Filmic engagements with the Holocaust are shaped by a foundational paradox that emerged already during the genocide itself: while photographs and films were produced to document, administer, or stage aspects of persecution and mass murder, extensive efforts were undertaken simultaneously to conceal crimes, erase traces, and deny responsibility. From the beginning, Holocaust memory is thus marked by a tension between visual evidence and systematic obscuring – a tension that continues to structure cinematic representation, narration, and reception. This conference invites contributions that examine how films from and about the Holocaust  negotiate practices of covering and uncovering across different historical stages. Perpetrators’ claims of not having known or seen, survivors’ silence and suppression of traumatic memories, and later pedagogical debates about the use of explicit images all point to the persistence of visual and narrative limits. Films may expose atrocity while simultaneously deflecting attention, contain violence through narrative framing, or offer indirect forms of address that enable both confrontation and distance. The conference situates these dynamics within broader societal and national memory cultures. In Germany and Austria, Holocaust cinema operates within societies historically implicated in perpetration, shaped by ongoing processes of guilt negotiation, responsibility, and defensive abstraction. In Eastern European countries that were occupied during the Second World War, cinematic representations engage with histories of invasion, mass violence, and shifting regimes of power, while also confronting complex and often contested questions of collaboration, complicity, bystanderhood, antisemitism, and national self-understanding. In both contexts, repressed, fragmented, or politically instrumentalized family histories contribute to what is today described as postmemory, leaving discernible traces in cinematic form and modes of address. At the same time, new technological developments – particularly the emergence of AI-generated and AI-enhanced historical images – raise pressing questions about authenticity, evidentiary status, and the ethics of visualization, further complicating the dynamics of covering and uncovering in Holocaust cinema. We welcome papers that analyze how films reflect, reproduce, or challenge these dynamics, with particular attention to documentary and archival cinema, perpetrator and survivor imagery, pedagogical uses of film, and the afterlives of Holocaust images in changing exhibition and media contexts. The conference welcomes contributions from the humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies (including film studies, media studies, history, and related disciplines). Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged.

Please submit an abstract in English of approximately 200 words (including a short biographical note) by 30 July 2026 to: 

Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska: sekretariat@dhi.waw.pl
Olga Wesołowska: olga.wesolowska@filologia.uni.lodz.pl 
Fabian Schmidt: fabian.schmidt@filmuniversitaet.de
Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann: tobias.ebbrecht-hartmann@mail.huji.ac.il

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Warschau

Zielgruppe: Masterstudierende | Doktoranden | Postdoc
Datum: 22/06/2026 - 26/06/2026
Bewerbungsfrist: 04/05/2026
Ort: Moulin d'Andé (Normandie, Frankreich)

DEUTSCH-FRANZÖSISCHER WORKSHOP

Die Beherrschung wissenschaftlichen Schreibens, sei es bei einem Forschungsprojekt, der Doktorarbeit oder einem Artikel, erfordert spezifische Fähigkeiten in der schriftlichen Formulierung und Kommunikation. Insgesamt verfolgt der Workshop das Ziel, individuelle Schreibstrategien zu entwickeln, mittels derer die Schreibphase als eine konstruktive und stimulierende Erfahrung erlebt werden kann und die das Vertrauen in die eigenen Fähigkeiten zur Fertigstellung des Manuskripts stärken.

Schwerpunkte

• Überblick und Strukturierung von Ideen und Material
• Entwicklung und Stärkung des roten Fadens im Manuskript
• Überwindung der „Angst vor dem weißen Blatt“
• Identifizierung von Unterschieden zwischen dem deutschen und französischen Wissenschaftsdiskurs

Ablauf

Der fünftägige Workshop wird von zwei deutsch-französischen Expert:innen geleitet. Den Nachwuchsforschenden werden Schreibtechniken vermittelt, um den Schreibprozess effizienter zu gestalten, die unterschiedlichen Phasen (und ihre Gefahren) zu identifizieren und Blockaden zu überwinden. Die Schreibwerkstatt bietet zudem Gelegenheit für einen Austausch über die Besonderheiten des deutschen und französischen Wissenschaftsdiskurs und die Herausforderungen des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens in einem binationalen Kontext.

Teilnahmebedingungen

• Für den gesamten Workshop wird eine Teilnahmegebühr in Höhe von 50 € erhoben.
• Die Arbeitssprachen sind Französisch und Deutsch. Die zumindest passive Beherrschung beider Sprachen (mind. B1-Niveau) wird vorausgesetzt.  
• Die Bewerbenden verpflichten sich, an der gesamten Veranstaltung teilzunehmen. Sie erhalten eine Bescheinigung, mit der sie den Workshop gegebenenfalls als Leistungsnachweis an ihrer Universität anerkennen lassen können.
• Voraussetzung für Nachwuchsforschende, die an dieser Veranstaltung teilnehmen möchten, ist die vorherige Registrierung (bzw. Rückmeldung) auf der Seite des CIERA für das laufende akademische Jahr.
• Interessierte können sich auf der Seite des CIERA anmelden. Die in einer PDF-Datei hochzuladenden Bewerbungsunterlagen enthalten einen akademischen Lebenslauf und ein Motivationsschreiben (jeweils 1 Seite max.).

Reisekosten

Die Fahrtkosten können nach Vorlage der Fahrkarten in Höhe von maximal 110 € für aus Frankreich Anreisende und 140 € für Teilnehmende aus dem Ausland übernommen werden.
Das CIERA übernimmt die gesamten Kosten für die Unterbringung und Verpflegung im Moulin d’Andé (Normandie).

Kontakt

Viktoria Lühr
viktoria.luhr@sorbonne-universite.fr

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Paris

Das DHI Rom ist eine Einrichtung der in Bonn ansässigen Max Weber Stiftung. Es widmet sich der epochenübergreifenden, interdisziplinären Erforschung der italienischen und deutschen Geschichte und Musikgeschichte in ihren europäischen und globalen Bezügen vom Mittelalter bis heute. Dabei schöpft es aus den einzigartigen Ressourcen, die Italien und insbesondere Rom als Wissenschaftsstandort bieten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen politische, wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Aspekte sowie die Vermittlung zwischen beiden Wissenschaftskulturen.

Die Zahl der Teilnehmer/-innen ist begrenzt. Erwartet wird die Übernahme eines Referates, dessen Thema bei Zusagebescheid vom DHI vorgeschlagen wird. Das Deutsche Historische Institut übernimmt die Kosten der Unterbringung in einem Doppelzimmer und gibt einen pauschalen Unkostenbeitrag von 150 €.

Weitere Informationen zu den einzureichenden Bewerbungsunterlagen können Punkt IV der Stipendienordnung entnommen werden.

Bewerbungen werden bis zum 10. Mai 2026 ausschließlich über das Bewerbungsportal entgegengenommen.

Bitte geben Sie auch an, für welche Epoche Sie sich besonders interessieren. Die Bewerber/-innen erhalten im Juni Bescheid.

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Rom

Call for Papers
The 1950s are often remembered as a decade of recovery, economic growth, and political stability, particularly from Western perspectives. Yet, this image of a war-weary globe fails to account for the pervasive and diverse forms of violence that continued to shape everyday life and political transformation during that decade worldwide.

This conference aims to reassess the so-called postwar years. It reconceptualizes the 1950s as a deeply violent decade, marked not by the absence of conflict, but rather by its reconfiguration on all levels. The decade witnessed some of the most destructive wars of the twentieth century, from the Korean War to anti-colonial struggles in Algeria, Cyprus, Indochina, and Kenya, among other places. Authoritarian regimes in Asia, Latin America, and the Soviet Union enforced ideological conformity through imprisonment, censorship, and political repression, while surveillance, ideological conflict, state and anti-state terror, and subtler forms of violence also pervaded Western Europe. Meanwhile, racial order in the United States, South Africa, and other settler societies, was sustained by repression, police brutality, and lynching.

Beyond the state level, societies and the private domain were sites of intense brutality. For instance, a surge in crime syndicates and transnational networks perpetuated racketeering, gang violence, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. Meanwhile, the domestic sphere, imagined by Western middle-classes as a sanctuary of comfort and harmony, was shaken by gendered and generational conflict and by the challenges associated with  the return to everyday life after widespread exposure to wartime violence. Everywhere, the 1950s were shaped by anticipatory violence in the form of the omnipresent threat of nuclear annihilation 

The conference explores the manifold societal, political, and everyday manifestations of violence in the twilight phase of the shift from war-driven societies to seemingly demobilized ones. The conference aims to challenge the narrative of the 1950s as a peaceful interlude between World War II and the upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. By employing violence as a central analytical lens and by tracing its persistent presence across and within multiple world regions and on different micro- and macro-analytical layers, the conference will assess reciprocal patterns and transfers, compare and link local coercion to global power structures, and underscore how Cold War violence operated unevenly across global hierarchies. On the whole, the 1950s marked a formative moment in the evolution of modern violence—one that normalized counterinsurgency, expanded state surveillance, and globalized coercive practices.

Perpetual conflict blurred the boundaries between wartime and peacetime, embedding violence into systems of governance and everyday experience. Understanding violence in the global 1950s can help us understand how the “postwar” order was constructed through force, fear, and power imbalances, with consequences that continue to shape the contemporary world today.

The conference will take place from February 25–26, 2027, at the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. In advance of the conference, participants will share papers (max. 4,500 words), which will be discussed among the group and with invited discussants. We welcome contributions that look at violence in the 1950s from different regional and disciplinary angles. We invite submissions from the fields of political, social, and cultural history; likewise, we are eager to engage with research from other disciplines, including historical anthropology, the history of violence, and culture, film, gender, and literary studies. All papers should have a decisive historical focus. The range of potential topics includes, but is not limited to: 

• Violence in post-fascist and war-weary societies, regimes of military occupation
• Transition and circulation of fascist/imperialist practices and practitioners of violence into the immediate postwar years. 
• Early Cold War rearmament policies and debates
• Colonial and anti-colonial violence: colonial repression, anti-colonial struggle, and decolonization
• Justification for violence and the language of security, modernization, anti-communism, and anti-fascism
• Terrorism, guerilla warfare, civil warfare, and revolutionary violence
• Popular representations and mass mediatization of violence
• Violence beyond the state-level: crime, drugs, and human trafficking
• Gendered, racialized, and sexual violence
• Domestic violence 
• Experience of violence and perpetrators’ perspectives: guilt, PTSD, and social reintegration in the 1950s

Please submit a short CV (max. 150 words) and an abstract (max. 350 words) in English through  our online application portal by June 12, 2026. 

Applicants will be notified by June 30, 2026. 

Accommodations will be arranged and paid for by the conference organizers. Participants will make their own travel arrangements; funding subsidies for travel are available upon request (for one presenter per paper) for selected scholars, especially those who might not otherwise be able to attend the workshop, including junior scholars and scholars from universities with limited resources. For further information regarding the event’s format and conceptualization, please contact Andreas Greiner. For questions about the submission platform or logistics (travel and accommodation), please contact our event coordinator Nicola Hofstetter.

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Washington

Diversity and Marginality in the Black Sea Region

Dates: July 12–19, 2026.
Venue: Labour Institute, Zimbrului 10 Street, Chișinău, Moldova.
Application deadline: April 1, 2026.

Organizers:
Center for the Interethnic Relations Research in Eastern Europe, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, 
Research Centre Ukraine / Max Weber Foundation, Lviv, Ukraine
National Historical and Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar, Ukraine

Program Description:
The Black Sea region constitutes a dynamic space shaped by interconnected societal, economic, cultural, and political transformations. Rather than being geographically self-evident, the region has been historically constructed and repeatedly reimagined by policymakers, scholars, and local communities. The region has been conceptualised in varying ways: in some interpretations, it refers only to the immediate coastal areas; in others, to a broader geopolitical and cultural formation encompassing the entire Black Sea basin. The complexity of description encourages researchers to seek approaches to examining regional communities. 

The summer school invites postgraduate students, early-career scholars, and practitioners to engage with the analytical frameworks of diversity and marginality as tools for interpreting and rethinking the region. The program focuses on the transformations experienced by the region’s communities from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, ranging from political transitions between empires and nation-states to profound demographic and social changes. Bringing together leading experts on the Black Sea region, the summer school introduces participants to the cutting-edge scholarly perspectives and approaches to studying the region.

The summer school addresses diversity and marginality not as peripheral or isolated phenomena, but as a critical lens for examining broader societal transformations. Our speakers aim to investigate the lived experiences of various communities, contextualising their actions, interactions, and strategies without resorting to binary or reductive narratives. By focusing on how individuals and groups navigated societal structures through resistance, cooperation, cooptation, and adaptation, the program aims to provide tools and methods for a comprehensive analysis of these processes informed by perspectives from history, cultural studies, and social sciences.

The core course of the summer school examines the diversity of the region – from the Ukrainian lands to the Caucasus – through a transimperial approach grounded in social history. Particular attention will be devoted to imperiality and to the discursive frameworks through which metropolitan centres sought to define, categorise, and govern their peripheries. Along the borderlands of imperial spatial orders, communities and individuals articulated complex, layered, and situational identities which both engaged with and exceeded imperial classifications.

The guest lecture module will focus on questions of marginality, including marginalised social groups, cultures, and ideas. It will examine how imperial and national imaginaries attempted to reshape and claim space by symbolically and materially appropriating land and water, though many of these projects remained unrealised. Amid the region’s pronounced social, national, and religious diversity, marginality often emerged not as a locally embraced identity, but as a designation imposed by external actors and political regimes.

The summer school aims to provide participants with a comprehensive educational experience, fostering networking opportunities and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration. The format combines lectures, research seminars, discussions, study visits, and study tours. 

Among lecturers and invited speakers of the summer school: Masha Cerovic, EHESS / CERCEC, France; Constantin Ardeleanu, New Europe College, Romania; Mišo Kapetanović, Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria; Ioulia Shukan, EHESS / CERCEC, France; Iryna Klymenko, Research Centre Ukraine / Max Weber Foundation, Ukraine.

Requirements for participants:
The summer school is open to postgraduate students, early career scholars, and practitioners. The working language is English. The level of English proficiency should be sufficient to read academic literature, follow lectures, actively participate in discussions, and present your own projects.

Application should include the following documents:

• Academic CV (max. 3 pages)
• Description of a research, educational or cultural project related to the Black Sea region’s countries, topics of marginality and diversity (max. 500 words)
• Motivation letter (max. 500 words)

Please send your application as a single PDF file to: ethnickh(at)gmail.com by April 1, 2026. Please note that all application documents must be in English. 

Participant costs:
Participation in the summer school is free of charge. The organisers will provide accommodation, lunches, and refreshments, and will offer travel grants to selected participants.

Contact information:
ethnickh(at)gmail.com

Research Centre Ukraine on Facebook

Organisation: Florent Brayard, Groupe Histoire et historiographie de la Shoah, Centre de recherches historiques (EHESS-CNRS) ; Jürgen Finger, Deutsches Historisches Insitut Paris ; Julie Maeck, Mémorial de la Shoah ; Agnieszka Wierzcholska, Centre d’’histoire de Sciences Po. 

Der renommierte Holocaust-Historiker Raul Hilberg wurde vor genau einem Jahrhundert geboren. Dieses Jubiläum bietet die Gelegenheit, das Werk Hilbergs zu diskutieren, der zweifellos eine der einflussreichsten Figuren der Geschichtsschreibung zur Verfolgung und Vernichtung der europäischen Juden durch das NS-Regime ist.

Sein bahnbrechendes Werk Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden (1961) war lange Zeit die einzige systematische und detaillierte Darstellung der Struktur dieses Völkermords und der NS-Vernichtungspolitik. Zwei Jahrzehnte später erst wurde es in überarbeiteter und erweiterter Fassung ins Französische und Deutsche übersetzt. Es ist heute in mehreren Sprachen (Italienisch, Spanisch, Polnisch, Hebräisch) erhältlich. Seine Bedeutung für das Verständnis der Geschichte des Holocaust sowohl in der breiten Öffentlichkeit als auch in der akademischen Welt ist nicht zu unterschätzen. Dies gilt auch für Hilbergs spätere, stärker thematisch fokussierte Veröffentlichungen, insbesondere für Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders (1992).

Ziel des Symposiums ist es, Raul Hilbergs’ berufliche Laufbahn und sein Werk aus einer Vielzahl von Blickwinkeln neu zu beleuchten und dessen Einfluss auf die aktuelle und zukünftige Forschung zum Holocaust und, allgemeiner, zu Völkermorden zu bewerten. Wir haben drei Hauptinteressensgebiete identifiziert: Hilbergs Leben und Karriere, die Produktion von Wissen über den Holocaust in seinem bahnbrechenden Werk The Destruction of the European Jews und in späteren Studien sowie sein Einfluss auf die Holocaust-Forschung, aber auch die gelegentliche mangelnde Anerkennung seiner Arbeit.

Bewerbungsfrist: 15. April 2026

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Paris

Marion Averbeck-Dotter and Jaroslav Šebek

Fischbachau, 12^th–16^th November 2026

Migration as a global and trans-temporal historical phenomenon has already been extensively researched with regard to the 20^th century. Even in this age of increasing secularisation, religious affiliation is still considered a key factor in long-term mobility. It could lead to the restriction of fundamental rights and even to life-threatening persecution of people in their homelands. Religion was therefore one of the reasons for flight and expulsion, but it also played a role during and after the migration process itself. Religious actors (dignitaries, organizations, interest groups, etc.) could be part of this process, influence it or be subjected to forced exile themselves. In East-Central and South-Eastern Europe in particular, religious identities could also be strongly intertwined with national or ideological attitudes, which could contribute to the formation of diaspora groups in host countries around the world.

The aim of the Collegium Carolinum’s annual conference 2026 is to shed light on the role of religious actors and the significance of religious affiliation on migration movements from Eastern Europe from the 1930s to the 1960s. ‘Religion’ refers to the three major religious communities in East-Central and South-Eastern Europe: Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy), Judaism and Islam. The central question of the conference is how religious actors influenced migration regimes from Eastern Europe from the interwar period to the Cold War, and developed their own understanding and strategies for these processes. At the same time, we want to show the agency of migrating believers and dignitaries: How did individuals and newly formed diaspora groups implement their ideas of religion and, related to this, of politics and society in their new home countries?

Three aspects can be relevant:

- Large refugee movements gave rise to humanitarian and charitable initiatives. Religious aid organisations took on their traditionally important role in providing care and support, from reception in refugee camps to the issuance of visas to host countries worldwide or repatriation to the former home regions. Questions can be asked about how these organisations cooperated with each other or with state actors, how they classified and assessed migrants, and what kind of assistance (material vs. spiritual) they offered. At the same time, we are interested in how those in need interacted with confessional organisations, e.g. by appealing to religious solidarity to improve their situation.

- Secondly, we encourage contributions on how exiles from East-Central and South-Eastern Europe were used by religious actors (such as the Holy See) in political, diplomatic and societal processes during and after their migration. They received the status of informants, translators, or experts; played an important role in anti-totalitarian propaganda or international organisations; and could become part of charitable, pastoral, or symbolic political support structures for fellow believers in Eastern Europe. At the same time, ideological and national radicalism in exile groups could meet with criticism within their own religious communities.

- Finally, we ask how confessional groups from Eastern Europe in exile and diaspora helped to shape discourses on religion, migration, and Eastern Europe. They founded associations and institutions with a religious focus; developed theological, historical, or political science theories based on their experiences; and actively influenced the social and religious life of their new homelands.

Contributions that take a comparative approach or address areas of conflict and cooperation between members, organisations, and networks of different denominations are very welcome.

The conference is organized by the Collegium Carolinum in cooperation with the German Historic Institute Rome (Max Weber-Foundation Project Group “The Global Pontificate of Pius XII”) and the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Science (Prague). It will take place in Fischbachau in the Bavarian Alps from 12^th – 15^th November 2026. The conference languages are German and English. Subject to available funds, the organizers will cover the travel and accommodation costs of all participants. Papers should last approx. 20 minutes, followed by a discussion of equal length. Scholars of all career stages are invited to submit paper proposals by 17^th April 2026 to Dr. Marion Averbeck-Dotter (marion.dotter(at)collegium-carolinum.de) and Dr. Jaroslav Šebek, Ph.D. (sebek(at)hiu.cas.cz). These should be in English and not exceed 3.000 characters in length (incl. spaces). Please also submit a short CV.

A publication in English is planned in the series “Bad Wiesseer Tagungen des Collegium Carolinum”.

Call for Papers (PDF)

The Asynchronous Histories Summer School aims to explore regions and moments in history marked by the coexistence of asynchronous sociopolitical tendencies and processes. These conditions often reveal paradoxical outcomes when seemingly well-established actors and mechanisms are put into practice. The absence—or inefficiency—of "The Great Synchronizer," whether imperial order, centralized state apparatus, or the power of capital, has, in various periods and regions, created fertile grounds for blending the old and the new in unequal and unexpected ways.

Rather than viewing this coexistence of asynchronicities as a static phenomenon, we understand it as a dynamic and intricate process. In such situations, old forms may act as tools paving the way for new developments, while new forms may consolidate old arrangements, laws, and privileges. This interplay also triggers epistemological challenges, as research tools developed in global centres often fail to yield productive results when applied to these complex settings. This is why it is both challenging and indispensable to abandon normative definitions of phenomena and states of affairs in favour of listening to local actors, whose diversity ultimately calls into question apparently universal models and descriptions of reality—models that, in practice, are deeply rooted in Western centres.

In adopting such a perspective, we draw inspiration from several contemporary intellectual currents that seek to develop thinking in this direction. First, Reinhart Koselleck’s concept of multiple temporalities enables us to discern the non-linear character of time in human societies. Second, postcolonial and subaltern narratives continually challenge Western epistemic frameworks that remain incongruent with large parts of the world beyond capitalist centers. Third, alternative conceptions of modernity pave the way for rethinking the modern project as a plural rather than a singular phenomenon.

By understanding asynchronicity in such ways, we aim to encourage a rethinking of the past through this powerful umbrella tool. We invite early-career scholars from all areas of the humanities and social sciences to join us in a shared intellectual exploration.

Exemplary areas of inquiry include:

1. Western ideologies in non-Western settings. 
2. Mixed temporalities and their synchronization. 
3. Non-linear conceptions of progress. 
4. Alt-modernities. 
5. Two economic systems in one setting. 
6. Transfers as resistance; transfers as domination. 
7. Unrealized potentials, repressed imaginaries, and projects halted midway.

Confirmed Lecturers 
Among the distinguished lecturers for this edition are:

- Helge Jordheim (University of Oslo) 
- Franz Fillafer (Austrian Academy of Sciences) 
- Augusta Dimou (University of Leipzig) 
- Banu Turnaoglu (Sabancı University / University of Cambridge) 
- Jani Marjanen (University of Helsinki) 
- Tomasz Zarycki (University of Warsaw)

Additional invited lecturers might be announced at a later stage.

Report (in Polish) and photos from the first edition: 
https://wsnsir.uw.edu.pl/asynchronous-histories-summer-school/

Organizing Institutions 
Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw 
The German Historical Institute, Warsaw 
The Gabriel Narutowicz Institute of Political Thought 
in partnership with 
Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences 
The History of Concepts Group

Organizing Comittee 
Anna Gulińska, Bartłomiej Błesznowski, Jan Krakowian, Piotr Kuligowski

Eligibility and Application 
We welcome submissions from PhD students. Advanced MA students and early career postdocs (up to two years post-defence) are also encouraged to apply.

How to Apply 
Please submit the following materials by May 31, 2026: 
- A short CV (maximum two pages). 
- A concise description of your research interests (up to 1,000 words). 
Send your application to ahss.warsaw[at]gmail.com

Participation Fee 
The participation fee is 150 EUR or 650 PLN. In justified cases, this fee may be reduced

Kontakt

ahss.warsaw[at]gmail.com

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Warschau

• Borders experienced and imagined
• Materiality of borders and environment
• Multiple types of borders and modes of bordering
• Movement and bodily experiences
• Social relations
• Welfare
• Temporalities
• Urban/rural perspectives
• Property issues
• History and methodology of border studies applied to wartime contexts

Applications should be sent to conferences(at)lvivcenter.org by April 20, 2026, with the subject line “Experiencing the Borders.” Notifications on acceptance will be sent by May 5, 2026. We expect to have draft papers or notes submitted to discussants by September 7, 2026.

Co-organisers:
Center for Urban History, Lviv
Center for Russian, Caucasian, East-European and Central-Asian studies, School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (CERCEC-EHESS - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Paris
Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague
Research Centre Ukraine / Max Weber Foundation, Lviv

Call for Papers (PDF)

Call for Papers

The Eighth Conference on Digital Humanities and Digital History will revolve around Artificial Intelligence in the historical disciplines. Generative AI has emerged as a transformative tool in historical research, serving as a method to answer historical questions, a means to streamline historians’ workflows, or even a subject of methodological and epistemological reflection itself. Even though its roots stretch back decades, generative AI only recently passed a critical threshold, bursting into a widespread applicability just a few years ago. Since the mid-20th century, the history of AI has been marked by cycles of advancement and stagnation. These fluctuations have often stemmed from tensions between symbolic (rule-based) and statistical (data-driven) approaches – two paradigms that, though historically antagonistic, are increasingly synthesized in contemporary AI systems. Since 2017 and the emergence of transformer-based systems, generative AI, although constantly “under construction,” has become an integral part of research practices. It brings profound opportunities and challenges. New capabilities come with fragility and new layers of vulnerabilities, accessibility with opacity, and widespread adoption with ethical, legal and power-related questions.  Different tendencies, cultures, and attitudes have shaped how historians respond to artificial intelligence in their work. While many historians quietly integrate AI into their workflows, others engage in methodological development and innovation or critical reflection on its capabilities and limitations, and still others voice profound concerns, particularly about its impact on interpretative and reflective dimensions of qualitative research. 

Topics

Our conference welcomes contributions across all these areas and particularly encourages work that fundamentally re-thinks or re-invents analytical or explorative approaches and workflows using AI. We equally welcome critical reflections on how AI quietly becomes woven into established research practices (often without explicit recognition). We provide a forum to examine these questions from three perspectives:

(1) Developing methods for analyzing historical sources

While implementations of AI algorithms for accessing and analyzing historical sources – including information retrieval and extraction – have so far often relied on “off-the-shelf” models, growing concerns about privacy, environmental impact, and appropriateness for the historical field have started to prompt a shift toward specialized models for historical research. Initiatives such as “Small Models for GLAM” at Hugging Face are taking important steps in facilitating the use of responsible AI by providing small models fine-tuned on high quality and open cultural heritage datasets. In this regard we want to ask:

• Methodology: What specialized models would benefit the field, and what benchmark datasets or evaluation criteria should we develop to assess them? What ethical guidelines and best practices should govern AI method development? Where have AI methods based on current models failed in historical research? What can we learn from those failures?
• New possibilities: What new research questions become addressable through AI? What novel analytical methods emerge?
• Collaboration and participation: How can historians, cultural heritage institutions, and computer scientists work together in the design of new methods for the historical field? How do we build sustainable, community-driven AI infrastructure?

(2) Creating everyday historical research workflows with AI

The integration of AI into tools used every day by historians – tools often made available by their institutions or imposed from outside, for example, by publishing houses – raises the question of AI as a “discreet digital practice” (Muller and Clavert, 2025). The increasing widespread but undocumented use of AI in historical research affects the very methods of history and its writing without us collectively understanding its consequences. In this sense, we welcome contributions that reflect on the integration of AI, particularly generative AI, into the “everyday” methodological repertoire of historians: 

• Workflow transformation: How is AI re-shaping historical research workflows such as reading, note-taking, writing, citation management, and archival research? What new workflows are emerging, and what established practices are being displaced or altered?
• Documentation and transparency: How can we make AI usage in historical research transparent and accountable? What are the legal aspects? What documentation protocols should historians adopt? How do we balance the benefits of AI tools with concerns about bias, privacy, legal aspects, environmental impact, and epistemic responsibility?
• Education and training: How should we integrate critical AI literacy into education, ensuring that students understand not only AI’s capabilities and limitations, but also its material foundations and their histories (e.g. resource extraction, energy use, data infrastructures) and ethical implications (e.g. bias, surveillance, accountability)? What pedagogical approaches effectively build critical AI literacy?

(3) Conducting research on and about the history of AI

As historians, we can also contribute to major developments in AI. Research at the intersection of STEM and the humanities has become increasingly important since the 1970s, and historians have a specific contribution to make: providing historical perspectives, whether long-term (the human quest to simulate life in its own image, from the golem to the mechanical Turk) or short-term (the history of computer science itself). AI algorithms are deeply intertwined in complex socio-technical systems, where technology, institutions, and culture intersect. We would welcome contributions that concentrate on any aspects of the history of AI, but would encourage those who focus on the history of simulation:  How have humans attempted to create artificial intelligence or simulate human cognition across different historical periods? What continuities and ruptures exist between pre-digital automata and contemporary AI systems?

Submission Guidelines

For the two-day conference, we invite you to submit proposals by March 1, 2026, for:

1. workshops for (hands-on) presentations of projects, tools, or skills (90 minutes),
2. or individual presentations (20 minutes)

Please submit a short CV and paper abstract of no more than 500 words to brigitte.melchior(at)uni.lu by 1 March 2026. The conference will offer a dynamic, inclusive international forum. Although we favor in-person attendance of participants and presenters, facilities for hybrid participation will be provided with the aim of making the event as inclusive as possible.

Zur Ausschreibung des DHI Washington

• German and European history
• The history of German-American relations
• The role of Germany and the USA in international relations
• North American and Pan American history, including Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean (European doctoral and postdoctoral scholars only)

The proposed research projects should make use of historical methods and engage with the relevant historiography. We especially invite applications from doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars who currently have no funding from their home institutions. The fellowships are usually granted for periods of one to four months but, in exceptional cases and depending on the availability of funds, they can be extended by one month.

The GHI will not provide funding for preliminary research, manuscript composition, or the revision of manuscripts. It will give clear priority to those postdoc projects that are designed for the "second book." The fellowship is open to both doctoral and postdoctoral scholars based in North America and Europe. The monthly stipend is € 2,000 for doctoral students and € 3,400 for postdoctoral scholars. In addition, fellowship recipients based in Europe will receive reimbursement for their round-trip airfare to the U.S. 

The GHI has two deadlines each year for the fellowships: April and October. Questions about applying or for the fellowship program in general should be directed to fellowships(at)ghi-dc.org.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants should be based at (or recent graduates of) a North American or European university or research institute.
• For doctoral students applying, ABD status is required before starting the fellowship.
• For postdoctoral scholars applying, the preference is for projects that are designed for the "second book" (Habilitation or pre-tenure equivalent).
• The proposed project should require primary research that is principally located in North America.

To apply please send the following materials using the online application form (as a pdf) by April 1, 2026.

1. A brief cover letter

2. Curriculum vitae

3. A copy of your most recent diploma or transcripts

4. Project description (no more than 2,000 words)

5. Research schedule for the fellowship

6. At least one letter of reference (or sent separately to fellowships(at)ghi-dc.org) 

Please combine all of your application materials except for the application form into a single PDF and include a word count at the end of your project description. Applicants may write in either English or German; we recommend that they use the language in which they are most proficient. Applicants will be notified about the outcome approximately two months after the deadline.

Meldung des DHI Washington

The prize-winning manuscript must be published in the series Transatlantic Historical Studies (THS), which the GHI has published in collaboration with the Franz Steiner Verlag since 1992. The prize will not be awarded to a manuscript that is already under contract with a publisher or is set to appear in another book series. The winning manuscript will be professionally edited, with the GHI assuming the costs of publication at the Gold Open Access level. This means that the book will be available in print and immediately accessible as a free download upon publication.

Completed book manuscripts in German and English at the doctoral or higher level are eligible for consideration. Current staff of GHI Washington, including researchers with signed contracts for future appointments, are not eligible for the prize. The prize committee will make a decision on the basis of reviews by American and German scholars. The prize will be presented at the annual historians’ meeting of the German Association for American Studies in spring 2027.

To have your manuscript considered for the Franz Steiner Prize, please submit your manuscript, a one-page abstract, your CV, and an evaluation of your manuscript—for example, by your doctoral adviser or a member of a review committee—via our online portal.

For the 2027 award, the deadline for submissions is September 15, 2026. Questions may be directed to the THS series lead editor Axel Jansen.

Meldung des DHI Washington

Closed Workshop
“Global Publics and Global History” with Valeska Huber
9 April, 10 AM – 2 PM, Max Weber Office, 20 Shota Rustaveli Ave, Tbilisi

We invite young researchers – master students and PhD – to join a masterclass with Valeska Huber to discuss about the most recent scholarship in the field of global history. How can we apply insights from debates within the larger field of global history to concrete projects on the master’s and PhD level? And how do we connect histories of the South Caucasus and Georgia to discussions within histories of communication and globalization?  The workshop will feature a discussion of select texts, and each participant will get a chance to briefly speak about their current plans and/or projects.

Valeska Huber is one of the leading scholars in the field of international and global history of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. She has published widely on mobilities and migration and on the history of global publics, as well as on theoretical and methodological questions of writing global history from a social and micro-historical perspective. In her current book project, she is examining the question of universal access to information using the example of 20th-century literacy campaigns.

To apply for this class, please send a short motivational letter of approximately 300 words to info(at)mws-georgia.org until 6 March, 2026. Please detail your background and current field of study and let us know about one-two of your main question that you have in relation to global history. What do you already know? And what do you hope to find out?

Meldung des MWS Osteuropa

Our crises-ridden present is marked by multiple wars, economic disruption, and political persecution. These issues have brought questions of flight, exile and emigration back into focus. Millions of individual lives across the globe are being disrupted and upended by external events often beyond individuals' control.  Indeed, the current crisis of liberal democracy in many Western countries conjures up a scenario in which such predicaments are no longer confined to inhabitants of the Global South. It is now conceivable that in the not-too-distant future, groups and individuals in what were previously stable Western liberal democracies may experience political persecution and exile once again. The violent and turbulent first half of the 20th century seems closer to our present than at any time in recent memory.

This contemporary context informs an international workshop that seeks to provide a historical perspective on flight, exile and emigration in 20^th century Germany, focusing on the 1920s-1950s. The workshop is part of an increasingly transnational and global orientation in the historiography of the 20^th century. At the same time, it reflects a turn toward writing history biographically that is currently underway in German history and beyond.It recognizes that the lives of many Germans did not unfold within the confines of national borders. Thomas Mann's dictum in exile, 'Where I am is Germany', can thus be applied to many individuals who were forced to leave Germany due to political persecution. Some chose to return after 1945, while others did not. 

This workshop aims to bring together junior and senior scholars from both sides of the Atlantic who are currently conducting research on flight, exile or emigration in 20^th century Germany, incorporating biographical approaches. One aim of the workshop is to identify patterns or similarities that transcend the idiosyncrasies of individual lives and point to more general insights regarding experience of flight, exile and emigration. The workshop aims to stimulate conversation and exchange, and to facilitate a joint publication. 

We are particularly interested in proposals that address the following questions: Why and when did people leave and what determined where they chose to go? What structural conditions or markers (social class, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, nationality, age etc.) determined their trajectories? How did particular places, people, and experiences shape individuals’ political commitments or shifts in political attitudes? Which ideologies or set of ideas were particularly useful in maintaining a coherent sense of self in a period of often catastrophic disruption? How did major political events (the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, the emerging Cold War) affect the intimate details of private lives? And how did private life provide a resource to manage and survive political catastrophes? What skills or bodies of knowledge were particularly important in surviving political ruptures and/or forced displacement. 

The workshop will be jointly funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.. We will cover associated travel costs and accommodation. 

Proposals (500 words) along with a short CV can be submitted until March 1, 2026 here.

Zur Meldung des DHI Washington

The fellowship will be awarded to PhD and M.A. students and advanced scholars without restrictions in research fields or geographical provenance for research using materials at the Horner Library. The "GHI Fellowship at the Horner Library" will provide a travel subsidy and an allowance of $1,000 to $3,500 depending on the length of the stay and the qualifications of the fellows. Opportunities for research at other special collections in Philadelphia may be available.

In 2026, the United States will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This will shine a special light on Philadelphia, the city where it was written and from where it was sent to the 13 states whose representatives had met here, as well as out into the world. In honor of this anniversary, research topics on themes related to the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress, and the early days of the republic would be especially welcome for 2026, though this will not be a requirement.

The Joseph Horner Memorial Library houses 50,000 volumes and is the largest German American collection in the US outside of a university. The collection offers rich materials from the 17th to the 20th centuries to historians of German American immigration culture, especially in Pennsylvania, as well as historians of German fictional and non-fictional literature, including travel and popular literature. See the reference guide on the GHI web site and the catalog at the German Society of Pennsylvania.

Questions about applying or for the fellowship program in general should be directed to fellowships(at)ghi-dc.org.

Zur Meldung des GHI Washington

Venue: German Historical Institute Warsaw

Date: October 22-24, 2026

Thematic scope

The representation of difficult pasts, violence, and human rights violations has predominantly been examined through singular case studies, often deeply rooted in specific national contexts. However, as (de)commemorative processes continue to evolve, there is a growing need for broader perspectives that consider the dynamic interplay between memory culture and factors such as technological innovation, curatorial practice, and sustainability.

The conference and graduate workshop “Navigating the Past, Facing the Present: Challenges and Opportunities in Re-Presenting Conflicts and Violence in Memory and Education Institutions” addresses the (evolving) representation of history in public and institutional contexts, with a focus beyond the often-studied field of “memory culture”. Rather than emphasizing the politicization of memory and cultural institutions, the discussion shifts toward new methods, media, and challenges in historical narration, education, and curatorial practices.

Key themes of the workshop include:

• Innovative historical representation: How are new technologies and evolving methodologies reshaping the ways we narrate the past? Topics include digital exhibitions, online educational platforms (e.g. YouTube channels, blogs, virtual museum tours), participatory formats, educational crowdsourcing, and the use of AI in creating historical narratives.
• Commemoration vs. forgetting (de-commemoration): Who decides which events are commemorated, and which are omitted? What drives such decisions? How do these choices reflect broader societal values or exclusions, such as the marginalization of Ukrainian history in Western European narratives?
• War and peace narratives in the public space: How do museums, exhibitions, memorials, and textbooks convey narratives of war and of peace in light of contemporary political conflicts? How can war be represented critically and sensitively, without glorifying violence, while still honoring the victims? 
  What roles do reconciliation and transitional justice play?
• Methodological and curatorial challenges: How can institutions navigate differing perspectives (e.g. local vs. global) in representing history? What tools and techniques can be used to create inclusive, engaging, and critically sound historical narratives?
• Infrastructural barriers: What practical and spatial challenges do institutions face when building or adapting spaces for historical exhibitions? Topics include physical limitations of buildings, access to resources, and the integration of multimedia technologies.
• Environmental perspectives on historical representation: How do climate change and sustainability affect the way we think about the past and the present? What new responsibilities do institutions have in preserving and narrating heritage in an era of ecological emergency?
• Historical education and geopolitical tensions: How do current conflicts shape historical education? What are the risks when history becomes a tool of ideological struggle? How can educational institutions foster critical engagement with the past, free from political manipulation?

The event is aimed at two groups of academics: postgraduate students (master’s, PhD, recent graduates <1 year) and established researchers.

Postgraduate students

This two day event offers a unique mentoring and presentation opportunity specifically designed for graduate students working on research-in-progress, such as draft articles or PhD thesis chapters. Selected students will be paired with experienced academics, including workshop presenters, who will serve as their mentors. Prior to the event, students will share their papers with their assigned mentors, allowing time for thoughtful feedback. During the workshop, each student will present their work in a dedicated 30-minute session, followed by a 15-minute in-depth response from their mentor. These sessions are designed as an inclusive space that will give postgraduate students an opportunity to present their research in front of a friendly and supportive group of scholars (without external audience participation). The workshop aims to foster meaningful academic dialogue and hopes to encourage ongoing mentorship beyond the event itself. The format combines both a mentoring component and a traditional conference setting, supporting the professional development of emerging scholars.

Established researchers

Panels for established researchers will follow a more traditional conference/workshop format, with three papers per panel followed by a discussion between the presenters and the audience. Individual paper and panel proposals are equally welcome.

We might ask some of the established researchers attending a conference to also take up a mentorship role for one of our student presenters.

Practicalities

We invite researchers in History, Museum Studies, Art History, Cultural Anthropology, Holocaust Studies, and related fields to submit proposals by April 30, 2026. The workshop will take place in person at the German Historical Institute Warsaw on October 22–24, 2026. The workshop’s language is English. This is a fully in-person event that will not be recorded.

For both postgraduate and established researchers, we invite proposals comprising a paper title, an abstract of up to 300 words, and a one-page CV, submitted as a single PDF file by email to dr Izabela Paszko: paszko@dhi.waw.pl.

Costs and funding

Participation fees are covered by the organizers.

Participants will make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. However, subsidies are available upon request for selected scholars, especially those who might not otherwise be able to attend the workshop, including junior scholars and scholars from universities with limited resources. Limited funding is available and will be distributed based on travel distance, length of stay, and financial need. Indicating a need for financial assistance will not negatively affect the application. 

Organizing committee: Dr. Izabela Paszko, Dr. Sławomir Doległo, Dr. Tadeusz Wojtych

This event is organized in cooperation with the Museums and Memory working group of the Memory Studies Association, as well as with the Polish-German Textbook Commission.

Zur Meldung des DHI Warschau