Remembering, Telling, Knowing?
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| Free of charge |
| 16 years and older |
| German |
| Workshops, First Floor |
| Belongs to: The Palace of the Republic is Present |
For ethnography and the historical disciplines dealing with recent history, the knowledge contributed by so-called “source communities” and the memories of “contemporary witnesses” (Zeitzeugen) is essential. The transfer of knowledge often takes place in interviews and other conversational or narrative situations. In these situations, relationships are created between those asking the questions and those responding, with both sides shaping the resulting narratives. We understand this kind of relationship as a “narrative community”.
These are also relevant to the work at the Humboldt Forum, especially in the project “Remembrance at the Humboldt Forum”, which takes memories of the Palace of the Republic as its starting point. In this project, we want to rethink working with memories and reflect on methods of knowledge generation:
What roles do scholars and interviewees play in such narrative communities and how do we address these roles and relationships? To what extent do they change if we want to decolonise knowledge practices and make them more equal? What relationships do we want to establish and how? And how do changes in the ways such forms of communication take place affect the knowledge generated?
In order to reflect on these questions, the Academy and the Department History of the Site organise a one-day symposium that will provide food for thought and open up a discussion for academics and the interested public alike.
The exact programme and registration details will follow shortly. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]
Please note, the symposium will be held in German.
Panel
Mathias Berek is a cultural scientist and staff member at the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung of the Technische Universität Berlin. He researches cultures of memory, German-Jewish history and anti-Semitism and completed his doctorate with a cultural theory thesis on collective memory and the social construction of reality. He is currently working on the relationship between social cohesion and the recognition of biographical narratives about the post-reunification period.
Kathrin Kollmeier is a historian. Since 2017 she directs the Academy, Programme Department for Education, Outreach and Science, of the Humboldt Forum Foundation. Previously, she worked in historical museums and research institutes and conducted research on the history of dictatorship, migration, flight and statelessness in the 20th century.
Uta Kornmeier is an art historian and has been curator for science and research at the Academy of the Humboldt Forum Foundation since 2020. She previously worked at the Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research and the Centre for Visual Studies at the University of Oxford in various research projects, including on the history of art historical radiography.
Christiane Kuller has been Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and History Didactics at the University of Erfurt since 2013. She is a board member of the Ettersberg Foundation for European Dictatorship Research. Her research interests include the history of the Nazi era and its aftermath, as well as everyday history of the GDR and transformation periods. She also researches public history as a history of memory culture(s).
Viet Duc Nguyen is chairman of the Association of Vietnamese in Berlin and Brandenburg. He came to the GDR from Vietnam in 1974 to study silicate technology in Freiberg and again to do his doctorate from 1986-1989. Through employment as an engineer, he was able to stay in Germany. He participated in the project “Remembrance Work in the Humboldt Forum” as an interview partner, and also supports the programme “The Palace of the Republic is Present” as a critical companion.
Anke Schnabel is a historian and curator in the History of the Site department of the Humboldt Forum Foundation. She has been working in historical museums and memorial sites since 2001, curating media installations for the permanent exhibitions on the history of the site from 2015 and leading the research project “Erinnerungsarbeit im Humboldt Forum” from 2021-2022.