Výzva | Workshop EHRI-CZ a EHRI-AT

Transnational Workshop of EHRI-CZ and EHRI-AT: Rethinking Holocaust History through Geospatial Approaches

Date: 18–19 May 2026

Venue: Prague, Czech Republic

Deadline for applications: 15 March 2026, submissions in English only

Notification of acceptance: 30 March 2026

Over the past decade, spatial history has emerged as a key dimension of Holocaust research. Mapping projects addressing ghettos, camps, forced labor sites, deportation routes, and places of persecution have demonstrated how geographical perspectives can reveal new insights into the structures and dynamics of Nazi violence and its aftermath. Building on these developments, the workshop organised by the Czech and Austrian national Nodes of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) takes a fresh look at a wide range of spatial methodologies, from established GIS-based approaches to emerging digital techniques.

The workshop invites contributions that explore innovative approaches on the spatial history of the Holocaust at the intersection of geography, Holocaust and memory studies, and the digital humanities. It encourages papers and project presentations that reflect on applied methods and practical experience, including not only successful approaches but also challenges, failures, and lessons learned in working with different types of data, technologies, and interfaces.

The workshop invites senior as well as early-career researchers from different disciplines, including historians and digital humanists, and is not limited to those from countries with EHRI national nodes. By combining paper presentations with interactive discussions and hands-on elements, it aims to foster methodological exchange, networking, and future collaboration.

Participants are invited to reflect critically on questions of data sustainability, interoperability, and ethical challenges related to working with Holocaust geodata. A particular emphasis will be placed on urban Holocaust geographies and on linking spatial data with victim databases, historical maps, archival sources, and personal narratives. Selected projects from the Austrian and Czech contexts will serve as illustrative case studies, highlighting practical applications in both research and public history.

We welcome paper proposals on a broad range of topics, including but not limited to:

●      Current HGIS projects in Holocaust research, including GIS-based mapping of Holocaust-related sites, routes, and infrastructures, with attention to best practices in data integration, interoperability, and long-term sustainability.

●      Everyday spaces of persecution, exploring through case studies how Holocaust history and memory are inscribed in contemporary urban landscapes.

●      Topographies of camps and ghettos with a comparative focus on spatial aspects of confinement mobility control and survival across different national and regional contexts including attention to the recording and representation of trajectories of voluntary and forced mobility.

●      Data driven and AI-supported methods in spatial Holocaust studies, including experimental methods from the digital humanities such as machine learning and the automated extraction of spatial information from archival documents, with a critical focus on both their potential and limitations.

The workshop, organized by the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance will be held in-person in Prague. The workshop will also include a guided tour through the spaces of Holocaust in the centre of Prague with the online application MemoMap.

Travel expenses and accommodation will be covered for speakers up to a pre-set amount.

Applicants are asked to submit the following materials:

●      a completed online application form

●      a short CV (up to 100 words) and an abstract (up to 300 words), submitted by email to sedlicka@mua.cas.cz. Please include “Rethinking Holocaust History” in the subject line.

Applications should be sent by 15 March 2026. Applicants will be notified by 30 March 2026.