations, or hijackings, objects washed ashore in unexpected places. They could end up in the hands of auctioneers, natural history dealers, or organisers of swap shops – or simply be discarded. In some cases, seamen or dockworkers appropriated objects through theft, transferring them as stolen goods into irregular economies and networks. How do such episodes of loss, or of unplanned and (from the collector's perspective) unwanted recontextualisation fit into the history of the translocation of objects from colonies?
- Building on the conceptualisation of maritime infrastructures outlined above, the question arises as to the extent to which these structures continue to shape contemporary museum practices. To what degree do they influence digitisation strategies, documentation standards, and categorisations of objects? How did they manifest in epistemic power and ordering systems that persist to this day, and what systemic biases and absences have resulted from these historical continuities? How do these infrastructural influences differ across types of collecting institutions (e.g., ethnographic vs. maritime or natural history museums)? What are the implications for global connectivity (e.g. interoperability of object data) and the potential for re-contextualising these holdings in a post-colonial framework?

Researchers at all career stages as well as practitioners in the context of museum collections, archives and other relevant institutions are warmly invited to submit proposals for contributions in English. Designed as a workshop, the event is open for presentations on work in progress. Please send your proposal, including a title, an abstract of no more than 500 words, a biographical note, and contact information, by March 2nd, 2026 via this link: https://umfrage.dsm.museum/index.php/237667?lang=en

Travel and accommodation expenses can be covered to a certain extent in accordance with the Bremen Travel Expenses Act (Bremisches Reisekostengesetz). When submitting a proposal, please indicate whether you require reimbursement or can use own institutional funds.

For further questions, please contact us at MaritimeInfrastructures@dsm.museum

Contakt

MaritimeInfrastructures@dsm.museum

In 2026, as the United States celebrates 250 years of independence and takes an increasing aggressive stance toward Europe, the Museum of the French Revolution – Domaine de Vizille and the LUHCIE laboratory at Grenoble Alpes University are organizing an international symposium aimed at rethinking the revolutionary origins of Franco-American relations through the figure and writings of Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799). This reinterpretation has been made possible by the recent acquisition by the Bibliothèque nationale de France of Beaumarchais' voluminous personal archives, as well as by the unprecedented digital publication of his entire surviving correspondence and manuscripts, undertaken as part of the collective and interdisciplinary program @rchibeau (2024-2029).

Argument

Danton, Napoleon, and many others believed they detected a prophetic foreshadowing of the French Revolution in Beaumarchais's theatrical work. But the author of The Marriage of Figaro did not become famous solely for the diatribes against privilege uttered by his Seville barber. It is now often forgotten, but Beaumarchais was also an observer and actor in the Atlantic revolutions, whose success he constantly predicted even as he sought to determine their course. As soon as the American insurgents entered into open rebellion against Great Britain, Beaumarchais set out to convince France’s King Louis XVI to seek an alliance with Americans, whom he described as “full of enthusiasm for liberty”. He argued that “such a nation must be invincible” (letter to the king, September 21, 1775). After living through the French Revolution, in a context in which Franco-American relations had become dangerously strained, Beaumarchais wrote to one of the leaders of Franbce’s ruling Directory that he dreamed only of “rapprochement between the two greatest republics in the world, the French and the American” (letter to Jean-François Reubell, June 7, 1798). This steady confidence in the necessary union of the two sides of the North Atlantic will be examined during the conference in light of the new approaches that characterize revolutionary historiography today.

The first of these new approaches centers on the transnational connections and reciprocal influences that characterized the revolutionary experience in the second half of the 18th century. Although Beaumarchais himself never set foot in America, the extent of his transatlantic networks, now well documented by the dense and continuous series of letters he wrote, provides a particularly stimulating framework for rethinking the links between the American and French revolutions. These links can be measured first and foremost by Beaumarchais' role in supplying both young republics with weapons and military equipment. The company known as Roderigue & Hortalez, secretly run by Beaumarchais, did not merely connect the French monarchy with the American insurgents; well before the Franco-American alliance of 1778, it paved the way for the first military victories won by George Washington's Continental Army and reinforced connections between ports cities on both sides of the North Atlantic, as well as several in the Caribbean and Spanish America. As for the later “affaire des fusils de Hollande” in which Beaumarchais became involved during the French Revolution, it deserves to be revisited from the perspective of the internationalization of revolutions across continental Europe. Beaumarchais attempted to supply revolutionary France with rifles from the Brabant Revolution, not long before France itself attempted to establish a Batavian republic in the United Provinces. Through transnational practices such as these that were typical of the age of revolutions, Beaumarchais' networks provides a basis on which we can question models both of hegemony and balance of power among major world powers. Whether colonial or emancipatory, slave-owning or liberating, these models must be examined from an economic as well as a political perspective, and from a financial as well as a cultural perspective, using archives that shed light on them from a practical rather than simply a theoretical point of view.

The second approach that will guide the symposium's discussions draws on new ways of understanding the history of emotions, which historians no longer regard as mere reactions to revolutionary events but as active performative factors in them. The emotional experience of freedom that breathes through Beaumarchais’s writings will be reconsidered in light of his personal experience of the American and French revolutions, which was both enthusiastic and painful. A sumptuous residence he built in 1787 in the shadow of the Bastille was searched and requisitioned on numerous occasions during significant moments of the Revolution. His Compte rendu des neuf mois les plus pénibles de ma vie (Account of the Nine Most Painful Months of My Life) published in 1793 at the time of the establishment of the Comité de Salut Public, also deserves to be revisited with a fresh eye, and to be compared with the Mémoires contre Goëzman (Memoirs Against Goëzman), which first established Beaumarchais's fame during the Enlightenment. Many others of his published writings still need to be read in light of the newly available manuscripts and archival documents. In plays such as La Mère coupable, operas such as Tarare, but also in printed legal briefs, public letters, and articles published in the periodical Courrier de l’Europe, Beaumarchais multiplied the forms of communication that inked politics to the emotional sphere: in this way, he helped to respond to the crisis of representation that can be considered one of the main drivers of the revolutions on both sides of the Atlantic.

Submission guidelines

Proposals for papers of approximately one page (in English or French) should be sent to Gilles Montègre (gilles.montegre@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr) and Linda Gil (linda.gil@univ-montp3.fr) before April 30, 2026. Presentations based on original documentation from the BnF collections as well as other American, European or French collections will be given priority. Speakers' expenses may be covered, and particular attention will be paid to the multidisciplinary nature of the papers, as well as to the balance between researchers from Europe and the United States.

Scientific Committe 

David Bell (Princeton University) – Philippe Bourdin (Université Clermont Auvergne) – Robert Darnton (Harvard University) – Vincenzo Ferrone (Université de Turin) – Linda Gil (Université Paul-Valéry de Montpellier) – Aurélien Lignereux (Université Grenoble Alpes) – Antoine Lilti (Collège de France) – Virginie Martin (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne) – Gilles Montègre (Université Grenoble Alpes) – Stéphane Pujol (Université de Toulouse)– Bertrand Van Ruymbeke (Université Paris 8) – Charles-Eloi Vial (Bibliothèque nationale de France) – Virginie Yvernault (Sorbonne Université)

Institutions The ANR @rchibeau program: Beaumarchais in the digital age

Funded by the French National Research Agency, the @rchibeau program (2024-2029) brings together four laboratories in Montpellier (IRCL), Grenoble (LUHCIE), Toulouse (PLH), and Sorbonne University (CELLF) around the last great author and actor of the Enlightenment, whose archives have not been the subject of a major scientific edition and study. With the support of an international and multidisciplinary team, @rchibeau has set itself the goal of analyzing and digitally publishing all of Beaumarchais' letters and papers, which will be hosted on the Huma-Num platform in “open edition” to ensure access to as many researchers as possible.

The Museum of the French Revolution – Vizille (France)

Located at the foot of the Alps, within the majestic Domaine de Vizille, the Museum of the French Revolution preserves and displays a collection of artworks and historical objects that are key references points both for the revolutionary decade and its resonance in subsequent centuries, in France and around the world. The museum offers visitors the opportunity to experience for themselves this seminal episode in France’s history. Each year, this goal is supplemented by cultural programs accessible to as many people as possible. Our scientific symposium will be accompanied by a full weekend of events: guided tours, dramatized readings, movie nights, opera concerts, and more. Within the museum, the Albert Soboul Resource Center welcomes researchers interested in the Revolution throughout the year. The Museum of the French Revolution – Domaine de Vizille belongs to the network of eleven museums in the Department of Isère, which are free to all.

Bibliography

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David ANDRESS (éd.), Experiencing the French Revolution, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 2013. 

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David BELL et Yair MINTZER (dir.), Rethinking the Age of Revolutions : France and the Birth of the Modern World, Oxford, OUP, 2018. 

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Haim BURSTIN, Révolutionnaires. Pour une anthropologie politique de la Révolution française, Paris, Vendémiaire, 2022. 

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Manuel COVO, Entrepôt of Revolutions. Saint-Domingue, Commercial Sovereignty and the French-American Alliance, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022. 

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Suzanne DESAN, « Internationalizing the French Revolution », French Politics, Culture & Society, vol. 29, n°2, 2011, p. 137-160.

Edmond DZIEMBOWSKI, Le siècle des révolutions. 1660-1789, Paris, Perrin, 2019. 

Linda GIL (dir.), Editer la correspondance de Beaumarchais. Enquêtes, inventaire et édition, Brest, Cahiers du Centre d’étude des correspondances et journaux intimes, 2023. 

Lynn HUNT, « The Experience of Revolution », French Historical Studies, t. 32, 2009, p. 671-678. 

Joanna INES et Mark PHLIP (dir.), Re-imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions : America, France, Britain, Ireland, 1750-1850, Oxford, OUP, 2013. 

Maurice LEVER, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Paris, Fayard, 1999-2004, 3 volumes. 

Antoine LILTI, L’héritage des Lumières. Ambivalences de la modernité, Paris, EHEES Gallimard Seuil, 2019.

Gilles MONTÈGRE, Voyager en Europe au temps des Lumières. Les émotions de la liberté, Paris, Tallandier, 2024. 

Brian MORTON, Donald SPINELLI, Beaumarchais and the American revolution, New York, Lexington Books, 2002. 

Benedicte OBITZ-LUMBROSO, Beaumarchais en toutes lettres : identités d’un épistolier, Paris, H. Champion, 2011. 

Karine RANCE, Valérie SOTTOCASA, Denise Z. DAVIDSON (dir.), Émotions révolutionnaires, dans Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 2024/1, n°415.  

Virginie YVERNAULT, Figaromania. Beaumarchais tricolore, de monarchies en républiques, Paris, Hermann, 2020. 

Sophie WAHNICH, La Révolution française : un événement de la raison sensible (1789-1799), Paris, Hachette, 2012.

Locations

• Musée de la Révolution française
  Vizille, Frankreich (38)
• Archives départementales de l’Isère
  Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Frankreich (38)

Event format

• Event in presence

Dates

• 30 April 2026

Attachments

• Call for papers English version.pdf

Keywords

• Beaumarchais, révolution, Amérique

Kontakt

• Hugo Tardy
  courriel : hugo [dot] tardy [at] univ-montp3 [dot] fr

Paris/France

Les jalons de l’histoire du protestantisme ont été écrits par des pasteurs érudits des XIXe et XXe siècles. Il n’est donc pas surprenant que le ministère ait occupé une place de choix dans l’historiographie. Pourtant, éclaircir les profils des pasteurs reste une tâche considérable. Des milliers de ministres ont officié en France du XVIe siècle au XVIIIe siècle, mais que sait-on d’eux ? L’objectif de cette journée d’étude est de lancer des pistes de recherche pour mieux discerner le groupe social dans son ensemble. Cette approche doit permettre d’examiner la relation quotidienne du pasteur avec ses fidèles, ses collègues et les catholiques. La dimension familiale de la vie des ministres du culte réformé sera aussi pleinement abordée à travers la culture matérielle du foyer, ou encore les réseaux dans lesquels ces familles s’insèrent.

Programme du vendredi 13 mars 2026

9h00 : Accueil des participant.es

9h15-9h30 : Introduction

Session 1 : Être pasteur, identité professionnelle, identité « personnelle »

Modération : Hubert Bost, directeur d’études à l’EPHE, LEM (UMR 8584).

• 9h30-9h55 : Céline Borello (TEMOS, Le Mans Université), « Entre héritage et ouverture : l’engagement dans le ministère pastoral réformé (XVIIe – XVIIIe siècles) ».
• 9h55-10h20 : Virginie Fayseler (CRM, Sorbonne Université), « Suzanne Daillé, une « morte à l’œuvre » : incursion dans la culture matérielle d’un foyer pastoral parisien de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle ».

10h20-10h45 : discussions

Pause

Session 2 : Sociabilités et réseaux pastoraux

Modération : Marion Deschamp, maîtresse de conférences à l’Université de Lorraine, CRULH (UR 3945).

• 11h15-11h40 : Florian Daboncourt (CRM, Sorbonne Université), « Les premiers pasteurs parisiens, des hommes entre chaire et seigneurie (1594 – v. 1610) ».
• 11h40-12h05 : Philippe Chareyre (ITEM, Université de Pau et des pays de l’Adour), « Les pasteurs et leurs paroisses au prisme de la mobilité pastorale ».

12h05-12h30 : discussions.

Déjeuner

Session 3 : Actions, discours et pratiques des pasteurs face aux événements politiques et à la coexistence confessionnelle

Modération : Nicolas Le Roux, professeur à Sorbonne Université, CRM (UMR 8596).

• 14h30-14h55 : Julien Léonard (CRULH, Université de Lorraine) « Le pastorat est un sport de combat. Les ministres français face au harcèlement des controversistes (v. 1598 – v. 1685) ».
• 14h55-15h20 : Yoann Paysserand (IHMC, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), « Persévérer dans sa foi ou abjurer ? Le dilemme des épouses de pasteurs convertis ».

15h20-15h45 : discussions.

Pause

Conclusion

• 16h00: Didier Boisson, professeur à l’Université d’Angers, TEMOS (UMR 9016).

Information importante

• Inscription obligatoire avant le 8 mars : virginie.fayseler@sorbonne-universite.fr ; yoann.paysserand@univ-paris1.fr

Comité d’organisation

• Virginie Fayseler (CRM, UMR 8596)
• Yoann Paysserand (IHMC, UMR 8066)

Lieu

• Centre Panthéon (salle 6, 4e étage) - 12, place du Panthéon
  Paris, Frankreich (75005)

Format de l'événement

• Événement sur place 

Dates

• 13. Mars 2026

Appendice

• JE Histoire sociale pasteurs 13.03.26.pdf

Mots-clés

• protestantisme, pasteur, histoire sociale

Contact

• Virginie Fayseler
  courriel : virginie [dot] fayseler [at] sorbonne-universite [dot] fr
• Yoann Paysserand
  courriel : yoann [dot] paysserand [at] univ-paris1 [dot] fr

Inscription

• Inscription JE 13 mars

18th Contact Day Jewish Studies on the Low Countries 
Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp, 12 May 2026

Grote Kauwenberg 18, 2000 Antwerpen, Room s.E.201. 

We welcome you to join us in the 18th Contact Day Jewish Studies on the Low Countries to be held on 12 May 2026 at Antwerpen University (please see the attached program, for an online version and abstracts see https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/research-groups/ijs/lectures-and-conferenc…;

Admission is free, please register via email: ijs@uantwerpen.be

Program
 
9:30 - 10:00 Registration  
 
10:00 - 10:15 Opening words 
 
10:15 - 11:45 Panel “Shifting Jewish Identities in a Global Context” (Chair: Laura Hobson Faure) 
 
José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim, “A life story from the 17th century in his own voice (discurso de sua vida): Francisco Cardoso Ortiz or Abraham Cardoso, a Jew from Bayonne, and his transcontinental travels” 
 
Hilde Greefs & Anne Winter, “From Pinhas to Youssouf: The fascinating travels of a Jewish family of “Muslim” performers in mid-nineteenth-century Europe” 
 
Laura Almagor, "Anti Colonial Cold War Liberals: Sal Tas and Jacques de Kadt” 
 
11:45 - 12:00 Coffee break 
 
12:00 - 13:00 Panel “Religious anti-Jewish Images” (Chair: Philippe Pierret) 
 
Hélène Muratore, “The Legacy of the Cambron Desecration: Imagery, Pilgrimage Sites and the Shaping of Medieval Identity and Community in the Low Countries” 
 
Lieve Teugels, “Anti-Jewish images in the OLV Church in Aarschot” 
 
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch break 
 
14:00 - 16:00 Panel “Crossing Places, Spaces & Jewish Identities” (Chair: Karin Hofmeester) 
 
Julia van der Krieke, “ ‘The Jewish Neighbourhood’, creating different Jewish identities on 
Amsterdam’s streets” 
  
Nina Zellerhoff, “Hakhshara in the Netherlands. Jewish Youth Between Hope, Escape, and Self-Fulfilment” 
 
Bettine Siertsema, “The stranger as catalyst: Emuna Elon’s House on Endless Waters” 
 
Dawn M. Skorczewski, “A Strange Desire: Uncovering Dutch Holocaust Trauma through Longing and Witnessing in The Safekeep” 
 
16:00 - 16:15 Coffee break 
 
16:15 - 17:45 Panel “Anti-Jewish Policy and its Consequences” (Chair: Veerle Vanden Daelen) 
Linda Graul, “An Experiment in Early Persecution:  Luxembourg as a Testing Ground for Anti-Jewish Policy in Western Europe” 
 
Jana Müller, “Post-war or post-Holocaust? Parliamentary debates and the legislative process regarding compensation in Luxembourg” 
 
Sabrina Lind, “Looted in Belgium, recovered to Belgium. Who is the rightful owner of Jan Denens’s Vanitas?” 
 
17:45 - 18:00 Concluding remarks 

 

Organiser: Humboldt University of Berlin Postcode: 10117 City: Berlin Country: Deutschland Takes place: In attendance Dates: 17.09.2026 - 19.09.2026 Deadline: 31.03.2026  

The Chair of East European History at Humboldt University of Berlin is pleased to invite paper proposals for the conference “Women in Late Socialism: Gender Orders, Agency, and Transnational Entanglements,” sponsored by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung). The conference will take place in Berlin, Germany, on 17-19 September 2026.

 

Women in Late Socialism: Gender Orders, Agency, and Transnational Entanglements

At the core of the conference are women as historical actors in late socialist societies, whose spheres of action oscillated between state control, institutional participation, and everyday self-assertion. The conference aims to examine how female agency under late socialism was shaped and enacted in the domains of political engagement and withdrawal, transnational Cold War spaces and networks, knowledge production, and the politics of the body.

The conference examines how the broader problem of subjects’ incorporation into socialist political regimes was articulated in women’s lives, and how gender reshaped the dynamics of integration, regulation, and resistance. Moreover, it aims to examine transnational women’s activities and networks during the Cold War, particularly within the framework of international women’s organizations, academic exchange programs, state-organized forms of tourism, and networks of cooperation between socialist countries. Women’s expertise and knowledge production under late socialism – particularly in fields traditionally defined as male domains – constitute another key area for examining female subjectivity. Finally, the focus on the politics of the body amidst demographic concerns, anxieties about labor productivity, and proclaimed commitments to gender equality allows to examine how women’s bodies were turned into a political project. Analyzing similarities and differences across discourses, institutions, lifeworlds, and female subjectivities in various socialist countries highlights both the specificities of individual cases and the broader dynamics they share.

We invite proposals focusing on one of the following topics:
- Women as political subjects under late socialism: integration, participation, and social control
- Women in transnational spaces of the Cold War: socialist exchange and networks
- Women’s expertise and knowledge production: science, education, and culture
- Biopolitics in late socialism: women’s bodies, health, and reproduction

The conference brings together scholars at all career stages working on socialist countries. It will result in an edited volume, so we kindly ask applicants to submit materials that have not been previously published.

Proposals should be submitted in English to femaleagency2026@gmail.com and include an abstract of up to 300 words along with a CV (two pages maximum including relevant publications) as a single PDF file by 31 March 2026. Applicants will be notified by 10 May 2026. Participants will be asked to submit their papers (up to 5,000 words) by 15 August 2026 for internal circulation in advance, to support more productive discussion. The working language of the conference is English.

The organizers will provide accommodation for two nights in Berlin (17-19 September 2026). Travel expenses will be reimbursed up to a maximum of EUR 150 (for travel within Europe) and up to EUR 250 (for travel from outside Europe). If you have any questions, please contact us via femaleagency2026@gmail.com.

Organizing Committee: Anna Ivanova (Humboldt University), Irina Makhalova (Humboldt University), and Oksana Nagornaia (Humboldt University).

Mos Historicus: Call for Articles

 

The history of work and labour has long occupied a central place within European social history, offering a key lens through which to examine social relations, hierarchies, forms of power, and economic formations across the longue durée. Rather than approaching work solely as an economic function, historical scholarship has increasingly foregrounded work as a lived social experience -one that has shaped identities, values, and modes of belonging. From the medieval social category of the laboratores (“those who labour”) and the emergence of early work ethics, to the formation of the working class and the consolidation of new labour regimes during industrialisation, the history of work provides crucial insights into the making of European societies. At the same time, questions concerning the boundaries and meanings of work, free or unfree wage labour, and invisible forms of work (domestic, student, and other forms) render the history of work a persistently relevant field of inquiry.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, labour history developed in close dialogue with large-scale interpretations of economic development and capitalism, often privileging class formation, production, and collective struggle as its primary analytical frameworks (Smith 1776; Ricardo 1817; Marx 1867). Social historians, especially through the Annales tradition (Bloch 1939; Duby 1962; Le Goff 1977) and the British Marxist school (Thompson 1963; Hobsbawm 1964; Hilton 1969), redirected attention toward workers themselves, labour relations, and collective practices, while remaining deeply embedded in the political and ideological concerns of post-war Europe. As a result, labour history often remained constrained by ideological narratives and relatively rigid interpretive models.

Since the 1980s, however, the field has undergone significant reconfiguration. Influenced by the cultural turn, gender history, and critical social theory, history of work has expanded beyond class and production as exclusive analytical categories. Scholars have increasingly examined meanings of work, embodied experience, language, representation, gender, age, and everyday practice as constitutive dimensions of working lives (Joyce 1991; Bennett 1996; Simontron & Montenach 2018). More recently, interdisciplinary approaches, alongside global and digital history, have further widened the scope of inquiry, challenging Eurocentric narratives and opening new methodological and conceptual horizons (van der Linden 2008; Lucassen 2021; Schiel et al. 2023).

Contemporary developments—most notably the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion of the digital economy, and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence—have once again brought fundamental questions about the value, meaning, regulation, and limits of work to the forefront of scholarly debate. Against this backdrop, Mos Historicus: A Critical Review of European History dedicates its fourth issue to Labour History / History of Work and invites submissions that engage critically with historical approaches to work in Europe and beyond. 

Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• History of Work/Labour and its historiographies: theoretical frameworks, concepts, and interpretive shifts
• Power structures and social hierarchies: labour regimes, disciplinary mechanisms, and labour relations
• Institutional frameworks, work ethics, and normative value systems
• Seasonality, mobility, and migration
• Gendered, age-based, and embodied dimensions of work
• Cultural representations of work and symbolic systems 
• Work identities and cultures
• Labour movements, collectivisation, and collective action: mobilisations, claims, and forms of organization

Mos Historicus welcomes contributions covering different historical periods and methodological approaches, and particularly encourages submissions that engage critically with sources, concepts, and interpretive boundaries within labour history.

 

Please consult the following links for further information:

1. Geographical and chronological scope of the journal
2. Guidelines for authors

 

Article Submission Deadline: until the 30th of April, 2026.

Organiser: Frank Biess, UC San Diego; Anna von der Goltz, Georgetown University; Simone Lässig, TU Braunschweig; Richard Wetzell, GHI Washington Host: Georgetown University Funded by: The workshop will be jointly funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.. Postcode: 20057 City: Washington, DC Country: United States Takes place: In attendance Dates: 08.10.2026 - 09.10.2026 Deadline: 01.03.2026 Website: https://app.smartsheet.eu/b/form/019c05bd39cb7ad195ce758c8df93edb  

Call for Papers for an international workshop at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., 8-9 October 2026: Flight, Exile and Emigration in Germany’s Age of Extremes: Biographical Perspectives

Conveners: Frank Biess (UC San Diego), Anna von der Goltz (Georgetown University), Simone Lässig (TU Braunschweig) and Richard Wetzell (GHI Washington)

 

Flight, Exile and Emigration in Germany’s Age of Extremes: Biographical Perspectives

Our crises-ridden present is marked by multiple wars, economic disruption, and political persecution. These issues have brought questions of flight, exile and emigration back into focus. Millions of individual lives across the globe are being disrupted and upended by external events often beyond individuals' control. Indeed, the current crisis of liberal democracy in many Western countries conjures up a scenario in which such predicaments are no longer confined to inhabitants of the Global South. It is now conceivable that in the not-too-distant future, groups and individuals in what were previously stable Western liberal democracies may experience political persecution and exile once again. The violent and turbulent first half of the 20th century seems closer to our present than at any time in recent memory.

This contemporary context informs an international workshop that seeks to provide a historical perspective on flight, exile and emigration in 20th century Germany, focusing on the 1920s-1950s. The workshop is part of an increasingly transnational and global orientation in the historiography of the 20th century. At the same time, it reflects a turn toward writing history biographically that is currently underway in German history and beyond. It recognizes that the lives of many Germans did not unfold within the confines of national borders. Thomas Mann's dictum in exile, 'Where I am is Germany', can thus be applied to many individuals who were forced to leave Germany due to political persecution. Some chose to return after 1945, while others did not.

This workshop aims to bring together junior and senior scholars from both sides of the Atlantic who are currently conducting research on flight, exile or emigration in 20th century Germany, incorporating biographical approaches. One aim of the workshop is to identify patterns or similarities that transcend the idiosyncrasies of individual lives and point to more general insights regarding experience of flight, exile and emigration. The workshop aims to stimulate conversation and exchange, and to facilitate a joint publication.

We are particularly interested in proposals that address the following questions: Why and when did people leave and what determined where they chose to go? What structural conditions or markers (social class, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, nationality, age etc.) determined their trajectories? How did particular places, people, and experiences shape individuals’ political commitments or shifts in political attitudes? Which ideologies or set of ideas were particularly useful in maintaining a coherent sense of self in a period of often catastrophic disruption? How did major political events (the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, the emerging Cold War) affect the intimate details of private lives? And how did private life provide a resource to manage and survive political catastrophes? What skills or bodies of knowledge were particularly important in surviving political ruptures and/or forced displacement.

The workshop will be jointly funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.. We will cover associated travel costs and accommodation.

Proposals (500 words), along with a short CV, can be submitted until March 1, 2026 at https://app.smartsheet.eu/b/form/019c05bd39cb7ad195ce758c8df93edb

Hannover/Germany   Veranstalter: Niedersächsisches Institut für Sportgeschichte e.V. (NISH); Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft von Sportmuseen, Sportarchiven und Sportsammlungen e.V. (DAGS) (Niedersächsisches Institut für Sportgeschichte e.V. (NISH)) Ausrichter: Niedersächsisches Institut für Sportgeschichte e.V. (NISH) Veranstaltungsort: Ferdinand-Wilhelm-Fricke-Weg 10 PLZ: 30169 Ort: Hannover Land: Deutschland Findet statt: In Präsenz Vom - Bis: 20.11.2026 - 21.11.2026 Deadline: 30.06.2026 Website: https://www.nish.de  

Die Tagung geht der Frage nach, wie die Turn- und Sportorganisationen in den letzten 200 Jahren mit dem Spannungsfeld von Migration, Integration und Identität umgegangen sind. Inwieweit haben Migration und Integration die Identität des deutschen Sports geprägt und verändert? Oder war und ist möglicherweise eine vergleichsweise stabile Identität die Voraussetzung für die zweifelsohne erheblichen Integrationsleistungen des deutschen Sports?

Migration, Integration und Identität im deutschen Sport in historischer Perspektive

Die Turn- und Sportorganisationen in Deutschland sind seit ihrem Beginn im 19. Jahrhundert in ihrer Struktur und in ihrer Zusammensetzung permanenten Veränderungen unterworfen gewesen. Die unterschiedlichen politischen, sozialen, kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen und die daraus resultierenden Formen der Inklusion und Exklusion von Mitgliedern haben sie immer wieder vor tiefgreifende Herausforderungen gestellt. Insbesondere der soziale Wandel der deutschen Gesellschaft in den letzten 200 Jahren hat auch in der Geschichte der Vereine und Verbände seinen Niederschlag gefunden. Zu- und Abwanderung, die Herausbildung von neuen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen und sozialen Schichten, kulturelle Strömungen und veränderte Geschlechterverhältnisse bewirkten, dass auch die Sportorganisationen zu keiner Zeit statisch waren.

Die verschiedenen Migrationsbewegungen, die Ausdifferenzierung der Gesellschaft und nicht zuletzt die zum Teil stark divergierenden politischen Vorgaben in Kaiserreich, Weimarer Republik, Nationalsozialismus, Bundesrepublik und DDR erforderten von den Turn- und Sportorganisationen– sozusagen auf der Mikroebene – ständige Anpassungs- und Integrationsleistungen. Auf der anderen Seite blieben die Vereine zumindest als Institution in ihrer grundsätzlichen Identität, ihrer sozial-kulturellen Funktion und ihrer Organisation – mit markanten Ausnahmen – historisch erstaunlich stabil.

Vor diesem Hintergrund soll auf dieser Tagung die Frage im Mittelpunkt stehen, wie die Turn- und Sportorganisationen in den letzten 200 Jahren mit dem Spannungsfeld von Migration, Integration und Identität umgegangen sind. Inwieweit haben Migration und Integration die Identität des deutschen Sports geprägt und verändert? Oder war und ist möglicherweise eine vergleichsweise stabile Identität die Voraussetzung für die zweifelsohne erheblichen Integrationsleistungen des deutschen Sports? Es gilt, diese und sich anschließende Fragen auf der lokalen und regionalen Mikro- wie auf der nationalen Makroebene zu betrachten.

Referatsvorschläge (1 Textseite) werden bis zum 30.6.2026 an folgende Kontaktadresse erbeten: Niedersächsisches Institut für Sportgeschichte, Hannover: info@nish.de.

Kontakt

info@nish.de

Konstanz/Germany   Organiser: Anne Kwaschik, University of Konstanz; Michel Lallement, CNAM, Lise-CNRS, Paris Host: Bischofsvilla, University of Konstanz, Otto-Adam-Straße 5, Konstanz Postcode: 78467 City: Konstanz Country: Germany Takes place: In attendance Dates: 02.04.2026 - 04.04.2026 Website: https://www.geschichte.uni-konstanz.de/forschung-geschichte/kwaschik/forschung/forschungs-und-lehrprojekte/reimagining-society-reforming-the-world-colonial-practice-the-first-socialisms-and-the-question-of-alternative-future/  

This symposium situates the first socialisms of the nineteenth century in their historical context and examines them as a formative phase of modern social thought, alternative forms of living, and political practice. It focuses on community ideals, political imaginaries, and forms of “practical socialism,” integrating perspectives on gender, coloniality, ecology, and non-canonical actors. Bringing together established scholars and researchers engaged in new and ongoing projects, the symposium provides a critical assessment of current research and identifies new fields of inquiry.

 

Revisiting the First Socialisms: Histories, Debates, and Contemporary Resonances

This symposium examines early nineteenth-century socialist formations and their role in shaping modern social and political thought. It focuses on community ideals, political semantics, and forms of “practical socialism” as lived experiments. The event seeks to overcome traditional oppositions such as “utopian” versus “practical” socialism by integrating perspectives on gender, coloniality, ecology, and non-canonical actors. It combines approaches from global history, "histoire croisée", and the history of knowledge to analyze the circulation, translation, and transformation of socialist ideas and practices across social, cultural, and political contexts.

Bringing together established scholars who have shaped the field over decades with researchers engaged in new and ongoing projects, the symposium promotes international and intergenerational exchange and offers a critical assessment of current research. At the same time, it strengthens the institutional presence of early socialism studies in Germany. Overall, the conference highlights the vitality of nineteenth-century socialist traditions and their continuing relevance for historical research across national historiographical traditions.

Programme

Thursday, 2 April 2026

14:00–14:30 Anne Kwaschik (Konstanz) / Michel Lallement (Paris): Welcome and Opening Remarks

Panel 1 – Conceptual Approaches to the First Socialisms
Chair: Michel Lallement (Paris)
14:30–15:05 Thomas Bouchet (Dijon): La question de l’échec dans l’histoire et l’historiographie des premiers socialismes
15:05–15:40 Pam Pilbeam (London): Early Socialism Transformed
15:40–16:15 Anne Kwaschik (Konstanz): Colonialism and the First Socialisms. Entanglements and Tensions

16:15–16:35 Coffee Break

Panel 2 – Gender and Social Order
Chair: Anne Kwaschik (Konstanz)
16:35–17:10 Ophélie Siméon (Paris): Before the 'first wave'. Utopian socialism and early feminist networks (1800–1848)
17:10–17:45 Caroline Fayolle (Montpellier): Lectures féministes de l’utopie socialiste de l’Association (1830–1840)
17:45–18:20 Caroline Arni (Basel): The nature and politics of maternity in Saint-Simonian feminism

20:00 Conference Dinner

Friday, 3 April 2026

Panel 3 – Practical Socialisms: Range and Resonances
Chair: Christoph Streb (Paris)
Panel 3a – Community and Belief
09:30–10:05 Damien Rousselière (Rennes): What do utopian socialist boards really do? A quantitative analysis of meeting minutes from the Icarian Community of Corning (1860–1884)
10:05–10:40 Susanne Lachenicht (Bayreuth): Community and communalism in 18th century evangelical missions

10:40–10:55 Break

Panel 3b – Work and Institutions
10:55–11:30 Michel Lallement (CNAM, Lise-CNRS, Paris): The Labor Exchange Movement in practice. Lessons from modern times for the modern times
11:30–12:05 Nathalie Brémand (Poitiers/Paris): Les premiers socialistes français et le débat sur le travail en prison (1830–1852)
12:05–13:15 Lunch Buffet

Panel 4 – Semantics and Political Imaginaries
Chair: Ophélie Siméon (Paris)
13:15–13:50 Bruno Leipold (London): Politik und Sozialismus / La Politique et le Socialisme. Reflections on Karl Grün, Otto Lüning and George Sand
13:50–14:25 Ludovic Frobert (Lyon): Un socialisme avant le socialisme: à travers les carnets d’un tailleur lyonnais, Jean Claude Romand (1798–1867)

14:25–14:45 Coffee Break

Panel 5 – Eco-Utopian Horizons
Chair: Anne Kwaschik (Konstanz)
14:45–15:20 Gregory Claeys (London): Early socialism and the environmental crisis
15:20–15:55 Milo Probst (Basel): « Faire du neuf avec de l’ancien ». Historiciser la pensée écologique des socialismes du XIXe siècle

From 16:00 Excursion & Dinner

Saturday, 4 April 2026

09:30–10:30 Final roundtable discussion & publication project

Contact

Anne Kwaschik, anne.kwaschik@uni-konstanz.de

Organiser: Jewish Theological Seminary - University of Jewish Studies, Hungary Postcode: 1074 City: Budapest Country: Hungary Takes place: In attendance Dates: 13.10.2026 - 14.10.2026 Deadline: 31.03.2026  

This international conference examines Jewish experiences of 1956 and its aftermath from personal, communal, institutional, and transnational angles. We invite contributions that analyse how Jews navigated political power during and immediately after the revolution in Hungary, and in exile, and how these experiences were later remembered, documented, or forgotten.

 

Hungarian Jews and the 1956 Revolution

The year 2026 marks the seventieth anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, one of the turning points in Hungarian and specifically Hungarian-Jewish history. For Jewish individuals and communities, the Revolution and its aftermath shaped everyday choices about decisions on staying, leaving, silence, adaptation, and survival.

This international conference examines Jewish experiences of 1956 and its aftermath from personal, communal, institutional, and transnational angles. We invite contributions that analyse how Jews navigated political power during and immediately after the revolution in Hungary, and in exile, and how these experiences were later remembered, documented, or forgotten.

Possible themes include (but are not limited to):
- Jews who remained in Hungary after 1956: forms of adaptation, withdrawal, or accommodation; participation in communal, cultural, and religious life; changing meanings of Jewish identity under socialist rule.
- Jews who left the country: routes (of flight), refugee experiences, and the role of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and other organisations in relief, resettlement, short and long-term support.
- Jews in relation to state power: employment in, or proximity to state institutions, including the State Protection Authority (Államvédelmi Hatóság, ÁVH); moral, professional, and political dilemmas of conformity, loyalty, and dissent.
- Antisemitic attacks on Jews in wake of the revolution: verbal and physical assaults against Jewish individuals and communities; their social and political contexts; and the manifestations of antisemitism during the revolution and in its immediate aftermath.
- Rabbis, rabbinical training, and Jewish leadership after 1956: disrupted careers, emigration, surveillance, and the reorganisation of religious authority.
- Archival and documentary perspectives: new readings of sources from the JDC Archives, Hungarian and international archives, and oral-history collections.
- Cultural memory and commemoration: representations of 1956 in Jewish literature, visual culture, and family narratives; the transmission of the memories across generations.

We particularly welcome proposals based on unpublished archival material, contemporary press coverage, oral testimony, or institutional collections, including those held by the JDC Archives, YIVO, USHMM, and Hungarian repositories.

The conference aims to deepen scholarly exchange and to encourage cooperation between academic institutions, archives, and other Jewish historical and documentation projects. Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in a peer-reviewed edited volume, with special attention to sources from the JDC Archives and related collections.

We are currently seeking funding to contribute to the accommodation and travel (airfare) costs of international speakers, covering up to two nights of accommodation.

Practical information
Date: October 13–14, 2026
Location: Budapest
Languages: English and Hungarian
Abstract deadline: March 31, 2026
Notification of acceptance: April 30, 2026
Submission: Please send a 250–300-word abstract and a short bio (max. 150 words) to conference1956@or-zse.hu.

Summer School | 18–20 June 2026 | University of Tübingen

The “Political Economy of Natural Resources and Environmental Change in History” summer school will take place at the University of Tübingen from 18 to 20 June 2026. It brings together scholars working on the historical relationships between natural resources, institutions, and socio-environmental change in an explicitly interdisciplinary setting.

From a Lockean perspective, natural resources possess value independent of human action and therefore have no natural owner. Rights over resources are thus often politically contested, and the workshop welcomes scholarly analysis of this process, particularly how governance, conflict, labour, and technological change have shaped the extraction, use, and transformation of natural resources across time and space. Recent scholarship has highlighted how political and institutional contexts shape access to and control over natural resources, from sea-floor minerals and forests to fossil fuels. At the same time, historians have emphasized the role of conflict and coercion in enabling extraction, particularly in colonial and wartime settings. Studies of energy transitions and common-pool resources further demonstrate the feedback between resource regimes and socio-environmental change. These historical processes continue to inform contemporary debates on environmental justice, inequality, and sustainability.

The program combines two and a half days of academic paper sessions and keynote lectures with two hands-on workshops. One workshop introduces participants to machine learning and natural language processing tools for analysing historical data on resource conflict and institutional change. The second focuses on communicating research to broader audiences, with a particular emphasis on Science Slams and public engagement. Together, these sessions aim to equip participants with both conceptual and practical tools for studying and communicating the political economy of natural resources over time.

The summer school welcomes contributions from economic and social historians, environmental historians, political economists, and scholars of institutions and development. While each of these perspectives has yielded important insights, none alone provides a complete picture. In the context of rapid environmental change, a fuller historical understanding of these dynamics is increasingly urgent. The event therefore seeks to bring together complementary approaches in an interdisciplinary forum.

Themes and Topics

We invite paper proposals that examine the political economy of natural resources across different periods and regions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Governance, property rights, and institutions of resource management
• Conflict, coercion, and extraction
• Labour, technology, and resource regimes
• Colonialism, slavery, war, and natural resources
• Indigenous peoples’ rights, sovereignty, and systems of resource governance
• Energy transitions and environmental change
• Common-pool resources and sustainability
• Historical perspectives on environmental justice and inequality

Contributions engaging with global and underrepresented geographies, alongside diverse sources and methodologies, are particularly encouraged.

Keynote Speakers

• Ann Carlos (University of Colorado Boulder)
• Stefania Galli (University of Gothenburg)

Submissions and Funding

We invite submissions from PhD students, early career and senior scholars. Approximately 20 participants will be selected.

Please submit a 500-word abstract and a two-page CV to ehtuebingen@gmail.com by the 23rd of February.

There are no registration fees. Lunch will be provided on all days, and one conference dinner is included. Limited funding for travel and accommodation is available. Funding will be reserved for PhD students and non-permanent academics who are within 6 years of receiving their PhD. If receipt of funding is essential for your participation, please note this when applying, along with a short justification.

Organising Committee

• Thomas Benfey (University of Tübingen)
• Sarah Ferber (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
• Louis Henderson (London School of Economics)
• Moritz Kaiser (University of Tübingen)
• Urvi Khaitan (Harvard University)

University of Oxford, Friday 12 June 2025

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate and draw lessons from moments, both contemporary and historical, in which workers navigated through, organized in, demonstrated against, and at times, successfully transformed the political orders in which they lived. While workers and other non-elite groups operate in circumstances that limit their range of possible action, there are moments and arenas in which the political space is more or less hostile to collective action. Put briefly, we seek papers on how labour related to politics in democratic, colonial, and authoritarian contexts in any time period and space. We are particularly interested in how workers interact and interacted with political authorities in conditions of increased hostility. We invite papers that place the investigations of workers and their relationship to state and non-state actors, particularly police and party-political actors in authoritarian, semi-democratic, and democratic political, social, and economic conditions. Papers that analyse the interaction between workers and political parties, military, police, and courts, (inter-)national and local public officials, planners, and administrators, and rural and urban authorities are especially welcome. Studies of workers’ experience of the stabilisation strategies of various forms of public and political authority are encouraged. We ask that papers concern themselves with a case within one (or more) countries in the following spatial arenas: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Australasia. Papers from across all humanities disciplines and the social and political sciences are gladly received.

If you would like to participate, please submit a paper abstract of 300 words (maximum) and a short note about yourself by 31 March to labournetwork@torch.ox.ac.uk. Pre-circulated papers are to be submitted to the organisers by 1 June 2025. There are no conference fees. National and international travel and accommodation support can be provided on request.

University of Oxford, Monday 21st September 2025

This conference aims to rethink the global history of the Left and its unrealized trajectories during the global crises of the long 1970s. The perspective is comparative and multidisciplinary and incorporates history, political economy, sociology, and international relations approaches. Contributions will address the strategy of mass political organizations, attempts at planning on the scale of ‘really existing’ socialist states, and various forms of oppositional movement across all inhabited continents from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. It will pose the question of the scalar strategy at national, regional, international levels through the narratives, strategies, and contexts of party, state, and movement actors. The primary political parties and political movements associated with the Left and/or with organised labour, subaltern groups, and popular forces in their respective regions, territories, and states is the primary focus of the conference. It will address opportunities—real, imagined, and unrealized—and highlight contexts and choices of the major socialist, communist, and social democratic parties and movements in the interlocking crises of the ‘long’ 1970s, where conditions of possibility were dialectically articulated at the social, economic, and cultural levels. We ask that papers concern themselves with a case within one (or more) countries within the following spatial arenas: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Australasia.

If you would like to participate, please submit a paper abstract of 300 words and a short note about yourself by 31 March to labournetwork@torch.ox.ac.uk. Pre-circulated papers are to be submitted to the organisers by 1 September 2025. This is primarily an in-person conference; if you would need to participate via video link, please specify with your abstract. There are no conference fees. Travel and accommodation support can be provided on request.