MEMPOP Postdocs Deliver Guest Lectures at Charles University

As part of MEMPOP’s broader commitment to building academic networks across institutions, our postdoctoral researchers Laura Mafizzoli and Franz Graf recently delivered guest lectures at Charles University in Prague at the Institute of Ethnology, within the lecture series Contemporary Ecological Anthropology, coordinated by André Thiemann.  

On 5 January 2026, Laura Mafizzoli presented the lecture “When Caves Become Mass Graves: Pits, Waste, and Collective Memory in Istria.” Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Istrian borderlands between Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia, the lecture explored how karstic pits known as foibe have shifted in meaning over time—from sites associated with waste disposal and class struggle to highly contested symbols of mass violence and political victimhood. The discussion addressed how these sites are mobilised within nationalist, populist, and cross-border political narratives, as well as the role of material landscapes in shaping collective memory.

Earlier, on 1 December 2025, Franz Graf delivered the lecture “Landscapes of Memory and Populism: Ecological and Social Inequalities in Burgenland Borderlands.” Based on ethnographic research in a peatland region between Austria and Hungary, the lecture examined how water management and ecological interventions intersect with memory politics, rural inequalities, and populist dynamics in borderland contexts.

These guest lectures reflect MEMPOP’s dedication to opening its research to students and academic audiences and to fostering dialogue and exchange across institutional settings.