Fall 2026 Graduate Seminar: Theatre Historiography–History, Memory, & Crisis
Staging Crisis: Memory, Performance, and Difficult Pasts in Central Europe
Applications Open for Graduate Students at the University of Minnesota
To apply, email Professor Michal Kolbialka: [email protected]
The Center for German & European Studies (CGES) and the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts & Dance invite graduate students to participate in an international seminar examining how societies remember, perform, and contest difficult histories in times of crisis.
Developed in partnership with Freie Universität Berlin, The Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) in Prague, and Jagiellonian University in Kraków, this unique transatlantic seminar will explore the intersections of memory, history, theatre, performance, and public culture.
Why This Seminar?
Berlin, Prague, and Kraków serve as living archives of twentieth- and twenty-first-century crises, where narratives of war, genocide, authoritarianism, resistance, and remembrance often coexist in the same public spaces. Through seminars, site visits, performance analysis, and collaborative research, students will investigate how historical crises are represented, remembered, and debated in contemporary society.
At a moment when questions of historical responsibility, public memory, and democratic values are once again at the forefront of public debate, this seminar asks:
- How do museums, memorials, and performance artists stage difficult histories?
- What role do objects, archives, and cultural institutions play in shaping public memory?
- How do Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic remember experiences of fascism, communism, war, and genocide?
- What can these European experiences teach us about contemporary political and social challenges on both sides of the Atlantic?
Seminar Themes
Participants will engage with topics including:
- Theatre and performance historiography
- Archives, memory, and material culture
- Public memorialization and museum practices
- The politics of regret and historical responsibility
- Authoritarianism, genocide, war, and collective remembrance
- Contemporary artistic representations of crisis
Experiential Learning in Central Europe
As part of the seminar, University of Minnesota students will travel to Berlin, Prague, and Kraków in December 2026for a ten-day study tour alongside their European peers.
The trip will include:
- Site visits to major museums, memorials, and cultural institutions
- Faculty-led lectures and discussions
- Encounters with theatre, exhibitions, and archival collections
- Student research presentations and feedback sessions
- Collaborative engagement with graduate students from partner universities