{"id":92,"date":"2025-09-26T09:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/?p=92"},"modified":"2025-10-27T11:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:08:32","slug":"the-ethics-of-testimony-memory-research-experience-and-historical-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/2025\/09\/26\/the-ethics-of-testimony-memory-research-experience-and-historical-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ethics of Testimony: Memory Research, Experience and Historical Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Announcement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome to this autumn symposium of the Centre for research in Memory, Testimony and Historiography (MYTH). The symposium will be held in Arken, Helikon (A202), at 9.30<\/strong> on 14.11.2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The theme of this symposium is the ethics of testimony. Researchers in history and the human sciences often find themselves in the following conundrum. On the one hand, how should one take into consideration the experiential authority of witnesses, and at the same time be able to maintain a critical ethos different from merely conveying someone\u2019s memories and experiences? On the other hand, are not relations to witnesses of atrocity and violence different from investigating what kinds of contents these witnesses betray? These are questions and problems that are relevant to the human sciences today. They are particularly important when it comes to research on minorities, which often involves giving voice to the experiences of different groups based on witness accounts. For many minorities, archival material is lacking, which makes memoirs and oral accounts particularly important. This symposium focuses on conceptual questions connected to the ethics of testimony.<\/p>\n

We are proud to have Sibylle Schmidt and Claudia Welz as guest lecturers at this event. Everyone who is interested in the topic is welcome to participate in the symposium. This MYTH event is funded by the Minority Research Center at \u00c5bo Akademi University.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The program of the symposium:<\/strong><\/p>\n

9.30-9.45 Welcome to \u201cThe Ethics of Testimony\u201d: The leaders of MYTH<\/p>\n

9.45-10.45 Guest lecture: Sibylle Schmidt \u201cInto that Darkness? On some Moral and Hermeneutical Problems of Perpetrator Testimony\u201d (Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Wuppertal)<\/p>\n

10.45-11.00 Pause<\/em><\/p>\n

11.00-12.00 Guest lecture (via Zoom): Claudia Welz \u201cDifficulties in Testifying to Trauma: How to Account for the Resonances of the Past?\u201d (Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, Aarhus University)<\/p>\n

12.00-13.30 Lunch and coffee<\/em><\/p>\n

13.30-14.00 Presentation: Lovisa And\u00e9n \u201cTruth and Silences in Belated Testimonies from Soviet Karelia\u201d (Associate Professor of Philosophy, UiT \u2013 The Arctic University of Norway, Senior Researcher in Philosophy, \u00c5bo Akademi University)<\/p>\n

14.00-14.30 Presentation: Maria Bj\u00f6rkholm \u201cPreserving Truth in an Age of Ideological Mobilization\u201d (Doctoral Researcher in Philosophy, \u00c5bo Akademi University)<\/p>\n

14.30-14.45 Pause<\/em><\/p>\n

14.45-15.45 Book Panel: on Jonas Ahlskog, Testimony and Historical Knowledge <\/em>(Cambridge University Press, 2025), and Natan Elgabsi, Existential Ethics and the Philosophy of Historiography <\/em>(Amsterdam University Press, 2025). Commentators Victoria Fareld (University of Stockholm), Hugo Strandberg (\u00c5bo Akademi University), Lovisa And\u00e9n (UiT \u2013 The Arctic University of Norway)<\/p>\n

15.45 -16.00 Closing words: The leaders of MYTH<\/p>\n

16.00-17.00 Coffee and Cake<\/em><\/p>\n

18.30 Dinner (please contact the organizers if you are interested in joining)<\/p>\n

\"Minoritetsforskning\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Announcement Welcome to this autumn symposium of the Centre for research in Memory, Testimony and Historiography (MYTH). The symposium will be held in Arken, Helikon (A202), at 9.30 on 14.11.2025. The theme of this symposium is the ethics of testimony. Researchers in history and the human sciences often find themselves in the following conundrum. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":784,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-okategoriserade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.abo.fi\/myth-centre-for-research-in-memory-testimony-and-histography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}