United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington

The Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies and EHRI partner the International Tracing Service invite applications for an international conference designed to illustrate the broad academic research potential of the ITS collections. The conference, 'The International Tracing Service (ITS) Collections and Holocaust Scholarship', will be held May 12–14, 2014, in Washington, DC, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Participants will present their papers in sessions open to the public and also will have the opportunity for discussion of their experiences using the ITS archives.

In a workshop jointly organized by ITS and the Center, an international group of 15 scholars identified significant topical areas for which the ITS documents have great potential, including:

• social histories of camps and sites of forced labor spanning the entire 1933–1945 period
• changing patterns of behavior, violence, and obedience to orders over time from the perspectives of perpetrators, prisoners, laborers, witnesses, and labor users
• studies of prisoner categorization practices
• medical practices and abuses
• studies of labor utilization, in particular that of towns, regions, camps, or institutions.

This conference will bring together scholars who have conducted significant new and original research using ITS collections in the above and other areas. Proposals to present new research findings are welcome from scholars in all relevant academic disciplines, including advanced doctoral students and immediate postdoctoral scholars.

Applicants must be affiliated with an academic and/or research institution and should be currently researching or completing projects that involve substantial research in ITS collections. Successful applicants will be required to submit a copy of their presentation four weeks in advance of the conference for circulation among commentators, other panelists, and conference participants.

The conference will be conducted in English. The deadline for receipt of proposals is December 15, 2013. Participants will be selected and notified no later than January 31, 2014.

To propose a paper for this conference, please send:

• A cover letter addressing in detail your current research in the ITS collections
• Your curriculum vitae
• An abstract of no more than 500 words of your proposed paper 

Send your applications to Elizabeth Anthony, Curt C. and Else Silberman ITS scholar at the Center, at eanthony@ushmm.org, and to Professor Rebecca Boehling, director, International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, at directorate@its-arolsen.org.

Conference organizers will provide economy-class, direct round-trip airfare from the participant’s home institution; four nights of lodging for the duration of the conference; and a modest stipend to help defray the cost of meals and ground transportation.