2016 Network Conference – HISTORICAL JUSTICE AND MEMORY NETWORK

Confronting Violent Pasts and Historical (In)Justice

The legacy of genocide, gross human rights violations, mass political violence, and historical injustice has been arguably laid bare through a whole range of mechanisms: official apologies, vetting, international criminal tribunals, national, or local legal proceedings, truth commissions, official commemorations, restitution, revising school history curricula, establishing monuments and museums, and hybrid trials. Each of these mechanisms seeks to contribute in their own way to accountability, reconciliation, the historical record, victims’ rights, and competing ‘truths’. As the international ad-hoc trials — often instigated in the immediate aftermath of, or during conflict — wind down, we enter a new phase of evaluating the efficacy of these and other institutionalized means of confronting the violent past. We can now begin to assess their impact on the societies from which the perpetrators and/or victims emerged. And what about societies that maintain official amnesia or actively repress the memory of violence with regard to historical injustices? Is there a right timing for addressing the violent past? Should and could historians and historical dialogue play a more instrumental role in these processes?

The deadline to submit abstracts has passed. If you are interested in information about attending the conference, or have questions about presenting, please e-mail: aanmelden@niod.knaw.nl.

Click here to read more about the conference. Click here for conference locations and information on accommodations in Amsterdam. For the full schedule of the 2016 conference, please click here.

To register to attend the first day of the conference, Dec.1, please click here.
To register to attend the second day of the conference, Dec.2, please click here.
To register to attend the third day of the conference, Dec.3, please click here.

About the Historical Dialogues, Justice and Memory Network Annual Conference:
The Historical Dialogues, Justice and Memory Network (www.historicaldialogues.org) is coordinated by an international Steering Committee and the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability (AHDA), at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) at Columbia University. Every December, the Historical Dialogues, Justice and Memory Network holds a multi-day conference that brings together scholars and practitioners who work in the field of historical dialogue. These individuals have the opportunity to present their projects, scholarly papers, and case studies. The conference provides a space for networking, opportunities to share knowledge and experiences, and establishes AHDA’s identity as a forum for historical dialogue. As an annual event, the conference is also used to explore different topics and challenges within the field, and to reach out to a wide cross-section of practitioners and scholars working in the field. 2016 will mark the sixth annual conference.

The host for the Sixth Annual Conference, the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, is an institution of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The NIOD conducts advanced research, university teaching, contributes to the public debate, and houses the main collection on the German Occupation in the Netherlands.