Call for Papers: New Critical Approaches on Communists and Communism in Belgium
Research Workshop
22 October 2025
CegeSoma (ARA OD4) in collaboration with Dacob/CArCoB
It's no coincidence that this Research Workshop takes its name from a collection of essays by José Gotovitch (1940-2024). Former director of CegeSoma, professor at ULB and linchpin of the Centre d'Histoire et de Sociologie des Gauches and CArCoB, José Gotovitch embodied like no other the intersecting history of the Second World War and the Cold War. Just over a year after his death, we would like to explore new avenues of research, focusing on innovative methodologies and sources that were recently made available.
Although the focus is on the history of communism in Belgium, the aim is also to consider it as an intrinsically transnational phenomenon. We particularly encourage proposals that address (trade) relations with Eastern Europe and the various solidarity movements with the so-called “Third World”.
More broadly, we will also address the question of the relationship of Belgian communists to the discursive practices and organizing principles of post-colonial movements in South America, Asia and Africa. We also wish to focus on the role of communists within the various (trans)national committees of survivors of Nazi concentration camps.
In terms of new methodologies, we refer, for example, to contemporary oral history practices (beyond social or institutional history) and to the work of French historians Claude Pennetier and Bernard Pudal on “Le sujet communiste. Militant identities and laboratories of the “self”. “Innovative research can also draw on recently revealed sources. These include, for example, Gotovitch's research archives recently transferred to Dacob/CArCoB and CegeSoma's rich collection of “Journals and Manuscripts”.
Interested parties can submit a brief abstract (300 words) to widukind.deridder@kuleuven.be and chantal.kesteloot@arch.be by June 1, 2025. Selected proposals will receive a reply by June 30. The workshop will be held in English, French and Dutch. The contributions will then be compiled in a thematic issue.