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Memory, Narratives, and Conflicts: At the Confluence of Perspectives

A conference organized by:
Centre d’études historiques de l’Académie polonaise des Sciences (CBH-PAN)
ISP (UMR 7220)
LincS (UMR 7069)
Université de Toulon
Université de Łódź
and the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES,  Prague)

Date: September 15–16, 2025
Location: Berlin, Polish Academy of Sciences, Marc Bloch Center
Languages: English & French

‘Memory’ as a subject of study and a political, social and media issue has dominated public debate in Europe since the late 1980s. ‘Duty to remember,’ ‘realms of memory,’ ‘wars of memory,’ ‘competition among victims,’ ‘memory invasion,’ ‘paths of memory,’ ‘politics of memory,’ ‘defence of memory,’ ‘murderers of memory’: these expressions reflect a new relationship with the world, a new regime of historicity that François Hartog calls presentism. This new configuration of the relationship with the past is reflected in various identity claims, particularly from previously dominated groups, but also in new institutional practices. Memory becomes a tool for mobilisation and intervention in the media, in public life, in politics in the broad sense of the term, but also in literature and the arts. It fuels epistemological reflection within the humanities and social sciences community. Continue reading Memory, Narratives, and Conflicts: At the Confluence of Perspectives →

Conference | Central Europe and Francophone Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War: Crossroads

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Centre universitaire francophone of the University of Szeged, in partnership with the Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Modern History and Mediterranean Studies of the University of Szeged, is organising a conference entitled ‘Central Europe and Francophone Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War: crossroads’.

This event has been created in partnership with the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences – Prague (CEFRES) and the French Institute in Hungary.

When: May 19 and 20, 2025
Where: Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged

READ THE FULL PROGRAM HERE

Argumentary

This conference aims to interrogate post-history in two distinct regions that, at first glance, appear to share little in common, maintaining only distant relationships. However, when the fighting ended, both regions—considered peripherical—and their respective nations and populations experienced, simultaneously, an ambiguous and debatable liberation. With this paradox in mind, the conference seeks to highlight the inherent issues present in both regions within the broader perspective of the post–World War recomposition of the world, from which neither the European nor the African continent was exempt. The year 1945 marked the end of the dominance of traditional European powers and laid the foundations of the bipolar world order. These transformations had numerous repercussions for these regions, situated at the center of the superpowers’ geopolitical chessboard.

Taking a comparative approach, this conference positions itself as an open window into exploring the inherent or shared dynamics between Central Europe and Francophone Africa from the very end of hostilities onward. It also aims to describe the profound transformations, without losing sight of the fact that, although the year 1946 marked a rupture and a new beginning, it also belonged to the continuity of the old world.

Hence, the conference seeks to offer a space for reflection and dialogue between specialists of both regions—PhD students, early-career researchers, lecturers, and established scholars alike—to better understand the impact of the end of the Second World War on the contemporary history of Francophone Africa and Central Europe. The key perspectives proposed for discussion include:

  • Central Europe at the end of the Second World War
  • France and Central Europe from 1940 to 1950
  • Francophone Africa in 1945
  • The decolonization movements
  • Gaullism and Africa

Transatlantic Crossings | CANCELLED

Polish Communities in France and in the United States after WW2 and their Political Practices

9th session of CEFRES in-house seminar
Through the presentation of works in progress, CEFRES’s Seminar aims at raising and discussing issues about methods, approaches or concepts, in a multidisciplinary spirit, allowing everyone to confront her or his own perspectives with the research presented.

Location: CEFRES Library and online (to get the link, write to cefres[@]cefres.cz)
Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 4:30 pm
Language: English

Speaker: Florence Vychytil-Baudoux (EHESS / CEFRES)
Chair: Françoise MAYER

Text to be read: Michael Werner & Bénédicte Zimmermann, « Beyond Comparison: Histoire Croisée and the Challenge of Reflexivity », History and Theory, 2006, vol. 45, no 1, p. 30‑50.

Abstract:

Between the 1880s and the 1930s, over 12 million people left Polish territories “za chlebem” (for bread). While before WW1 the United States attracted most Polish peasants looking for a better future, it was France that became the main destination for Polish migrants in the interwar period. Continue reading Transatlantic Crossings | CANCELLED →

A European Middle Ages | Doctoral Workshop

A European Middle Ages. Circulation of Objects, Practices, and Techniques between Central and Western Europe (1000–1600)

Fourth PhD Students Workshop organized within the cooperation agreement signed by EHESS, CEFRES, Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Date: April 24, 2025
Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 (and online, to get the link, register at the address cefres@cefres.cz)
Language of the workshop: English

Convenors:

  • Lise Saussus, Center of historical research, UMR 8558, School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences
  • Jakub Sawicki, Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
  • Tomasz Cymbalak, National Heritage Institute, Prague
  • Nicolas Thomas, National Institute of Preventive Archeological Research, Laboratory of Western Medieval Studies, Paris
Program Continue reading A European Middle Ages | Doctoral Workshop →

Literature as a Tool for Understanding History and Society

Blurring Boundaries: Literature as a Tool for
Understanding History and Society.
Meaningful work during normalized Czechoslovakia

7th session of CEFRES in-house seminar
Through the presentation of works in progress, CEFRES’s Seminar aims at raising and discussing issues about methods, approaches or concepts, in a multidisciplinary spirit, allowing everyone to confront her or his own perspectives with the research presented.

Location: CEFRES Library and online (to get the link, write to cefres[@]cefres.cz)
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 4:30 pm
Language: English

Valentin Auger (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, associated at CEFRES)

Chair: Jan Váňa (Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences)

Abstract Continue reading Literature as a Tool for Understanding History and Society →

The Cosmologies of Global Film Franchises

The Cosmologies of Global Film Franchises

Fifth session of the 2024-2025 CEFRES Francophone
Interdisciplinary Seminar The Map and the Border
In 2023 we  started questionning the very act of bordering and representing (a territory, a period, a trajectory). In short, thanks to the interdisciplinarity of our respective disciplines, we began inquiring into the question of the map and the border.

Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Date: Friday February 28, 2025, from 10 am
Language: French

Speaker: Eva KRÁSOVÁ (Institute of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Discussant: Chiara MENGOZZI (Faculty of Arts, Charles Unversity)

Abstract Continue reading The Cosmologies of Global Film Franchises →