The project organises activities that include memory forums, training, workshops, exhibitions, conferences, and campaigns. These create a space for memory education at the community level. They open discussions about policy and heritage given the politicisation of memory of conflict that often contributes to the erasure of past solidarity and resistance against the far-right.
Our activities comprise of two approaches:
Training
Producing new research and outreach on the transnational entanglements of the collective memory and heritage of these national histories.
Providing training for teachers, via a handbook, for talking about/teaching complex histories and their narratives.
Generate a digital exhibition based on the entanglements of “themes” shared by the five target countries based on existing infrastructure.
Create five separate types of awareness and informal dialogues deliverables about collective memory and history. This will rely on data collected through the second approach, dialogue.
Dialogue
Five “community workshops” per country to reflect on the influence of memory on contemporary antisemitism, anti-Roma, Islamophobia, Russophobia, misogynism;
and five internationally.
Five local permanent “memory forums” to discuss countering and responding to such narratives in relevant environment (eg. Educators, museums) and five internationally.
We expect three major target groups: young people, professionals in collective memory (curators, educators, heritage specialists,writers etc.), PVE/CVE stakeholders.
Research
The aim of our research is to map and understand the status of the memory of the far-right, which entails both the narratives and practices of memory speaking about the resistance against radical right, far-right movements in Europe and discourses stemming from radical right wing views in the countries targeted (stereotype, biases, racism, exclusion); as well as narratives and practices of memory used by radical right, conservative movements today in relation to earlier predecessors, to capitalize on their influence etc.
Workshops
Through workshops, we encourage conversation within communities about relevant histories such as the Roma resistance, Jewish Resistance, anti-fascism, Women and feminism, colonial legacies, state authoritarianism, and unrecognized victimhood. We encourage a form of ethnography and storytelling, allowing people in the community to share their stories and speak directly to younger generations.
Memory Forums
Memory Forums are meetings where we analyse the status and the best way to engage with the memory of right-wing authoritarianism in terms of policy and practice.
Memory Forum 1 – Spanish Civil War
Memory Forum 2 – anti-fascist resistance
Memory Forum 3 – Jewish Resistance
Memory Forum 4 – Networks of women solidarity
Memory Forum 5 – Roma solidarity
Training Sessions
The training sessions are for teachers in schools about today’s relevance of the right-wing authoritarianism collective memory narratives.
Exhibition is designed as a public campaign and public outreach using the experiences and information gathered from all four countries of implementation to raise awareness on the importance of historical awareness.
Memory Talks Podcast
Memory Talks is a podcast where we talk about memory and history as a way to address political, cultural, and historical narratives relevant to today’s issues. It’s the extension of the SolRem project that starts informal dialogues and encourages people to rethink the past.
