As part of a public event to be held February 15, 2011, in cooperation with Freie Universität’s Dahlem Humanities Center, an evening lecture will be given by Benjamin Stora highlighting the current aspects of the French-Algerian conflict in collective memory. Admission to this event is free.

Benjamin Stora is a sociologist and historian who was born in 1950 in Constantine, Algeria, and attended university in France. In 1991 he founded the Institut Maghreb-Europe, and he continues to be its academic director. Stora is a professor of Maghreb history at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris. He has previously held visiting professorships in Hanoi and New York; this is the first time he has had one in Germany.

The culture of memory and ways of dealing with the past dominate the research on Algeria. Stora has written and edited numerous publications. Through his work, unknown and critical aspects of the Algerian War have been brought to light and reported together with Algerian historians.

Sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Culture Department of the French Embassy, Freie Universität’s Center for French Studies has regularly been inviting French guest lecturers to Berlin since the 2003/04 fall/winter semester.

Dates / Location:

• Seminars: Thursdays, 4 to 6 p.m.; Fridays 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 12 noon to 2 p.m.
  (as of January 2011)

• Evening lecture: France-Algérie: à quand le temps d’une mémoire partagée?
• February 15, 2011, 6 p.m., Seminar Center, Freie Universität Berlin, Humanities and Social Sciences Buliding, Room L 115, Otto-von-Simson-Str. 26, 14195 Berlin

For further information, please contact:

• Prof. Dr. Anne Kwaschik, Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 838-50461, Email: a.kwaschik@fu-berlin.de
• Office: Marie Bergeron, Tel: +49 (0)30 / 838-50461, Email: m.bergeron@fu-berlin.de