CfP: WHO OWNS THE PAST? VERNACULAR MEMORY, STATE MEMORY, AND THE POLITICS OF OWNERSHIP
VIENNA, 31ST AUGUST–3RD SEPTEMBER 2026 (DEADLINE: 24TH APRIL 2026)
The Center for Austrian Studies at the European Forum at the Hebrew University and the Austrian Academy of Sciences/Institute of Culture Studies invite early postdocs, PhD candidates, and advanced Master’s students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and universities and academic institutions in Austria to apply for the 5th Vienna-Jerusalem Graduate School. This joint project offers the opportunity to present and discuss current research projects in the fields of memory studies, media studies, history, political science, German studies, and Austrian studies with fellow early career scholars and international experts.
The 5th Vienna-Jerusalem Graduate School focuses on the relationship between vernacular memory practices and state-sponsored forms of remembrance. Vernacular memory initiatives –such as local commemorative projects, community archives, grassroots memorials, and activist interventions – often play a crucial role in bringing attention to histories that have been overlooked, marginalized, suppressed, or rejected within dominant narratives. At the same time, grassroot initiatives can also be revisionist or nationalist. Tensions furthermore arise when memory work intersects with political claims, identity formation, and struggles for recognition. National commemorations, public monuments, museums, memorial sites, and educational frameworks often shape how societies engage with their histories. Simultaneously, institutional frameworks can provide resources, visibility, and continuity for commemorative work, while also reflecting broader political priorities and historical interpretations. Understanding the interactions, overlaps, and frictions between institutional and noninstitutional memory practices is essential for examining how collective understandings of the past evolve.
Questions of who “owns” the past have become increasingly central to contemporary debates about history, memory, and commemoration. This summer school invites contributions that explore how different actors engage with the past and how claims of ownership shape the ways in which histories are narrated, commemorated, and mobilized.
We invite proposals dealing with particular case studies as well as conceptual and theoretical questions related to local, national and transnational memories, memory institutions, memorial sites, mediated memory, and digital environments that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
– Interactions and tensions between institutional and non-institutional memory practices
– Vernacular memory initiatives and grassroots commemorative practices
– Community archives, local memorials, and participatory memory projects
– Memory activism and the political uses of the past
– Distortion, or contestation of historical narratives
– State-sponsored commemorations, museums, memorial sites, and public history
– Digital memory cultures and social media as spaces of remembrance
The successful candidates are required to actively participate in the Vienna-Jerusalem Graduate School and present their research in a fifteen-minute oral presentation. Confirmations will be sent by the end of May 2026. The participants should plan the day before and after the Graduate School for arrival and departure. The organizing institutions will cover flight expenses and accommodation costs in Vienna for participants from the Hebrew University. Financing remains subject to final approval.
Application: Please send a half to one page proposal together with an up-to-date CV (one page) as one PDF to: mseuro@mail.huji.ac.il
Contact
Who Owns the Past? Vernacular Memory, State Memory, and the Politics of Ownership, in: H-Soz-Kult, 07.04.2026,
https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-161516.