DISCUSSION PANEL
Collective Memory in Modern Diverse Communities - Uniting or Dividing?
Moderator: Adelina Hetnar, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Poland
Dr. Nawël Cheriet is a psychologist specializing in collective memory and its role in shaping group identities and collective futures. Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at UCLouvain and
ULiège, she leads interdisciplinary projects on the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the French colonization of Algeria. Her work examines how collective memories are transmitted, reinterpreted, and contested within groups, and how they inform emotional responses and societal expectations regarding reconciliation. By focusing on the temporal dynamics of memory ‒ from past events to imagined futures ‒ Cheriet explores how remembering can become a transformative force in post-conflict societies.
Dr. Ewa Tartakowsky is a sociologist and a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Institute of Social Sciences in Politics. Tartakowsky is also an Associated Researcher at the Centre of French Civilization and Francophone Studies at Warsaw University. Her research primarily focuses on contemporary Jewishness, with particular attention to the reception and production of literary works, as well as to issues related to the transmission
and social uses of the past, the patrimonialization of memory, and the teaching of history in schools.
Miško Stanišić is the director and co-founder of Terraforming, an NGO based in Serbia, dedicated to improving education about the Holocaust, combating antisemitism and anti-Roma discrimination, and addressing historical distortion. With 20 years in memorialization and
education, Stanišić has developed exhibitions, training courses, and award-winning resources and has led international initiatives on education about the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma. Since 2023, he has chaired the team on developing the IHRA’s Recommendations for teaching about the genocide of the Roma. Born in Sarajevo, Stanišić has lived in Sweden, the Netherlands, and is now based in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Dr. Ewa Tartakowsky emphasized that our individual memories are “based on social frameworks