Call for Papers: “Antifascism as a Transnational Phenomenon: New Perspectives of Research”

Even 25 years after the end of the (first?) Cold War the term “antifascism” evokes manifold reactions among intellectuals and the population at large. This heterogeneity is a result of the fact that indeed the scholars disagree on what has to be understood by the term. Nevertheless – or precisely because of this circumstance – one can notice an increasing interest of international scholarship in recent years in dealing with historical and historiographical questions of antifascism, as two conferences in Geneva in 2012 (“Antifascism as a Practice and as a Discourse”) and in Paris in 2013 (“L’antifascisme en question, 1922-1945”) show. The planned conference wants to follow these debates and examine them in greater detail.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Munich, Germany (Foto: Marion Doss unter CC BY-SA 2.0)

Up to now, studies deal particularly with the action of antifascists between 1922 and 1945 in its historical and political dimension on the one hand and with the academic and public discourse of various forms of memory after 1945 on the other hand. Fortunately, both happens increasingly within an international context which allows researchers to compare and reveal multiple interrelations. However, much more could be done by taking a transnational perspective into account. While most recent conferences and studies on fascism and fascist movements more and more stress the transnational relations and interactions, these aspects remain relatively underexposed on the part of their political opponents.

Therefore the conference aims to place the antifascist network of relationships as defined by “entangled history” between 1922 and today in the center of interest. All papers should analyze the forms and goals of antifascist action and thinking from an explicitly transnational and/or comparative perspective, at least within a binational or, preferably, multinational context. Contributions should not only focus on countries such as Germany and Italy, which both have historical experience with fascist regimes. Hence, countries in which fascism represented a “mere” internal or external threat, are particularly welcome. Fields of research could be networks, relations and different forms of cooperation of non-state actors like individuals, groups, organizations or parties in resistant movements, exile or the common memory of antifascism as a unified community of values after the Second World War.

The conference will be sponsored by the Max Weber foundation. It invites interdisciplinary applications of historians as well as scholars of social and cultural sciences from PhD candidates up to experienced researchers. The costs of accommodation and conference will be covered. For travel expenses there will be allowances according to DAAD-standard (Germany max. 150€, Europe max. 250€, overseas max. 800€). Conference languages will be English and German but abstracts may also be submitted in French, Italian and Spanish. Please send your proposals (max. 300 words) including a short CV and your most relevant publications by June 30, 2014 to jens.spaeth@uni-saarland.de. Notification of acceptance will be made by July 4, 2014.