Both historically and today, the societies of Eastern Europe have been shaped in many ways by political and social violence, by war and genocide, expulsion, and persecution. Especially from a Western perspective, these experiences have increasingly been framed in terms of collective or individual trauma.
The interdisciplinary conference seeks to shift perspectives in three interrelated areas of ethnographic, historical-anthropological, and ethno-psychoanalytic research. The contributions
- reflect on concepts of the traumatic in both historical and contemporary Eastern European contexts,
- they broaden and problematize the methodological repertoire of ethnography by incorporating subject-oriented research with and about people who have experienced violence in Eastern European settings,
- and they investigate the places, resonances, and practices of traumatic collective memories.
Conference lectures and discussions are held in English language.
Time:
The conference begins in June 12, 2026 at 2 p.m. and finishes on June 13, 2026, at 6 p.m.
Location:
University of Graz – Jesuitenrefektorium am Rosenhain (SR 120.12)
Aigner-Rollett-Allee 39, 8010 Graz, Austria
Organised by:
Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at the University of Graz
Section Southeast European History and Anthropology at the Department of History of the University of Graz
Commission Cultural Contexts of Eastern Europe in the German Society for Empirical Cultural Studies
In cooperation with:
Johann-Gottfried-Herder-Forschungsrat
Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft e.V.
Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich
Contact, information, registration:
Institut für Kulturanthropologie und Europäische Ethnologie der Universität Graz
Attemsgasse 25/I, 8010 Graz, Austria
Registration deadline: June 5, 2026
projekt.kulturanthropologie@uni-graz.at
kulturanthropologie.uni-graz.at