BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news779@osteuropa.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260305T134608 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260319T181500 SUMMARY:Conspiratorial Memory: Russian Foreign Policy and a Conspiracy-Base d Turn in Memory Politics DESCRIPTION:This lecture introduces “conspiratorial memory” as an emerg ent paradigm of memory politics in contemporary international relations. I t begins from the observation that claims of genocide\, historical victimh ood\, and moral injury – once central to liberal and left-leaning framew orks of cosmopolitan memory (Levy and Sznaider 2002) – are increasingly weaponized by authoritative actors in geopolitical conflict. A striking ex ample is the Russian state’s campaign to secure recognition of a Nazi “genocide of the Soviet people\,” a project that folds World War II re membrance into contemporary foreign policy and frames present conflicts th rough conspiratorial narratives of historical injustice and concealment.\\ r\\nCalling this emerging configuration “conspiratorial memory\,” the lecture examines how it relies on a conspiracybased hermeneutics that fore grounds hidden intent\, hostile encroachment\, and deliberate concealment. In this process\, cosmopolitan registers of remembrance – legal languag e\, genocide discourse\, and transnational commemorative practices – bec ome tools for authoritative politics. By oscillating between claims of (hi therto unacknowledged) victimhood and self-proclaimed heroic agency\, cons piratorial logic enables actors to present themselves simultaneously as hi storically injured subjects and as authoritative custodians of moral and g eopolitical order.\\r\\nThese rhetorical moves do more than instrumentaliz e a selective reading of the past: they reorganize historical time\, frami ng contemporary conflict as an unfinished historical struggle in which (So viet-)Russia appears both as triumphant hero and as tragic victim. The lec ture concludes by reflecting on how such authoritative memory practices ma y reshape academic and policy debates about trauma\, justice\, and histori cal responsibility.\\r\\nDr. Boris Noordenbos is Associate Professor of Li terary & Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam and affiliated w ith the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. After publishing the monog raph Post-Soviet Literature and the Search for a Russian Identity (2016)\, he now is the principal investigator of the ECR-funded research project C ONSPIRATORIAL MEMORY: Cultures of Suspicion in Post-Socialist Europe (2021 -2026)\, which focuses on a on a selection of recent conspiracy-based cult ural imaginations from Poland\, Russia\, Ukraine and Belarus. His most rec ent article\, “The counter-hegemonic hegemon: A cross-platform analysis of a Kremlin-backed strategic narrative” (co-written with Marc Tuters) a ppeared in Platforms & Society earlier this year. \\r\\n\\r\\nThe event w ill be attended by the Slavic Studies Colloquium group. X-ALT-DESC:

This lecture introduces “conspiratorial memory” as an eme rgent paradigm of memory politics in contemporary international relations. It begins from the observation that claims of genocide\, historical victi mhood\, and moral injury – once central to liberal and left-leaning fram eworks of cosmopolitan memory (Levy and Sznaider 2002) – are increasingl y weaponized by authoritative actors in geopolitical conflict. A striking example is the Russian state’s campaign to secure recognition of a Nazi “genocide of the Soviet people\,” a project that folds World War II re membrance into contemporary foreign policy and frames present conflicts th rough conspiratorial narratives of historical injustice and concealment.\n

Calling this emerging configuration “conspiratorial memory\,” t he lecture examines how it relies on a conspiracybased hermeneutics that f oregrounds hidden intent\, hostile encroachment\, and deliberate concealme nt. In this process\, cosmopolitan registers of remembrance – legal lang uage\, genocide discourse\, and transnational commemorative practices – become tools for authoritative politics. By oscillating between claims of (hitherto unacknowledged) victimhood and self-proclaimed heroic agency\, c onspiratorial logic enables actors to present themselves simultaneously as historically injured subjects and as authoritative custodians of moral an d geopolitical order.

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These rhetorical moves do more than instrume ntalize a selective reading of the past: they reorganize historical time\, framing contemporary conflict as an unfinished historical struggle in whi ch (Soviet-)Russia appears both as triumphant hero and as tragic victim. T he lecture concludes by reflecting on how such authoritative memory practi ces may reshape academic and policy debates about trauma\, justice\, and h istorical responsibility.

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Dr. Boris Noordenbos is Associate Professor of Literary &\; Cultural Analysis at the Universit y of Amsterdam and affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analy sis. After publishing the monograph Post-Soviet Literature and the Search for a Russian Identity (2016)\, he now is the principal investigator of th e ECR-funded research project CONSPIRATORIAL MEMORY: Cultures of Suspicion in Post-Socialist Europe (2021-2026)\, which focuses on a on a selection of recent conspiracy-based cultural imaginations from Poland\, Russia\, Uk raine and Belarus. His most recent article\, “The counter-hegemonic hege mon: A cross-platform analysis of a Kremlin-backed strategic narrative” (co-written with Marc Tuters) appeared in Platforms &\; Society earlier this year.
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The event will be attended by the Slavi c Studies Colloquium group.

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260319T200000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR