WHISC Women in the Holocaust International Study Center, Givat Haviva, Israel
in cooperation with ShoahLab – Holocaust Studies Laboratory of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
is inviting academics of all levels to the Third Annual International WHISC Conference on Women in the Holocaust
LIVES WORTH LIVING: The Untold Stories
Call for Papers
WHISC – Women in the Holocaust International Study Center at the Moreshet Mordechai Anielevich Memorial, Givat Haviva, Israel, and the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of
Belgrade are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for its Third International Conference on Women in the Holocaust. This year’s conference, titled Lives Worth Living: The Untold Stories, is dedicated to exploring women’s lives, deeds, and legacies during and after the Holocaust.
The conference will be held from October 20 to 22, 2025, in Belgrade, Serbia, at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade (address: Kraljice Natalije 45, 11000 Beograd). The working language of the conference will be English.
The Third Annual International WHISC Conference on Women in the Holocaust, Lives Worth Living, will once again be held in East-Central European region. This region was a key site where German Nazi occupation and racial policies intersected with complex realities of competing nationalisms, shifting borders, and contested national sovereignties.
The history of Nazi persecution, expulsion, flight, deportation, and murder of Jewish and Roma women – as well as women of other ethnicities – unfolded within a broader landscape of ethnic tensions, conflicts, and shifting power structures in East-Central Europe and beyond. This conference seeks to explore how to responsibly and productively integrate the histories of occupation, antisemitism, and ethnic racism, while maintaining a research-based commitment to uncovering women’s gendered experiences during the Holocaust. Additionally, the conference encourages further research on the complexities of competing victimhood in various East-Central European countries during the Holocaust. The interwoven nature of these historical contexts, events, and processes remains challenging for researchers and a point of contention in public and scholarly debates. Additionally, studying the intersectionality of religious, ethnic, and gender identities – and the resulting impacts, tensions, and traumas – continues to present significant scholarly challenges. This year, we particularly encourage research on the lives and experiences of women in Yugoslavia during the Holocaust, as this aspect of Holocaust history remains underrepresented in international academic discourse.
The Lives Worth Living conference seeks to promote scholarly discussion and debate on the various divides, connections, and intersections within Holocaust and Gender Studies while uncovering the lives of women in the Holocaust, lives that were indeed worth living. The Lives Worth Living conference aims to challenge disciplinary boundaries to advance multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to studying women’s experiences during the Holocaust. The suggested conference streams invite methodological approaches and connections that explore but are not limited to, placing the Holocaust within the contexts of social, historical, cultural, and gender studies, but also memory studies, the arts, and literature.
We welcome topic proposals that challenge established and new disciplinary approaches to the study of the Holocaust. We especially encourage the participation of early-career scholars and more established and experienced scholars.
The participants are invited to submit topic proposals in one of the following areas (but are not strictly limited to them):
History/Herstory:
The conference panels will be held in plenary sessions. They will be moderated and consist of three to four presentations no longer than 15 minutes.
Submission of Conference Proposals
Scholars interested in participating in the Lives Worth Living conference are invited to submit their proposals by July 1, 2025.
Each proposal should include:
Proposals should be submitted via the online form HERE
Conference Fees
The conference participation fee is 300€, with the exceptions in following cases:
* for other possible exceptions please see Financial Assistance possibilities on page below
The fee includes refreshments, light meals during the conference, an additional conference program, and the publication of selected papers based on research presented at the conference.
Payment Deadlines
The conference fee should be paid by:
Early registration: by July 31, 2025
Late registration: by August 31, 2025
* Financial Assistance
After receiving acceptance of participation, participants in need of financial assistance or subsidies should submit a detailed request via online form HERE
Conference Committee:
Prof. Dr. Lily Halpert Zamir
Prof. Dr. Dragana Stojanović
Dr. Batya Brutin
Dr. Krinka Vidaković Petrov
Dr. Milovan Pisarri