Roundtable: “Historikerstreit 2.0.”? The German Debate about the Holocaust, Colonialism & Genocide

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NCGS Series “CHALLENGING CONVERSATIONS” Roundtable:

“Historikerstreit 2.0.”? The German Debate about the Holocaust, Colonialism & Genocide

Over the past two decades, scholars, among them many historians, have been debating the relationships among the Holocaust, colonialism, and other genocides. In May 2021, Dirk Moses, then UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History, injected renewed energy into these debates with the publication of his article “The German Catechism” in Geschichte der Gegenwart. The media response to this article first inside and later also outside Germany ranged from polemical rejection to nuanced support. Some observers even called this debate the “Historikerstreit 2.0.” More than a year later, this roundtable with American and German experts will take stock of the debate and reflect on intentions, positions, and possible conclusions.

Roundtable Participants:

  • A. DIRK MOSES  I  Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in International Relations at the City College of New York, CUNY, Department of Political Sciences

A. Dirk Moses is the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in International Relations at the City College of New York, CUNY, Department of Political Sciences. He researches different aspects of genocide. Before coming to City, he was the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His first monograph, German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past, was published in 2007. His latest book, entitled The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression, appeared in 2021.

  • ALON CONFINO  |  Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies and Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies at the  University of Massachusetts Amherst

Alon Confino is Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies, professor of History and Judaic Studies, and Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on the theory and practice of writing history displayed in particular in the topics of memory, culture, and nationhood. His most recent books include Foundational Pasts: The Holocaust as Historical Understanding (2012); and A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide (2014). 

  • ZOÉ SAMUDZI  I  Research and Teaching Fellow at the Center for Social Equity and Inclusion and Assistant Professor in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design

Zoé Samudzi is a Research and Teaching Fellow at the Center for Social Equity and Inclusion and  Assistant Professor in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is also a Research Associate with the Center for the Study of Race, Gender & Class (RGC) at the University of Johannesburg and a member of the advisory committee for the Center for Medicine, Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Cedars-Sinai. Her research engages the Ovaherero and Nama genocide, and colonial visualities.  She is  the co-author of As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation (2018).

  • STEFANIE SCHÜLER-SPRINGORUM  I  Director and Professor, Center for Research on Antisemitism at the  Technical University of Berlin and  Co-Director of the Selma-Stern-Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg

Stefanie Schüler-Springorum is the Director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the TU Berlin and Co-Director of the Selma-Stern-Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg; since 2020 she is also the Director of the Berlin branch of the Center for Research on Social Cohesion. Her main fields of research are Jewish, German, and Spanish History. Recent publications include Football and Discrimination. Antisemitism and beyond (edited with Pavel Brunssen, 2021); Emotionen und Antisemitismus: Geschichte—Literatur—Theorie (edited with Jan Süselbeck, 2021); and Perspektiven deutsch-jüdischer Geschichte: Geschlecht und Differenz (2014). 

Co-Conveners: UNC-Chapel Hill, Department of History, Center for European Studies and Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, and Duke Department of History

PDF of the Flyer

Seminars 2022-23