070166 SE Seminar Historical sources and critique: Public History (2022W)

How do we form memories? How do our individual memories merge into a collective memory? How are narratives, practices, technology and art transmitted from generation to generation, forming enduring traditions? And what can all of that tell us about how different histories emerge and which version prevails? In this seminar, we will discuss these questions on the basis of weekly readings of classic theoretical texts and current research from the transdisciplinary perspective of historical and cultural sciences as well as cognitive science.

Research on collective memory, traditions, and complex interactions between the present and the past is at the core of public history, an academic discipline studying discourse about identities related to the past between individuals and collectives. In the process of formation, transformation and transmission of historical narratives, different factors – social, political, and cognitive – play an important role. By choosing some narratives, practices, people and events to be represented, remembered, and disseminated, and others to be excluded and forgotten, individuals and groups use the past to shape the present and the future. Historical sources, texts and monuments, ruins, artefacts, and landscapes serve as memory aids and contact points between the past and the present, motivating discussion, (re)interpretation, and (re)contextualisation.

Over the course of the seminar, the attendees will get acquainted with transdisciplinary theories and empirical research on memory, traditions, and history through a combination of individual research and group discussions. Apart from weekly discussions of chosen academic articles and book chapters, students will be required to research and critically analyse literature on a chosen topic, prepare a presentation, and write a seminar paper.