Remembering Spaces of Internment (ReSI) invites broad and interdisciplinary reflections on spaces of internment and the erasures to which they are often subjected. Internment, as ReSI defines it, is a phenomenon distinct from imprisonment; it concerns confinement and the deprivation of liberties due to administrative or military decisions, rather than judicial ones. Internment is a contemporary phenomenon, present throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and across all inhabited continents. While internment is often construed as an exception, its presence is structural, and it thus constitutes a permanent challenge to the principles of the rule of law. Internment often leads to the creation of camps. At the same time, its practice cannot be reduced to camps alone; a multiplicity of other spaces is used to intern.

​

Following upon the first three international symposia organised by ReSI in Nanterre, France (9–10 March 2023), in Tucson, Arizona (6–8 March 2024), and in Rivesaltes, France (16–18 June 2025), this fourth event in Helsinki, Finland (10-12 March 2027) is a platform for exchanging ongoing and new research on places of internment and for continued development of the interdisciplinary ReSI research network.

​

The 4th ReSI Symposium particularly invites researchers whose scope includes the historical Warsaw Pact countries, the Eastern Europe states (Russia, Ukraine, Poland, etc.), the Northern Europe states (Finland and the Scandinavian countries), and the Baltics states (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia). More specifically, this symposium will explore the Gulag system, amongst other topics. As a colonial enterprise with an explicit mission to colonize the frontier and exploit the natural resources of Soviet periphery, many important Gulag camps (e.g. Karlag, Sazlag) were situated in non-Russian colonized republics. Hence, the boundary between the colonial periphery and the imperial core was blurred.

​

In addition, this 4th edition will explore spaces and logics through the body, paying particular attention to contributions that focus on the manipulation of health data. This call for papers is therefore broadly open to presentations of research concerning places of internment and their memory, across time periods, disciplines and perspectives adopted: social sciences, humanities, architecture, and the arts.

​

In particular, we encourage proposals that address the following three themes:

​

- Relations between the penal and extrajudicial systems.

Penal and extrajudicial systems may coexist in the same or adjacent locations. This raises questions as to whether penal and administrative logics are distinct, or on the contrary, if they are grey areas or overlaps? Do penal and administrative statuses entail different forms of care? Is the relationship to discipline different, and if so, how?

​

- Bodily health

• Manipulation of health data in custodial institutions from a comparative perspective,

• Humanitarian work and the relationship to the body and health. Notably including the physical aspect of care; infra-penal aspects within the humanitarian sector,

• Circulation of administrative and health models across different contexts(colonial, imperial, national),

• Environmental and climatic impacts (dust, wind, disease, heatwaves or cold spells),

• Geographical isolation of sites, which tends to isolate populations and exacerbate their vulnerability,

• Statistics, databases on interned bodies.

​

- The body as a trace

When places leave no trace, bodies remain and make up for the absence of traces. Here, we focus on the topography of bodies, the cartography of bodies, and forensic anthropology, which help to pinpoint the location of camps and, through the exhumation of bodies, take on historical, memorial and legal dimensions. Associated questions concern:

• Processes of identification, exhumation and repatriation,

• Forms of commemoration, heritage preservation or forgetting,

• Conflicts of memory surrounding the deceased and human remains,

• Cross-border and transnational memory.

​

Proposals for contributions (one page maximum) should be sent to resiresearch.event@gmail.com, before September 15, 2026. For any other questions, please write to resiresearchorg@gmail.com. The symposium will take place in Helsinki on March 10-12, 2027.

​

Scientific committee

• Aurélie Audeval, Professeure d'histoire contemporaine, Université de Lille, France

• Nicolas Fischer, Chargé de recherche CNRS - Science politique, CESDIP, France

• Laura Madokoro, Professor of contemporary History, University of Carleton, Canada

• Mikhail Nakonechnyi, Univ. Researcher, PI of the ERC project DeathAndManipulation, Aleksanteri Institute, Finnish Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

• Terrence Peterson, Associate Professor of History, Florida International Univ., USA

• Laurence Prempain, Historian, Independent researcher, France/Finland

• Tuomas Tepora, Professor of History, University of Helsinki, Finland

• Grégory Tuban, Historian, Independent researcher, France

• Beth Weinstein, Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture, CAPLA, University of Arizona, USA