September 1-3, 2026, Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska, Titov trg 5, 6000 Koper/Capodistria, Slovenia

The conference addresses silence in ethnographic research, with a central question of how to understand, interpret, and methodologically grasp silence in its diverse aspects.

Silence does not merely denote the absence of speech or voice; it can also function as a powerful medium of communication. It may be filled with words, affects, emotions, or it can be embedded in bodily memory practices or embodied memory. In ethnographic research, which traditionally focuses on observation and verbal expression, silence has not yet been fully explored. The conference therefore aims to focus specifically on four key aspects:

Panel 1: Silence in relation to memory, conflict and trauma

Scholars of collective memory have drawn attention to representations of the past and to silences and omissions connected to memorial conflicts. Silence, for example, may be linked to repression, particularly when individuals bury their traumatic or painful memories into the unconsciousness. In such cases, trauma or intergenerational trauma can be understood as an inability to verbalize and narrate experience.

Panel 2: Silence and structural violence

Structural violence – the violence produced by institutional structures that hold power in society – often create conditions for silence, oblivion or even structural amnesia. Silence can be triggered by various factors of structural violence, creating social suffering, inequality and other forms of material dispossession and political domination. This panel is particularly interested in exploring silence in relation to invisible workers, migrants and other social groups who struggle within neoliberal dystopia of precarity and dispossession.

Panel 3: Silence and Indigenous Peoples

Silence can be linked to the concept of historical or intergenerational trauma of colonialism. Critical Indigenous studies have identified both colonial and neo-colonial practices of dispossession as key elements of structural violence, creating the chain of everyday violence (the violence continuum), silence and multiple layers of trauma in Indigenous communities. This panel invites scholars with interests in Indigenous studies who have dealt with silence in Indigenous or settler-colonial contexts.

Panel 4: Silence and Reconciliation

Where there is silence, there is struggle. It can be internalised or tacitly voiced through silence itself. When scholars trace the silent struggle, the search for reconciliation narratives become imperative to decode the buried silent legacies of heavy pasts, grounded in violent and traumatic conflicts. Once silence is voiced, reconciliation can be achieved. This panel invites scholars to provide insights and deepen the reflection on this specific aspect of silence to possibly find a common path towards the reconciliation of silent pasts in the pursuit of a peaceful present and a more inclusive future.

Keynote speakers:

Michèle Baussant, CNRS, Institute des Sciences Sociales du Politique, Paris, France: Her work explores memory as both a source of solidarity and a mechanism of exclusion, with a focus on the post-colonial displacement of minority populations in the Maghreb and the Middle East.

Tracey McIntosh, Ngāi Tūhoe tribe, Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies), The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand: Tracey’s recent research focuses on incarceration (particularly of Māori and Indigenous peoples) and issues pertaining to state care, poverty, inequality and social justice. Her earlier work looked at extreme death experience (genocide, war, torture), particularly in the way it relates to what she calls systematic suffering. Tracey’s research draws on a critical Indigenous studies framework.

Kathrin Pabst, Stiftelsen Statsraad Niels Aalls Minde, Norway: She has extensive experience in museum ethics, particularly in addressing untold and traumatic themes. Her project “Identity on the Line” received the European Museum Academy Prize, and her book “Granddad’s Bunker” received a Norwegian literature prize.

Submission Guidelines: Please submit a title, an abstract (maximum 300 words), and a short biography (maximum 100 words) to katja.hrobat@fhs.upr.si or marko.galic@fhs.upr.si.

Deadline for submissions: February 14, 2026. Notification of acceptance: March 2026.

Format: in person. No Participation Fee.

Join us to celebrate and acknowledge the unique international conference designed to create new knowledge while shaping a promising future for locally-inspired and globally relevant research. See you in Koper/Capodistria!

Organised by Katja Hrobat Virloget, Martina Tonet and Marko Galič, Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies FH UP.

The conference is the final event of two projects – Ethnography of silence(s) (ARIS J6-50198) and RE 4 Healing: Crossborder Remembra