Multidirectional Memory in Germany

The workshop is organised by Nancy Alhachem.

Michael Rothberg is professor of English and Comparative Literature and the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Publications:

• The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators (2019) and Multi-directional Memory: Remembering the Holo-caust in the Age of Decolonization (2009), both published by Stanford University Press in their “Cultural Memory in the Present” se-ries. Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Ho-locaust Representation (2000) was published by the University of Minnesota Press. He is currently completing a new book on Migrant Archives together with Yasemin Yildiz.
• The recent German translation of Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization (2009) reopened the discussion the comparability of the Holocaust remembering different histories of violence, and the role of memory in practices of exclusion and inclusion in today’s society.

The same week is also the anniversary of the Hanau attack (20 February 2020). The workshop wants to translate into a symbolic remembrance not only Hanau but also other attacks related to racism and anti-Semitism (e.g. Halle, 9 October 2019). This will give us the opportunity to discuss questions including, but not limited to:

• Can different acts of violence be studied and understood as interconnected?
• How can Multidirectional Memory form a frame of mutual recognition in a ‘Post-Mi-grant/Multicultural’ society?
• Why are these forms of Othering and Al-ienation re-surfacing?

The discussion will be framed by commentaries from doctoral and post-doc researchers from different fields such as Phi-losophy, Sociology, Postcolonial Studies, Museology, History and Jewish studies from Erfurt and Graz (Dr. Urs Lindner, Dr. Piera Rossetto, Teresa Mocharitsch, Marcus Döller).