Even if research on questions of memory and identity have permeated empirical political science in the past few years, there is still a lack of comprehensive studies dealing with both transnational pan-European politics of remembrance and the question if and how it is connected to an unfolding European public sphere.

For the next Council for European Studies Conference taking place from 22-24 March 2012 in Boston, we are looking for research projects which examine exactly this nexus between European politics of remembrance, European identity and an emerging European public sphere from different angles. All scholars dealing with politics of remembrance on the European level are invited to submit a proposal. Papers could investigate for example the way the EU has dealt publicly with the memory of WWII, discuss the emergence of a European public sphere vis-à-vis the remembrance of oppression and dictatorship, map European efforts to implement a standardised negative founding myth on the basis of the Holocaust or examine the continuous conflict between the memory of Stalinism and Nazism/Fascism on the European level (to give just a few examples).

The panel thus seeks to investigate an area that so far has been under-researched. While the amount of studies exploring politics of memory on the national level has seen an enormous increase in the past years, there is little evidence of research dealing with issues and actors on the European level. Scholars concentrating particularly on the manifold relations between pan-European politics of remembrance, questions of identity and (a) European public sphere(s) are therefore particularly encouraged to apply.

Paper proposals (250 words abstracts) should be sent to alinesierp@gmail.com by September 17, 2011.

We are planning to include suitable contributions in an edited volume that are published as part of the ECPR - Studies in European Political Science series.