International academic conference, 11 October 2021, Faculty of Humanities University of Primorska, Koper-Capodistria

A review by Michèle Baussant (CEFRES, CNRS)

The conference, organized by Katja Hrobat Virloget, Aleksej Kalc, and Michèle Baussant, is the result of two joint research projects, the Slovenian-French bilateral Proteus project entitled “Pasts without history and displaced histories of people without traces” (Baussant, Hrobat Virloget) and the Slovenian SRA project “Migrations and social changes in a comparative perspective: the case of Western Slovenia after WW II” (Kalc) from the University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities, Koper-Capodistria, ZRC SAZU, Slovenian Migration Institute, Ljubljana and CNRS, CEFRES, Prague. It gathered members of the French (M. Baussant and M. Kokkinou) and Slovene teams (K. Hrobat-Virloget, A. Kalc, N. Cebron Lipovec). The conference began with a welcome and opening discourse by IRENA LAZAR, dean of the FH UP, and VALENTINE MOREL, attachée for scientific and university cooperation at the French institute, followed by three different panels.

The conference aimed to present and discuss some historical, memory, and heritage issues related to violent and silenced pasts, movements of depopulations, and repopulations linked to the changing of national borders in a comparative way. It focused in particular on the political reorganization of Europe in 1945, North Africa, and other former colonial countries, which also led to expulsions or massive emigrations of ethnic minorities, viewed as the “losers” of history. As a result, their towns became “home” to other populations that did not necessarily have links to the place and cultural heritage of the previous populations. Continuer la lecture de »OLD« VS. »NEW« TOWNS. MEMORIES, HISTORIES, AND HERITAGE AFTER POPULATION TRANSFERS AND BORDER CHANGES →