Why Remember? Testimonies of Light

The 2025 Why Remember? Testimonies of Light conference will mark 30 years since the Srebrenica genocide, and the events of the Bosnian War which resulted in the signing of the Dayton Accords in late 1995. This year’s conference will reflect on how these defining events continue to shape memory, reconciliation, and peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as other post-conflict societies throughout the world. As we commemorate this significant anniversary, we will also pay tribute to Professor Paul Lowe, the conference series’ founder and internationally acclaimed conflict photographer, who passed away in October 2024.

The 2025 conference will critically examine how memory, trauma, and reconciliation intersect in the context of genocide and post-conflict peace processes. It will explore how the legacy of Srebrenica continues to resonate in collective memory and how post-Dayton Bosnia informs contemporary debates more broadly on peace and nation-building. As with previous Why Remember? conferences, we also look to encourage dialogue between sites
that have confronted violent pasts (and presents) in a myriad of ways with different effects.

The conference aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, and artists to reflect on the enduring impacts of these historical events while fostering dialogue on how to build inclusive, pluralist narratives that support peace and coexistence. The conference is particularly keen to address how the arts can form part of this search for alternative modes, models and imaginaries of peace. As Paul Lowe said, ‘Art remembers and pays testimony to the past. [It] pays attention to things that would otherwise go unnoticed and unseen.’

This year’s gathering is particularly mindful of the importance of accessibility and inclusivity, and therefore, and in honour of our friend and colleague Paul, there will be no conference fee this year. Registrations are essential and numbers are limited. Please note that this year’s conference will not be live-streamed.

Call for Papers
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: Tuesday 22 April 2025

We invite papers that address how memory is transmitted via cultural memory institutions, museums, media, memorials, trials, tribunals, and the role of post-conflict scholarship and artistic practices in preserving, questioning, and interpreting these legacies.

The conference also includes a one-day Postgraduate Workshop for higher degree researchers and creative practitioners on 7 July 2025. We invite papers from Phd and Masters students of any discipline to submit abstracts. Please indicate if your presentation is for participation in the Postgraduate Workshop.

We invite abstracts for 20-minute presentations. Submissions should include:

• Author name(s) and affiliation(s)
• Paper title
• Three keywords
• Abstract (300 words max)
• Short bio (200 words max)
• Indicate if your presentation is for the 7 July Postgraduate Workshop

All presentations will be delivered in English. Abstracts should be submitted
by Tuesday 22 April 2025 at 17:00 BST to loretta.tolnai@curtin.edu.au.

We welcome papers that engage with the following themes and questions:

• How has the Srebrenica genocide shaped memory practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina and internationally?
• In what ways do the legacies of the Dayton Accords still shape Bosnia and Herzegovina today, and what lessons might be learned for resolving current conflicts?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of museums and memory sites in confronting and contextualizing genocide and post-conflict narratives?
• Has ‘peacebuilding’ become an international industry and what are the impacts, positive and negative, of this?
• How can artistic practices challenge dominant narratives and contribute to repair, reconciliation and healing?
• What lessons can be drawn from three decades of post-conflict peacebuilding, and how do we critically assess their successes and failures?
• How might critical, counter-narrative, and pluralist perspectives on memory challenge historical interpretations?
• How do digital technologies and contemporary media influence the memorialization and understanding of genocide and peace processes?

We particularly encourage submissions that address counter-narratives, marginalised voices, and non-narrated histories, as well as contributions from early career researchers, practitioners, and those from institutions outside Western Europe. Inter-/trans-disciplinary approaches, and modes of address, such as performance, poetry or music, are especially welcome.

Areas of research and interest include, but are not limited to:

• Film/Photography/Media
• Law/Justice
• Visual Arts
• Cultural and Post-Colonial Studies
• Comparative Literature/Narrative/Fiction/Non-Fiction/Poetry
• Museum Studies/ Materialism
• Music/Performance/Dance/Poetry
• Necropolitics/Forensics
• Anthropology/Archaeology
• Pedagogy/Education
• Aesthetics
• Architecture

All applicants will be contacted by 1 May 2025.
Acceptance decision are final and feedback will not be provided.

The 2025 Why Remember? Testimonies of Light Conference is organised by Curtin University in Perth, Australia, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, and War Studies at Kings College London, in partnership with The Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with funding from London College of Communication and the Art of Peace Australian Research Council project.

Art of Peace: New perspectives in visual art on peacekeeping from the 1990s is an Australian Research Council Linkage Project funded by the Australian Government through a grant of $435,984 (2023-2025) (LP210300068), led by Curtin University, in partnership with the Art Gallery of Western Australia and National Trust (NSW), in collaboration with University of New South Wales, University of Melbourne, University of the Arts London and California State University.