The future of the nation is linked to contention about its past. Debates on re-thinking of national histories have accompanied the recent resurgence of nationalism in Europe and beyond. What is being forgotten and remembered, and to what purposes and with what consequences? Participants will address various issues like: What is the relationship of professional historiography to popular histories? What uses should democratic polities make of their archives? How is social memory being revisited and reformulated? Mahatma Gandhi once remarked that only a nation without a history is a happy nation. Is the right to forget part of the freedom permitted or even required in modern societies?
Panelists
Aleida Assmann
Professor of English and General Literature, University of Konstanz
Timothy Snyder
IWM Permanent Fellow; Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale University
Dariusz Stola
Director, Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw; Professor of History, Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences
Karolina Wigura, Head of the political section, Kultura Liberalna
Co-Chairs
Marcin Król, Professor of History of Ideas; Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Warsaw
Shalini Randeria, IWM Rector; Professor of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Graduate Institute, Geneva
The 24th Tischner Debate is jointly organized by the University of Warsaw, Kultura Liberalna, and the IWM, generously supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The event is held under the honorable patronage of the Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and with the media support of the Gazeta Wyborcza. Entrance is free.
