The *History of European Integration Research Society (HEIRS)* is seeking
papers for its 10th annual conference: “History, Memory and European
Identity”. The conference will take place at *Maastricht University
(NL)*from *5-6 June 2014* and aims at bringing together PhD students, young researchers
and renowned specialists from both social sciences and history.

The question of how to generate a sense of belonging to a multinational
political community has preoccupied intellectuals and politicians since the
founding moments of the European Union. Particularly in times of stress and
doubt calls for a European identity have become a central topic. Currently,
in the wake of the on-going EU crisis discussions about the connection
between the construction (or the lack) of a common European identity and
legitimacy of EU governance are coming back to the fore. Debates centre on
the question if and how the EU can effectively and lawfully operate if its
citizens do not sustain the integration project sufficiently enough. Apart
from discussions on the possibility of and the need for a political
identity we can discern a separate discourse on questions surrounding the
development of a cultural identity and common memory of Europe. The
concepts of identity, memory and lieux de mémoire are in fact deeply
interwoven.

Attempts to generate a European cultural or political identity are almost
as old as the European integration project itself. Official identity
politics on the other hand are a fairly new phenomenon. Despite the fact
that social scientists have invested considerable efforts in trying to
analyse the latter, historical approaches are still underrepresented. This
conference aims at understanding the on-going debates on cultural and
political identity. It will investigate efforts made by different political
and social actors since the 1950s to generate a sense of belonging to the
European Union. How did early attempts of fostering a European identity
look like? Who were the actors and agents? Is a common identity dependent
on the actions of classical political actors? Which elements of European
history have been harnessed in order to provide a basis for a common
identity? HEIRS particularly welcomes papers that focus on the relationship
between memory and identity on the one hand and political versus cultural
identity on the other.

Paper proposals (max. 250 words) together with a short biographical note
(max. 50 words) on the author should be sent to
aline.sierp@maastrichtuniversity.nl by *1 February 2013*. There will be no
extra conference fee.