Echoes of Conflict: Health Consequences of War and Violence Across Generations

On April 8-10, 2025, the international conference Echoes of Conflict: Health Consequences of War and Violence Across Generations will take place. The conference aims to explore the multifaceted impacts of war and violence on individuals and communities, encompassing its physical, mental, and societal dimensions. We will focus on the intimate effects of war on health, governmental and societal responses at both national and international levels, as well as the transgenerational (mental) health effects. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the enduring legacy of conflicts.

Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, it is time to shift the focus toward the intimate impacts of war and violence on individuals and their health, with a special emphasis on transgenerational consequences. This reflection goes beyond the concept of post-memory to include new perspectives on how the traumas of war are experienced and processed across generations. The conference aims to move from the global political aftermaths of war to victim care, the rebuilding of affected families and homes, and individual consequences for (mental) health. It also seeks to examine social transformations caused by mass violence, mass displacement, border and regime changes in the aftermath of World War II, and how individuals and communities have coped with these challenges.

We are honored to announce Prof. Michał Bilewicz, the renowned social psychologist from the University of Warsaw, as our keynote speaker. His research on intergroup relations, prejudice, and the psychological effects of historical trauma will provide valuable insights into our discussions.

Registration for the conference is available here.

Program

Echoes of Conflict: Health Consequences of War and Violence Across Generations
Karolinum, Charles University, Prague
April 8-10, 2025

Organizers:
Max Weber Foundation – German Historical Institute Warsaw and its Prague Branch
Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales
Lviv Centre for Urban History
War and Society Research Alliance

Tuesday, April 8, 2025
17:00-17:15 Registration
17:15-17:30 Welcome by organizers
17:30-18:30 Michał Bilewicz, University of Warsaw – Conspiracy mentality as an adaptation to historical trauma. Social psychological considerations
18:30-19:00 Discussion

Wednesday, April 9, 2025
9:00-11:00 Panel 1 Displacement, Borders, and New Societies
Chair: Masha Cerovic, Centre for Russian, Caucasian and Central European Studies (EHESS, Paris)
9:00-9:25 Emre Eldem & Yayla Eldem, Faculty of Business and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Istanbul Esenyurt University – Unspoken Wounds: Mental Trauma and the Silence of the Turkish-Greek Population Exchange
9:25-9:50 Veronika Kupková, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science (University of J. E. Purkyně, Êstek nad Labem) – Expellees and Resettlers: What have they brought in their (imaginative) backpacks?
9:50-10:15 Katja Hrobat Virloget, Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Humanities (University of Primorska) - Echoes of Silences, Traumatic Experiences, and Memory Conflicts of the former Yugoslavian-Italian Contested Borderland
10:15-11:00 Discussion
11:00-11:20 Coffee break

11:20-13:00 Panel 2 Trauma and Care: Societal and institutional responses to violence
Chair: Ota Konrád, Faculty of Social Sciences (Charles University, Prague)
11:20-11:45 Chloé Pastourel, Lyon 2 University / CHEC (UCA, Clermont-Ferrand) – The Intimate Effects of the Great War on the French Civilians
11:45-12:10 Kateřina Tomíčková, Faculty of Arts (Brno Masaryk University) – War Trauma as Justification: Sexual Violence by Czechoslovak Soldiers after WWI
12:10-13:00 Discussion
13:00-14:30 Lunch

14:30-16:00 Panel 3 Expert Knowledge in the Aftermath
Chair: Adéla Gjuričová, Institute of Contemporary History (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
14:30-14:55 Václav Šmidrkal, Masaryk Institute and Archives (Czech Academy of Sciences) / Faculty of Social Sciences (Charles University in Prague) – Antifascists into Patients: Medical Experts and Social Welfare in Communist Czechoslovakia
14:55-15:20 Ondřej Matějka, Faculty of Social Sciences (Charles University in Prague) – Czech School of Trauma Psychotherapy and Research
15:20-16:00 Discussion
16:00-16:20 Coffee break

16:20-18:30 Panel 4 Silence and Memory: Individuals' responses to violence
Chair: Jaromír Mrňka, German Historical Institute Warsaw – Prague Branch
16:20-16:45 Chinwe Ogbonna, University of Freiburg – Coping Strategies of Traumatized Displaced Women: An Analysis of Internally Displaced Persons
16:45-17:10 Gülistan Zeren, Department of Anthropology (University of Aix-Marseille) – Nourished by the milk of sorrow: An ethnography of individual suffering and subjectivities in mental health in the Kurdish region of Turkey
17:10-17:35 Claudia H.G. Macey-Dare, Faculty of Social Sciences (Charles University in Prague) – Shamed for the Crimes of Their Fathers: Legislative and Artistic Responses to Children Born of Wartime Sexual Violence within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
17:35-18:30 Discussion

Thursday, April 10, 2025
9:00-11:15 Panel 5 Violence as a Trans-generational Phenomenon
Chair: Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska, German Historical Institute Warsaw
9:00-9:25 Mai Chi Dang Vu, University of Sorbonne Paris Nord, Cross-disciplinary Research Unit in Psychogenesis and Psychopathology (UTRPP) – Cultivating oblivion: war and memory in modern Vietnam
9:25-9:50 Emina Zoletić, Center for Research on Social Memory (University of Warsaw) – Intergenerational transmission of war and migration memories and generational shifts: Cases of Bosnian families
9:50-10:15 Déborah Leroux, EXPERICE laboratory (Paris 8 University) / CRPPC laboratory (Lyon 2 University) – Transgenerational trauma among the descendants of Holocaust survivors: emergence and care through phototherapy
10:15-11:15 Discussion
11:15-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:30 Roundtable Lessons from the Past: Historical Insights and Contemporary Trauma Care, Magdalena Saryusz Wolska, Masha Cerovic
12:30 Closing of the conference