This CENTRAL Workshop is a trilateral cooperation between ELTE Budapest, Charles University Prague, University of Warsaw, HU Berlin and the University of Vienna. 

Venue: ELTE Budapest, Hungary

This workshop is a follow-up to the previous CENTRAL workshops that focused on transformations of memory cultures and politics, on discourses and narratives of victimhood concurrence, on public memory and the institutionalization of memory, as well as on the materialities of memory in Central, East and South-East Europe. This workshop will centre on the individual and collective dynamics of remembering and forgetting in Central and Southeast Europe. In every society, practices of remembering and forgetting play a crucial role in shaping history, culture and identities. Within this process various public and private actors determine which historical events and figures are celebrated, which traumas are acknowledged, and which narratives are marginalized or erased: individuals, communities and institutions can all amplify certain voices, while silencing others. In this sense, practices of remembering and forgetting are closely intertwined: instead of being separate and passive processes, they can be understood as interrelated and active – social, political and cultural – tools. Political leaders and institutions often instrumentalize historical memory to justify policies, consolidate national unity, or mobilize support in times of crisis, but also to strengthen their legitimacy, frame political opponents, and shape collective emotions such as pride, resentment, or fear. By selectively emphasizing or downplaying historical events, they construct narratives that serve ideological agendas and influence public discourse. At the same time, competing memory narratives can spark social and political tensions, as different groups seek recognition for their versions of history, leading to contested interpretations of the past. The workshop will explore what happens when certain histories are remembered, celebrated, or commemorated, and others are excluded or forgotten? We seek to understand the complex and intertwined dynamics of remembering and forgetting and to reveal how voices – both vocal and silent – shape collective and personal memory, what narratives emerge through these voices, and how silences function in the construction of histories.

The workshop brings together contributions discussing the conceptual approaches and challenges of studying practices of remembering and forgetting in Central and Southeastern Europe and studying specific sites of memory, mnemonic agents and practices.