Exile Memory and the Connection to the Homeland through Narratives of Displacement and Return

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores how exiles navigate memory, identity, and belonging when reconnecting
with their homelands after displacement. It examines how return journeys—both physical
and imagined—become spaces for negotiating memory, shaped by political, cultural, and
historical change. Through personal narratives, state policies, and material landscapes, the
panel investigates how exiles reconcile nostalgia with the realities of a transformed
homeland. Together, these papers provide insight into how exiles engage with memory and identity across generations, highlighting the enduring psychological, cultural, and political
consequences of displacement.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Katherine Sinyavin, UC Berkeley

Papers

• Between Memory and Exile: The Iranian Experience of the Soviet GULAG - Mahshid Hosseinian, U of Southern California

• Re-Resettlement: Experiences of Ukrainian Return to Southeast Poland after Operation Vistula - Anna Bisikalo, Harvard U

• Exiled Memories and Soviet Realities in Baltic Return Journeys - Marta Starostina, U of Birmingham (UK)

• Preserving Personal Identity through Public Narratives: The Case of a Latvian American Exile Speaker Karlis Leyasmeyer - Ieva Zake, Millersville U

Discussants

• Zaur Kapanadze, Texas Tech U

• Devin Culley McFadden, U of Vermont