Description
Influenced by the Black-Lives-Matter movement, statues of explorers, naval heroes, slave traders and political leaders are currently targeted. While proponents want to protect the statues as representations of national heroism, opponents regard them as solidified nodes of hierarchical relationships from a past time. The war of monuments is further stirred up by racist hate messages on social media. While politicians try to tame cultural clashes, history teachers grapple with heated debates in their class. They have a tremendously difficult task when dealing with emotions about contested pasts, let alone reconciling them. How can history teachers organize a quiet debate in this polarized atmosphere, i.e. a meaningful historical conversation that recognizes the interpretative traditions students find themselves in without freezing these traditions? What can we - academics - do to support them? In this paper, I will discuss these issues by proposing a holistic view of the concept of historical culture that could provide some starting-points for dealing with current tensions in the public sphere and in the classroom. To be able to understand the complex and often conflicted processes of giving meaning to the past, I will distinguish three mutually dependent and interactive levels of analysis in the study of historical culture: historical narratives and performances of the past; mnemonic infrastructures; conceptions of history.| Period | 12 Nov 2020 |
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| Event title | International conference Historical consciousness - historical thinking - historical culture. University of Graz |
| Event type | Other |
| Location | GrazShow on map |
Research programs
- ESHCC HIS