*CFP* "AMERICANS IN VIENNA: 1945-1955", THE CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN AND GERMAN STUDIES 2021 ONLINE CONFERENCE

Americans in Vienna: 1945-1955 Conference

27th-28th April, 2021

Online (Zoom)

 

The Center for Austrian and German Studies (CAGS) at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies are inviting submissions for an April 27-28 2021 (online) conference, focusing on the varied presence of Americans in Vienna during the first decade after the Second World War. Papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Austrian-American History. The occupation and administration of Austria after the Second World War by the armies of the Allied victors and the division of Vienna into four zones of occupation paralleled arrangements in Germany. But although we know a lot about Cold-War espionage, monetary reforms or the workings of military administration in postwar Berlin, accounts centered on Vienna seem invariably drawn to Orson Welles and The Third Man, while the approaches of older scholarship, such as the edited volume Österreich unter alliierter Besatzung 1945-1955 (Böhlau, 1998), deserve a fresh look. Arguably, Vienna not only fueled foreign imagination more than Berlin at the time, but its quadripartite division and Austria’s successful financial reforms informed the Allied practices that followed on foot in Germany.

*CFP* "HOLOCAUST MEMORY AND EDUCATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE", SPECIAL EDITION, HOLOCAUST STUDIES: CULTURE AND HISTORY

Digital media are playing an increasing role in Holocaust memory and education. These include digital mapping projects like De danske jøder i Theresienstadt, VR representations of former concentration and death camps, such as the one of Sobibór, viewable at Camp Vught in The Netherlands, interactive online archives that give researchers and learners the skills necessary to interpret documents at the Arolsen Archives (International Tracing Service), and 3-dimensional and holographic survivor talks in the US and UK. This special edition seeks to take stock of the wide range of digital projects in these fields and to consider the impact, challenges and potentials of such technologies for the future of Holocaust memory and education. 

Given the increasing presence of Neo-Nazi, alt-right and Holocaust denial rhetoric in online spaces, and debates about the corporate responsibility of organisations like Google and Facebook, and platforms such as 4Chan and 8Chan, it seems particularly timely to address the roles digital technology can play in informing cultural and collective memory of the Holocaust and educating about this past. These issues raise a multitude of questions that we invite potential contributors to explore, including but not limited to:

*CFP* "THE PROLONGED DEATH OF THE HIPPIE, 1967-1969", UNIVERSITY OF BASEL CONFERENCE

2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of a historical period that arguably came to a close with the deaths at the Altamont Free Concert in 1969. The era of the hippie, or flower-power, or peace-and-love, has shaped our current times like few if any periods of such short duration. If these three years were eradicated from history, it is hard to imagine that women, people of color, or queer people would have the same rights today, de iure and de facto. In the cultural sphere, popular music, perhaps even avant-garde music, would be something entirely different, and the same goes for film, dance, and literature. In the realm of technology, those three years saw the moon landing, the first ATM, and the early internet.

Yet the peace and love rhetoric and the iconic images of Woodstock and San Francisco, the riots of Paris and Prague, and the beatific faces of young people on LSD and marijuana concealed a much darker reality that was lurking beneath the surface. The years of 1967–1969 also saw numerous race riots, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the murders of the Manson Family, the commodification of the music industry, the rediscovery of youth as a market, the first deaths of iconic rock icons, and a proliferation of heroin and cocaine. A host of influential musicians came from families with military and intelligence backgrounds, toying with satanism and occultism in various forms under the auspices of the military gaze.

*CFP* INDIANA JONES AND THE EDITED COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS, MCFARLAND

With his signature bullwhip and fedora, the familiar sounds of his orchestral anthem, and his eventful explorations into the arcana of world religions, Indiana Jones – archeologist, adventurer, and ophidiophobe – has become one of the most recognizable heroes of the silver screen.  Since his debut in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has appeared in three sequels, and Steven Spielberg has recently announced that he will soon begin production on a fifth Indiana Jones film.  Along the way, the character has spawned a raft of children’s novels, cartoon and live-action television series, and video and role-playing games.  

Despite the longevity and popularity of the Indiana Jones franchise, however, it has rarely been the focus of academic criticism, a fact which is surprising considering the critical attention enjoyed by other early George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films.  As stories about archeology, the Indiana Jones tales reflect an array of ethical questions and representational issues regarding the nature of the past.  As stories about an American man globe-trotting in the middle of the twentieth century, Indiana Jones’s adventures intersect with a wide range of cultural narratives about World War II, the late colonial era, and late-century nostalgia for perceived mid-century ideals.  As stories about the sacred, Indiana Jones’s quests engage questions about the nature of the sublime, the representation of the otherworldly, and the role of narrative in constructing reality.