Recording of the Opening Panel: Memory – Power – Conflict, moderated by Prof. Jay Winter (Yale University, USA), with contributions from Prof. Dovilė Budrytė (Georgia Gwinnett College / Vytautas Magnus University), Prof. Tuomas Forsberg (Tampere University), Prof. Catherine Horel (International Committee for Historical Sciences), Prof. Ruxandra Ivan (University of Bucharest), and Prof. Arkady Rzegocki (Jagiellonian University).
The 14th European Remembrance Symposium, organised by the European Network of Remembrance and Solidarity and the Nation's Memory Institute (ÚPN), convened in Bratislava in May 2026 under the theme Memory Wars: Facts, Disinformation and the Politics of Remembrance. This opening panel addressed memory as a tool for creating conflict and examined the geopolitics of memory: What role does historical memory play in today's political tensions? How do specific historical circumstances influence the weaponisation and manipulation of the past? And are memory conflicts the specialty of post-authoritarian Eastern Europe, or are they inherent to all democracies?
The symposium gathered scholars, educators, and cultural professionals from across Europe to explore the mechanisms through which memory is deployed as an instrument of power — and to consider how Europe might respond with unity and democratic resilience.
Learn more about the 2026 even here.