Twenty Five Years Later. History and Memory of Communism

The International Conference of Bucharest

20 and 21 November 2014

Organizers: Memoria Cultural Foundation, The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exil (IICCMER)

Partners: Francophone Regional Center of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (CeReFREA), National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA)

Conference Committee:

Convenors: Claudia-Florentina Dobre (Memoria Cultural Foundation, CEREFREA), Valeriu Antonovici (SNSPA)

Advisory Board : Cosmin Budeancă (general manager, IICCMER), Liliana Deyanova (Professor, Department of Sociology, St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University), Micaela Ghiţescu (Director, Memoria Cultural Foundation), Adrian Miroiu (Professor SNSPA), Radu Preda (Executive President, IICCMER), Liviu Rotman (Professor SNSPA), Izabela Skórzyńska  (Associated Professor of History at the ‘Adam Mickiewicz’ University of Poznań), Anna Wachowiak (Professor at the Higher School of Humanities, Szczecin).

Organisational Information:

Date : 20-21 November 2014

Abstract proposal and deadline: Please send your abstract of no more than 300 words together with a short biographical statement by 15 September 2014. Abstracts will be selected by the academic committee. We will notify you about the acceptance of your proposal by 25 September 2014. We plan to publish selected papers in a peer-reviewed journal or in a volume.

Please send your abstract and a biographical statement as well as all other inquiries to: cfdobre@gmail.com

Languages: Romanian, French, English

25 years after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, its history and memory are still controversial. On the one hand, the scholars of the region are still denouncing communist crimes. Their research is mainly concerned with repressive aspects of the communist period. On the other hand, in some left wing circles, researchers aim at studying the „modernity” of communism.    

The memory of communism is even more divided than its history. Nostalgia is haunting society as well as irony and dennouciation. For instance, recent polls on the memory of communism show that the former regime kept a rather positive image among Romanians. Furthermore, young people born after 1989 consider communism a period of security and steadiness. Reflecting a postmemorial turn in remembering communism in Romania, this approach might be encountered in other countries of the region. 

If those who experienced communism are nostalgic or struggle to denounce the communist crimes and abuses, those born in the late 1980s remember communism with irony. Their approach to communism tends to become mainstream as this generation came to power in many sectors of the social, cultural, and political life of Romania.

After 25 years, the time to make a point of trends and evolution concerning the memory and history of communism has arrived. Therefore, we invite scholars and young researchers to attend our international conference, „25 Years After. History and Memory of Communism” organized by the Memoria Cultural Foundation and IICCMER on 20 and 21 November 2014 in Bucharest. We welcome papers in Romanian, English, and French as well as audio and video presentations, documentaries, posters and artistic installations on the following topics (any other related topics of research are welcomed) :

• Historiography of communism
• Everyday life
• Memory and history of the repression
• Memory trends
• Postmemory generation