Conference: Unicivil Society

This year, 2021, marks the tenth anniversary of the videotaped confessions by the German neo-Nazi terrorist group “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) as well as the massacre on the Norwegian island of Utøya. This string of right-wing extremist murders has continued ever since, and investigative research gives us a rough idea of how vast and far-reaching these tentacular networks are. Against the backdrop of ongoing right-wing violence and terror in countries all over Europe, the conference addresses the Europe-wide scourge of right-wing terror.

It brings together people working in research, culture and the arts, and politics to discuss their contributions to the fight against right-wing terror and racist violence. The object is to develop collective approaches to this ongoing struggle to ward off the emergence and spread of right-wing extremist structures and shore up European civil society in the process. The conference will explore the multi-layered complexity of racist practices, the ongoing history of racist violence, and the networking of right-wing structures in Europe and beyond.

It thus forms synergies with the play EXTREME / MALECANE by Paola Pisciottano, which will be performed at the Théâtre National after the conference and which poses similar questions.