“New Antifascism Studies: Recovering Memory in an Age of Crisis.” A panel discussion with Alexander Brown, Jelena Đureinović, Giuliana Chamedes, Máté Zombory (co-organizer), and Zoltán Kékesi (co-organizer). European Social Science History Conference, Leiden, March 26-29, 2025.

This international panel engages with issues of “Engaged History Writing” by inviting scholars “working on societies confronting a traumatic, violent or unwanted past, or by dealing with a growing political instrumentalization of history and an ongoing mobilization around the meanings and uses of the past.” It brings together scholars working on various aspects of antifascism in different geographical contexts from a global or transnational perspective and with a focus on the Cold War and the post-Cold War periods. In particular, our panel intends to map research strategies that respond to the current crises of memory politics by the historical reconsideration of the relationship between transformative social movements and cultural memory.

“Why Antifascism? New Perspectives on a Forgotten Paradigm.” A roundtable discussion with Anna Koch, Kasper Braskén,  Zoltán Kékesi (co-organizer), and Máté Zombory (co-organizer), Communities and Change. 7^th Annual Meeting of the Memory Studies Association, Newcastle, July 3-7, 2023.

The last years saw an unexpected proliferation of studies on a piece of 20th century history that had seemed to be obsolete for decades. While most of these publications trace the intellectual, political, and social history of antifascism, much of the implications of its rediscovery for memory studies specifically remains unexplored. This roundtable invites scholars to reflect on their own interest in antifascism as well as on antifascism’s potentials and challenges for memory studies. Our roundtable suggests that the re-assessment of antifascism encourages us to 1) reconsider early postwar and postwar memory; 2) revisit antifascism within a broader history of Leftist memory; and 3) re-examine critically our present-day presumptions about the memory & politics nexus.

“Dreams Un/abducted. Antifascist Memory Reconsidered.” A panel with Joanne Sayner, Emma Kuby, Maximilian Becker, Zoltán Kékesi (co-organizer) and Máté Zombory (co-organizer). Convergences. 5^th Annual Memory Studies Association Conference, Warsaw, July 5-9, 2021.

Antifascist discourses created potent and diverse ways to remember war and genocide—ways that remained divergent and contested even inside political camps and national boundaries. On the other hand, antifascist memories were shared and cultivated across such barriers. Rather than branding it as mere propaganda, our panel would like to ask the question how memory agents explored the political potentials of remembrance—be it in relation to anti-colonial struggles, anti-Capitalist agendas, or anti-nuclear protests. Thus our panel proposes to reclaim antifascism as an exemplary site of Western and East Central European historical convergences, transnational dialogues of memory agents and institutions, and converging political discourses.

“Off Limits. A Roundtable Discussion on Memory Culture and its Challenges.” A roundtable discussion with Gruia Bădescu, Hans Lauge Hansen, Zoltán Kékesi (co-organizer) and Máté Zombory (co-organizer). Institute of Advanced Studies, Central European University, Budapest, April 23, 2021

As a result of transnational developments, the last decade or so has seen the resurgence of Fascist (or, “populist-nationalist”) tendencies in memory cultures across Europe and beyond. Cosmopolitan modes of memory as they had developed since the nineteen seventies have been unable to effectively respond to these unsettling tendencies. This roundtable discussion invites memory scholars to reflect on the limitations and shortcomings of our contemporary memory regime and the underlying humanitarian model. Furthermore, they will present diverse research initiatives that seek to reformulate our conceptual-discursive framework for thinking about memory in its relation to our contemporary world and its social and political conflicts.