Amnesia is a central topic of our research: it is oblivion and not memory that appears to be the dominant theme of contemporary neoliberal culture. Europe’s genocidal past takes up a fundamental role in the construction of collective and national identities. This past continues to unfold its significant power regarding our concepts of the future. Our interdisciplinary research platform operates on the premise that present collective identities, community politics, and nation-state sovereignties are built on practices of amnesia regarding this genocidal pasts. Articulating the politics of amnesia in relation to the construction of a homogeneous nation state and hegemonic national identities, this research project, with its symposium, book, and exhibition, examines the political and ideological conditions of the re/production of silenced history, memory, art, and culture at the present time of neoliberal global capitalism. Such an analysis involves rethinking the constitution of European history and memory in the context of the prevailing discourses of discrimination and differentiation: racism and anti-Semitism being two of the most evident and palpable.
