Hello, if anyone in the group is going to attend ASEEES in Boston in November 2024? I am putting together a panel on my book about memory of communism in contemporary Poland (description below). The panel already has a scholars of nationalism and political elites, but it has no memory scholar (except me the author). The deadline for submission of panel proposals is March 1. If anyone is going to attend ASEEES and is willing to participate in a panel please contact me at kate.korycki@uwo.ca
The book called, Weaponizing the Past: Collective Memory and Jews, Poles and Communists in 21st century Poland,” came out in August 2023 with Berghahn Books as part of its World of Memory series. Its aim is to explain why and how political and cultural elites narrate the past and what effects are produced by their preoccupation with collective remembering. First presenting a new theory of politicized memory and then retelling the stories from post-transition Poland, in which many different political actors narrate communism as evil and connected with Jewishness, the book shows how democracy, progressive ideals, and notions of national belonging are narrowed and constricted. Anchoring the narrative in the 2015 election in Poland, the book explores the contours of present-day anti-communism and its effect on exclusionary national imaginaries.
