Urška Lampe is a historian whose work helps us think deeply about the afterlives of conflict — not as abstract theory, but as lived experience, transmitted through families and communities, and written into the narratives societies tell about themselves. She focuses in particular on World War II and its aftermath in the borderlands of Slovenia and former Yugoslavia, examining how individual and collective memories are formed, silenced, contested, and reshaped over decades.
Lampe’s research takes us to the ground level of history: the stories told within families about Italian prisoners of war in Yugoslavia after 1945, the ways people used storytelling and oral testimony to make sense of violence, and how memories — including those wrapped in metaphor — continue to influence identity and meaning long after battlefields have grown quiet.
A key insight in her work is that how we remember — and how we forget — shapes how we act. When memories are collected, shared, and debated, they contribute to a society’s moral compass. When they are suppressed, distorted, or split into competing narratives, they can leave room for misunderstanding, resentment, or denial.
This historical perspective matters today. Across past centuries, times when international rules were sidelined, when disputes were framed as inevitable or exceptional, or when power was asserted without broad accountability — these were moments that, in hindsight, opened the door to wider violence and deeper fractures. History provides countless examples of how small deviations from norms can widen into broader conflicts.
Lampe’s work reminds us that remembering clearly and responsibly is more than a matter of the past — it’s one of the foundations for a stable, just future. History teaches that when legal and moral structures are disregarded, and when collective narratives lose touch with documented experience, the consequences can ripple far beyond their point of origin.
January 2026 honors research that takes memory seriously: as the substance through which societies make sense of themselves, confront the past, and choose what kind of future they want.
* Urška Lampe is the researcher highlighted for January 2026 in our Mediterranean Science Team Calendar, which features one scientist each month, reflecting the diversity of research and perspectives shaping our shared Mediterranean present and future