Call for Papers: The Future of Holocaust Testimonies IV – An International Conference and Workshop

Thursday, June 25th, 2015
An International Conference and Workshop
8–10 March 2016, Akko, Israel

The Holocaust Studies Program of Western Galilee College, the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Virginia, and the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford announce the fourth international interdisciplinary conference and workshop on The Future of Holocaust Testimonies to be held on 8–10 March 2016 in Akko, Israel.

Survivors and their testimonies have been central to Holocaust research and memorial culture, but as fewer and fewer survivors remain among us, we need to consider how and in what forms Holocaust scholarship and the memory of the Holocaust will continue. One critical focus will certainly be the legacy that survivors leave behind in the forms of written, audio, and video testimonies, as well as in the transmission of their testimony to their children and grandchildren, who have their own stories to tell, as well as to researchers. In addition, those who are not survivors or their descendants seem destined to play an increased role in the transmission of the history and memory of the Holocaust.

We welcome proposals for papers on any aspect of the future of Holocaust testimonies, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • methodological issues
  • “Holocaust testimony”—renewed analysis of conceptualization and meaning of the term
  • limitations and boundaries in the use of Holocaust testimonies
  • testimonies and historical context
  • testimony classification and categorization by profession, occupation, age, gender, place, and time
  • re-reading and reinterpreting early testimonies
  • multiple testimonies by one and the same survivor
  • second- and third-generation testimonies
  • history, memory, and testimony
  • post-memory
  • intergenerational transmission of trauma and resilience
  • how to remember what we did not experience
  • the role of video-testimony in the future
  • film as testimony
  • the responsibilities of the scholar of the Holocaust

Scholarly work on survivor testimony is done today in many academic disciplines including history, literary analysis, linguistics, cultural criticism, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, etc. The rich and varied corpus of testimonies requires the collaborative efforts of researchers across disciplines to enable us to hear the voices of survivors articulated through their testimonies.

We aim for the conference to contribute both to Holocaust research and to public discourse. Therefore, one day of the conference will be open to the public, and two days will be for researchers only. The conference will be conducted in English. The open public day will be conducted in English and Hebrew with simultaneous translation.

Please send a one-page proposal and a short CV to: TestimonyConf@wgalil.ac.il. Doctoral candidates, please add a letter of recommendation from your advisor.

Speakers will be provided full hospitality – hotel and meals; travel will not be covered.

Deadline for submission of proposals: 11 September 2015

For further inquiries, please contact a member of the Steering Committee:

Holocaust Studies Program, Western Galilee College, Akko

The Jewish Studies Program, University of Virginia