A Postwar Republic of Letters? Gender, Archiving, and Knowledge Production after the
Holocaust
Section II (thematic section) of History of Intellectual Culture (HIC), Volume 4, 2025
Edited by Ewa Koźmińska-Frejlak, Victoria Van Orden Martínez, and Christine Schmidt
We invite proposals for contributions to a thematic section of History of Intellectual
Culture (
HIC)<https://www.degruyter.com/serial/hicu-b/html?lang=en>, an
international and interdisciplinary open-access yearbook for peer-reviewed papers,
published by De Gruyter and edited by Charlotte A. Lerg, Johan Östling, and Jana Weiß. The
theme, titled A Postwar Republic of Letters? Gender, Archiving, and Knowledge Production
after the Holocaust and co-guest edited by Ewa Koźmińska-Frejlak, Victoria Van Orden
Martínez, and Christine Schmidt, focuses on the circulation of knowledge via letters and
other forms of written communication within and among survivor historical commissions
after the Second World War, emphasizing the interplay of gender and other differences in
the history of knowledge and intellectual culture in this context.
The history of documentation efforts and knowledge production after the Nazi period is a
burgeoning area of research, particularly concerning Jewish collecting efforts. Still,
there is little attention paid thus far to the framing of these activities in terms of
gender and exploring how gender intersects with class, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality,
and other contexts to shape knowledge production and dissemination. Documentation and
archives-building are important facets of knowledge production through establishing the
historical record of evidence.
We invite proposals for contributions (of up to circa 8,000 words, written in English)
that explore how knowledge about these activities was amassed and circulated in national
and transnational contexts. We as researchers are particularly interested in forms of
'unseen labor' - various forms of work, often 'administrative' in nature
and therefore primarily conducted by women - that remain underexplored and marginalized in
studies of the production, circulation and history of knowledge in this context, as well
as of intellectual culture. Therefore, we are particularly interested in case studies of
how gender and other differences impacted the circulation of knowledge through written
communications about war crimes investigations and postwar trials, the publication and
dissemination of scholarly and popular literature, archiving, the collection of oral
histories and testimonies, and other outputs.
The proposed contributions can address any aspect of the broad themes outlined above or
other, more specific topics that relate to the production and circulation of knowledge,
history of knowledge, and intellectual culture. For example, archives and other
collections deriving from documentation gathered for postwar justice trials, clinical
research on survivors and trauma, and family, private collections, or Jewish communal
record keeping. We welcome and encourage collaborative (especially interdisciplinary)
articles, comparative studies, etc. We are also very interested in proposals for
submissions that focus on North American or transatlantic cases. Below we have listed
several framing references:
Circulation of Knowledge: Explorations in the History of Knowledge. Edited by Johan
Östling, Erling Sandmo, David Larsson Heidenblad, Anna Nilsson Hammar & Kari H.
Nordberg. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2018.
Collect and Record!: Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Europe. Laura
Jockusch. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Cultural Translation and Knowledge Transfer on Alternative Routes of Escape from Nazi
Terror: Mediations through Migrations. Edited by Susanne Korbel and Philipp Strobl.
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.
The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust, Mark Lee
Smith, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2019
"Histories of Migrant Knowledge: Transatlantic and Global Perspectives" Bulletin
of the German Historical Institute, Supplement 15 (2020). Edited by Andrea Westermann and
Onur Erdur.
https://www.ghi-dc.org/publication/histories-of-migrant-knowledge-transatla…
Proposals (in English) should consist of abstracts between 350 and 500 words (including a
proposed title), a short biography of the author or authors (approx. 250 words per
author), and 3-5 keywords, and be emailed to
cfphicsection@gmail.com<mailto:cfphicsection@gmail.com> no later than June 19,
2024.
The guest editors will review all proposals and communicate their decision via email by
July 8, 2024.
The final contributions will be up to circa 8,000 words, written in English, and follow
HIC style (this will be provided to selected authors).
A rough timeline follows. Please do not submit a proposal if you know you cannot commit to
this timing.
CFP Open May 24 to June
19, 2024
Proposal deadline June 19, 2024
Guest editors' decision July 8, 2024
Complete manuscripts to guest editors August 30, 2024
Suggested edits to authors September 23, 2024
Edited manuscripts to guest editors October 11, 2024
Editors finalize and submit section to HIC October 15, 2024
Peer review process October onwards
Publication date Circa October
2025
Best regards / Med vänliga hälsningar,
Victoria ("Tori") Van Orden Martínez, Ph.D. (she/her)
Ph.D. Dissertation - "Afterlives: Jewish and Non-Jewish Polish Surivors of Nazi
Persecution in Sweden Documenting Nazi Atrocities, 1945-1946"
(
https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-199378)
Latest articles:
"Witnessing the Suffering of Others in Watercolor and Pencil: Jadwiga
Simon-Pietkiewicz's Holocaust Art Exhibited in Sweden, 1945-46." Holocaust and
Genocide Studies, 37, 2 (Fall 2023).
https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcad020
"Monuments Cast Shadows: Remembering and Forgetting the 'Dead Survivors' of
Nazi Persecution in Swedish Cemeteries," co-authored with Malin Thor Tureby, in
Fallen Monuments and Contested Memorials, ed. Juilee Decker. London: Routledge, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003256076.
For a full listing of publications, visit:
https://liu.se/en/employee/vicma84
[Linköping University]
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