This workshop will bring together transdisciplinary scholars from Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and other countries – in order to discuss the most sensitive issues of historical memory in Europe. We will focus on laws and practices, related to the commemoration of the Holocaust, genocides, political violence and war crimes across the European Union.
The workshop is part of the project “Mnemonic Reality: Investigating Memory Law’s Impact on Reality and Reality’s Impact on Memory Laws”, funded by the foundation “VolkswagenStiftung” (Germany).
The main idea of the project is to measure the effectiveness of the so-called “memory laws”. The project's research is orientated to questioning the ability of memory laws – such as the Holocaust denial bans – to transform the subjective individual and collective worldviews of history into more facts and empathy-based perspectives.
Organizer: Mykolas Romeris University, Memory and Justice Research Center
Partners: University of Cologne, Faculty of Law, Academy for European Human Rights Protection, Aberta University, Centre for Global Studies
13.00-13.15 Greetings. Assoc. prof. dr. Saulius Spurga, Deputy Rector of MRU; Dr. Monika Rogers, Head of the MRU Memory and Justice Research Center
13.15-14.00 “Mnemonic Reality project. What is it about?”. Institutions and countries representatives: Portugal, Germany, Poland, Lithuania
14.00-14.40 Paulė Kuzmickienė, Member of the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas): “LEGAL REGULATION OF MEMORY AND POLITICAL PROCESS”
14.40-15.00 Questions, discussion
15.00-15.30 Coffee break
10.30-11.00 Book presentation. Dr. Mirosław Michał Sadowski (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland; Aberta University, Lisbon, Portugal; Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland): “INTERSECTIONS OF LAW AND MEMORY INFLUENCING PERCEPTIONS OF THE PAST”
11.00-11.30 Dr. Paula Rhein-Fischer (University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany) “TRACES OF HISTORY IN GERMAN ASSEMBLY LAW: DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF WARS IN UKRAINE AND GAZA”
11.30-11.40 Questions
11.40-12.00 Coffee break
12.00-12.40 Prof. Justinas Žilinskas (Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania) “DANGEROUS MEMORIES: BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF IDEOLOGY AND THE HAMMER OF LAW”
12.40-13.00 Questions, Discussion