23 February, 2022

Call for papers are open

Call for papers to IHRS and The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies (HL-senteret) conference Sweden and the Holocaust in a Scandinavian Context. Local and Regional Aspects on Friday, June 17th, 2022, in Stockholm are open. The conference is the first annual conference in collaboration between IHRS and HL-senteret and will focus on local and regional aspects of the Holocaust in Scandinavia.

In recent years, research on the Holocaust has grown immensely in the Scandinavian countries as well as the public interest in the event. Norway has a Holocaust Research Center, Museum and a large Holocaust exhibition, and has had an intense public debate over many years. Sweden was one of the initiators of the IHRA and last year, on the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Sweden pledged to allocate funding for research and to preserve and pass on the memory of the Holocaust. This year, Sweden is the President of the IHRA and is establishing a Holocaust Museum.

The IHRS and the HL-Senteret intends to build on these initiatives. Sweden was one of the few countries where the Jewish population increased as a result of the Holocaust, which makes Sweden an interesting starting point for research. Using Sweden as a lens, the conference will explore local and regional aspects of the Holocaust. What can new research on local aspects on Holocaust survivors in Sweden tell us about the Holocaust? What can the public debates about the Holocaust in the Scandinavian countries tell us about the understanding of the event and the memory of it? In short: What kind of research is needed?

We invite scholars to propose papers on local and regional aspects on the Holocaust in Scandinavia. Applicants should email a 250-word abstract that summarizes the paper they propose to present at the conference including a description of the local and/or regional aspects they want to focus on to info@ihrs.se with the subject line ”Conference June 17th 2022”. Graduate students and early career scholars are particularly encouraged to apply and costs for travel and lodges could be covered if applied for. Dr. Jan Lambertz of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, USHMM, will give the keynote on the advantages of local and regional aspects when advancing Holocaust Studies (title to be announced shortly).

Proposals are due on Friday, March 25, 2022. Applicants will be notified by early April. Questions about the conference can be posed to the Director of IHRS, Associate Professor Karin Kvist Geverts on karin.kvist.geverts@ihrs.se

On behalf of the organizing institutions,
Professor Birgitta Svensson, Chair of the IHRS and Professor Guri Hjeltnes, Director of the HL-senteret

Download Call for papers

BILDTEXT: Deportation of the Norwegian Jews in November of 1942 on SS Donau. Photo: Georg W Fossum.