Dr Aline Sierp (A.)

• Collective Memory
• Contested Histories
• European Memory and Identity Politics
• European Integration History
• Post-1945 German and Italian History

EDUCATION

• PhD in European and Comparative History and Politics (summa cum laude), University of Siena, Italy (2011)
• MARes in European and Comparative Politics, University of Siena, Italy (2008)
• MA in Contemporary History, Politics, Policy and Society (distinction), University of Bath, United Kingdom, Sciences Po Paris, France, University of Siena, Italy (2007)
• BA Honours in European Studies and Foreign Languages (1st class honours), University of Reading, United Kingdom (2006)

EMPLOYMENT

• Associate Professor in European History and Memory Studies, Maastricht University, Netherlands (2022-date)
• Maternity Leave (2019 and 2021)
• Assistant Professor in European Studies (tenured since 2017), Maastricht University, Netherlands (2014-2022)
• Lecturer in European Studies, Maastricht University, Netherlands (2012 - 2014)
• Researcher, Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Germany (2011 - 2012)

FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS

• Fellow, De Gasperi Centre, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (2022-2023)
• Visiting Fellow, LUISS, Rome, Italy (2022)
• Visiting Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (2014 - 2015)
• Visiting Fellow, CSIC, Madrid, Spain (2013)
• PhD Scholarship, University of Siena, Italy, 35.000€ (2007 - 2010)
• Outstanding Research-Teaching-Integration Award, Centre for European Research in Maastricht (2020)
• Internationalisation Award for outstanding international research activities, University of Siena, Italy (2010)
• Euromasters Scholarship, University of Bath, United Kingdom, 7500€ (2006)
• DAAD Fellowship for Internships in International Organisations, Germany (2005)

MAJOR RESEARCH GRANTS

• NWO Open Competition SSH XS grant, individual research grant by the Dutch Research Council (2024-2025, 50.000€)
• NWO Aspasia grant, individual research grant by the Dutch Research Council (2022-2027, 120.000€)
• CHOS - Contested Histories Onsite (2021 - 2023, Europe for Citizens programme, lead applicant, 100.000€)
• HISTCOM3 – History of the European Commission 1986-2004 (2015 - 2019, participant, 800.000€)
• E-WORDS - Europeans win ostracism: from remembrance to a dialogue society (2017 - 2019, Europe for Citizens programme, co-applicant, 100.000€)
• European Parliament Public Tender EPRS/BIB/SER/14/123N, Study on the 25th Anniversary of Democratic Change in Central and Eastern Europe (2015, sole applicant, 14.500€)
• COST Project ISTME In search of Transcultural Memory in Europe (2012 - 2016, participant, 600.000€)
• International Visitors’ Survey, Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site (2012, coordinator, 17.600€)

INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Head of Department, History Department, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University (2024-present)
• Co-President and Co-Founder Memory Studies Association (2017 - date)
• Editor Berghahn Book Series World of Memories (2019-present)
• Member of MA European Studies Programme Committee, Maastricht University, Netherlands (2017 - date)
• Management Board Member of EU COST Project Slow Memory Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change (2021-2025)
• Elected Faculty Council Member, Maastricht University, Netherlands (2015 - 2017)
• Co-Chair and Co-Founder CES Research Network on Transnational Memory and Identity in Europe (2014 - 2019)
• Elected Faculty Council Member, Maastricht University, Netherlands (2013 - 2015)
• Management Board Member of EU COST Project ISTME In search of Transcultural Memory in Europe (2012 - 2016)      
• Steering Committee Member of History of European Integration Research Society (2009 - 2014)

COMMISSIONS OF TRUST

• External evaluator of ERC Starting Grant proposals and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (2017 - date)
• Review Board of the Israeli Science Foundation, the Swiss Science Foundation and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (2017 - date)
• Member of the Editorial Board of the journal National Identities (2017 - 2020)
• External evaluator of EU COST Project proposals (2014 - date)
• Peer Reviewer for Routledge, American Historical Review, Memory Studies, East European Politics & Societies, Modern Jewish Studies, European Journal of Political Research, European Political Science Review

CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP ORGANISATION

• Conference Organizer, Eight annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Lima (17-20 July 2024), 500 participants
• Conference Organizer, Seventh annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Newcastle (03-07 July 2023), 1000 participants
• Workshop Organizer, Critical Theories of History and Memory, funded by the Centre for European Research in Maastricht, Maastricht University (19-20 May 2022)
• Conference Organizer, Fifth annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Warsaw, (5-9 July 2021), 1000 participants
• Conference Organizer, Third annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Madrid, (25-28 June 2019), 1500 participants
• Conference Organizer, Second annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Copenhagen, (14-16 December 2017), 800 participants expected
• Panel Organizer, Memory Politics in the Context of Crisis, 24rd Council of European Studies Conference, University of Glasgow, (12-14 July 2017)
• Conference Organizer, Thinking Through the Future of Memory, Inaugural conference of the Memory Studies Association, Amsterdam, (3-5 December 2016), 200 participants
• Panel Organizer, The Transnationalisation of Memory Activism, 10th ECPR General Conference, Charles University Prague, (7-10 September 2016)
• Symposium Organizer, A Tool to Foster Resilience? New Challenges in Memory Studies, 23rd Council of European Studies Conference, Philadelphia, (14-16 April 2016)
• Panel Organizer, Memory and Identity Policy-Making in the European Union, 9th ECPR General Conference, Université de Montreal, (26-29 August 2015)
• Symposium Organizer, Shaping Memory and Identity in Europe: Countervailing Forces from Above and Below, 22nd Council of European Studies Conference, Sciences Po Paris, (8-10 June 2015)
• Conference Organizer, History, Memory and European Identity, Maastricht University, 10th History of European Integration Research Society (HEIRS) Conference, (5-6 June 2014), 60 participants
• Symposium Organizer, Europe’s changing lessons from the past – transnational perspectives, 21st Council of European Studies Conference, Washington DC, (14-16 March 2014)
• Panel Organizer, When history becomes a weapon. Stereotypes, prejudices and the European (economic) crisis, Sciences Po Bordeaux, 7th ECPR General Conference, (5-7 September 2013)
• Panel Organizer, Dividing united Europe. Stereotypes, prejudices and the European (economic) crisis, University of Amsterdam, 20th Council of European Studies Conference, (25-27 June 2013)
• Panel Organizer, Memory- contestation - identity: European politics of remembrance, 19th Council of European Studies Conference, Boston, (22-24 March 2012)
• Panel Co-Organizer, European politics of remembrance and the question of a European public sphere, University of Reykjavik, 6th ECPR General Conference, (25-27 August 2011)

INVITED TALKS (as keynote speaker or guest lecturer)

 

• Die erste Europawahl 1979, Otto von Habsburg Foundation Budapest, 05 March 2024 (plenary)
• La dificultad de la memoria, Museo de la Memoria Cordoba Argentina, 31 October 2023 (plenary)
• History, Memory and the European Project, Otto von Habsburg Foundation Budapest, 08 May 2023 (plenary)
• United in Conflict? Memory Politics in the European Union, Columbia University, 24 April 2023 (online expert roundtable)
• Old wine in a new bottle? Memory Studies and its challenges, Kalamata, 1 December 2022 (opening lecture)
• European memory policies and legislation, University of Barcelona, 23 November 2022 (plenary)
• History, Memory and the Construction of European Identity, Università Roma Tre, 10 November 2022 (plenary)
• Democratic Change in Central and Eastern Europe, the European Parliament and Otto von Habsburg, European University Institute, 7 October 2022 (expert roundtable)
• The European Integration Process – The Role and Impact of History, Memory and Identity, Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna, 15 September 2022 (opening keynote)
• Remembering the Holocaust in Germany and Italy, Universität Trier, 05 May 2022 (online expert roundtable)
• Ragioni/Regioni della memoria. Il 27 gennaio e l’Europa, International Holocaust Day, Università di Genova, 25 January 2022 (keynote speaker)
• EU Memory Politics and Europe’s Forgotten Colonial Past, Jean Monnet Centre Montréal, 28 January 2021 (keynote speaker)
• Historical Memory and Foreign Policy, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, 19 January 2021 (online expert roundtable)
• In the Labyrinth of Politics of Memory. Hitler Stalin Pact: Shared and Divided European Perspectives and Experiences, European Network of Remembrance and Solidarity, 26 August 2020 (online expert roundtable)
• Memory challenges for the European Union, Universidad de Sevilla, 14 May 2019 (guest lecture)
• Real or Imagined? Questioning the Existence of a European Memory, Inauguration of the Simone Veil Research Centre for Contemporary European Studies, Ben Gurion University Israel, 8-10 April 2019 (plenary)
• Reflexiones sobre la Memoria de la Unidad Europea, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, 22 February 2019 (guest lecture)
• Common Legacy or Competition of Memories? Remembering in the European Union, University of Barcelona, 15-16 November 2018 (plenary)
• National Stereotypes in the Context of the European Crisis, Universitè Libre de Bruxellles, 19 April 2018 (guest lecture)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Dates – Remembering the End of the Cold War in the EU. Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna, 1 February 2018 (guest lecture)
• Why Do Italy and Germany Confront the Legacy of the Holocaust and WWII so Differently? What Does this Mean for European Memory? University of Minnesota, 9 November 2017 (guest lecture)
• Transnational Memory Politics, University of Groningen, 6 November 2017 (guest lecture)
• Memory Politics – Local, National or European? Bosnia Herzegovina Historical Museum, 26 April 2017 (plenary)
• Unita nella diversiá. Le politiche della memoria dell’Unione Europea, University of Padua, 19 April 2017 (guest lecture)
• Memory Studies and History – a conflictual relationship and European Memory – a survey of the battlefield, Central European University, 3 April 2017 (guest lecture)
• A Contested Latecomer – the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Under Glass – Museums and the Display of History, Columbia University and NYU, 24 January 2017 (plenary)
• European Identity – Reflections on a Contested Idea, Imag(in)ing Europe Conference, Utrecht University, 14-16 September 2016 (plenary)
• Reality or Utopia? Can a European Memory Exist? 6th European Commission Network Meeting, Barcelona, 31 May-1 June 2016 (keynote)
• Fluid Boundaries – The European Union as Memory Region, Genealogies of Memory Conference, University of Warsaw, 17-19 March 2016 (plenary)
• 1989 - A Missed Opportunity to create a European Lieu de Mémoire? Jean Blondel Seminar, University of Siena, 10 November 2015 (guest lecture)
• Crisis of Memory - Memory in Crisis? The European Union and Its Troubled Past(s), University of Turin, 19 November 2015 (plenary)
• Coming to terms with the past: European memory conflicts and sense of democratic citizenship, 5th European Commission Network Meeting, Tallinn, 4-6 May 2015 (keynote)
• Postwar Public Commemoration Policies in Europe, Deakin University Melbourne, 27 February 2015 (keynote)
• Democratic Change in Central and Eastern Europe 1989-90. The European Parliament between Action and Reaction, European Parliament, 03 February 2015 (keynote)
• Unifying Divisions – Politics of Memory in the European Union, Historikerdialog, College of Europe, 22 January 2015 (keynote)
• Prophet or Laggard? The European Parliament and the End of the Cold War, Jean Blondel Seminar, University of Siena, 25 November 2014 (guest lecture)
• How to Unify Diversity – the EU Politics of Memory, Transnational Memory Seminar, Utrecht University, 24 February 2014 (guest lecture)
• Memory, Identity and a Painful Past: Contesting the Former Dachau Concentration Camp, IGS Seminar, University of Birmingham, 04 December 2013 (plenary)
• Facilitating the Transnationalisation of Debates. The EU’s Politics of Memory, Graduiertenkolleg Seminar, Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam, 11 November 2013 (plenary)
• The difficulty of remembering Nazi crimes. From concentration camps to memorial sites, Holocaust Remembrance Day Lecture, University of Reading, 27 January 2012 (keynote)

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

 

• Post-fascism, right-wing populism and memories in transit, Eigth annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 17-21 July 2024
• Resignifying contested histories through education and guided tours. Examples from Contested Histories Onsite, Seventh annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, University of Newcastle, 03-07 July 2023
• Can one past heal another? The memory of Colonialism in the European Union, University of Oxford, 10 March 2022
• Converging European Memories, Fifth annual conference of the Memory Studies Association, Warsaw, 05-09 July 2021
• The Narrative Amnesia of Colonialism. Europe’s Shared Forgotten Past, House of European History, 16-17 May 2019
• Remembering for the Future. Transgressive Norm-building of the Past, University College London, 29-30 March 2019
• Memory Sits in Places – the Case of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Fondazione Campo Fossoli, 3-5 October 2018
• ‘Never again! – A critical analysis of the German DIN standard in Vergangenheitsbewältigung, DAAD Conference Coalescence or Collapse, George Washington University, 8-10 December 2016
• What Shall We Remember? Locating and Dislocating Memories of the End of the Cold War, COST ISTME Conference, University College Dublin, 1-3 September 2016
• 1939 versus 1989 - Contested European Lieux de Mémoires, 5th AHDA Annual Conference, Columbia University New York, 3-5 December 2015
• Holocaust and Gulag as European-wide realms of memory, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung Vienna, 29 November-1 December 2015
• Alternative Visions for Europe - The Emergence of a New Narrative after 1989, Jagiellonian University Krakow, 24-26 September 2015
• Local, National or European? The Transformation of Memory Politics, Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna, 15-16 December 2014
• Memories of conflict, conflict of memories. Framing memory debates in the EU, 4th AHDA Annual Conference, Lund University, 04-06 December 2014
• Bridging the gap. Framing memory debates in the EU, Genealogies of Memory Conference, University of Warsaw, 06-08 November 2014
• National stereotypes in the context of the European crisis - an overview of current research, ARENA, University of Oslo, 04-06 November 2014
• La lotta italiana con la storia e l’europeizzazione della memoria nazionale, DFG Villa Vigoni Gespräche, Villa Vigoni, 08-10 October 2014
• ‘Never again!’ – How EU Institutions Draw Lessons from the Past, 21st Council for European Studies Conference, Washington DC, 14-16 March 2014
• Did we win or did we lose? Constructions of guilt and victimhood in post-war Italy and Germany, Jagiellonian University Krakow, 16-17 September 2013
• Silencing the past or passing the silence? German politicians between Realpolitik and national constraints, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, 29-30 November 2012
• European politics between memories of WWII and nation states, University of Nottingham, 27-29 June 2012
• What are we supposed to remember? Bridging the gap between Europe’s asymmetric memories, University of Lund, 14-16 May 2012
• Whose truth is true? Public commemoration of WWII in Italy, University of Aarhus, 10-12 May 2012
• It’s our history! The creation of a European memory framework, 6th ECPR General Conference, University of Reykjavik, 25-27 August 2011
• Whither Europe, Whither Memory? Or the Future of the Past, 8th ECSA-C Biennial Conference, University of Victoria, 29 April-01 May 2010
• The Europeanisation of national memories, University of London, 05-06 February 2010
• United Europe-Divided Memories. The (im)possibility of a European memory framework, University of Jyväskylä, 08-09 January 2010
• The end of the memory war? From a national to a European memory framework, VII. International Summer School, Universität Leipzig, 28 September-01 October 2009
• Remembering to forget? Memory and democracy in Italy and Germany, XXIII Convegno della Società Italiana di Scienze Politiche, LUISS Guido Carli, Roma, 17-19 September 2009
• The end of the memory war? From a national to a European memory framework, 5th ECPR General Conference, Universität Potsdam, 10-12 September 2009
• European politics of memory, Università degli Studi di Milano, 29 June-1 July 2009
• Common market and common currency, common values and common memory?, Universitade Nova de Lisbona, 07-08 May 2009
• The struggle of memory: Public commemoration of WWII in Italy, Biennial Conference of the Society for Italian Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London,16-19 April 2009
• Integrating Europe-integrating memories. The EU’s politics of memory, 5th History of European Integration Research Society (HEIRS) Colloquium, European University Institute, 06-07 March 2009
• Young Europeans – from pro-european to eurosceptic?, ECPR 4th Pan-European conference on EU politics, University of Latvia, 25-27 September 2008
• Ostalgie and the PDS in Eastern Germany, Central European University, 13-14 June 2008
• Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Italy and Germany after WWII, University of York, 17 November 2007
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