About the conference

Under the surface of our societies, there are thousands and thousands of stories that could add shades and details to a black-and-white picture of historical events. But many of these stories are too personal or too traumatic to share, and one may decide consciously or unconsciously not to tell anyone about happenings that have been crucial for one’s life.

However, the Unspoken can have long-term consequences also for the generations to come. It can directly influence the lives of one´s children and grandchildren and intergenerational relations and, on a higher level, our common perception of history.

Several fields of study, such as psychology, neuroscience, and epigenetics, regularly deal with the intergenerational transfer of trauma. Others, such as ethnology, anthropology, and history, have not yet fully embraced its importance, even if institutions such as museums have long since collected and disseminated personal narratives about the troubled past. Here, they were struck by the silence they were met with, and by the many layers of the Unspoken and Untold.

This international conference aims at gathering experts from different fields of studies to present a status quo of what we know today about the intergenerational transfer of the Unspoken. Through six lectures spread over to days, each of them highlighting one important aspect of a larger picture.