Facing the Past. Public History for a Stronger Europe (EUROPAST)

Project idea

Public history helps to involve citizens in the collective creation and communication of the past, ensuring the application of ethical and methodological standards and a consistent analysis of gender roles in this process. In order to enrich the narratives about the past created by institutions, public history practices rely on inclusive methods that empower communities. By shaping physical and digital spaces for public participation, social cohesion, resilience, and democracy are strengthened.

European governments continuously allocate resources to heritage preservation, cultural and historical education programs. Nevertheless, in order to ensure the effectiveness of such programs, expert knowledge, appropriate policy decisions, and a strong international dialogue based on shared values are necessary. Considering the ongoing "memory wars" in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) regarding the legacy of 20th-century authoritarian and totalitarian regimes high-quality scientific research, the dissemination of results beyond the academic community, and international cooperation are particularly important.

To address this need, researchers of history, sociology, communication, political science and international relations at Vilnius University (VU) initiated an interdisciplinary public history group. Collaborating with the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History, the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology (Lund University), and the Centre for Contemporary History and Digital History (University of Luxembourg), its members seek to strengthen the quality of research at VU and the capabilities of individual researchers in the field of public history.

Taking advantage of the opportunities for knowledge and best practices sharing through international networking, the EUROPAST project, funded by the Horizon Twinning program, will seek to:

1) strengthen the capabilities of the VU interdisciplinary public history group, based on the experience of leading European academic institutions in this field;
2) strengthen the scientific profile and research management capabilities of VU;
3) establish a national center of excellence that will include and disseminate the latest trends in public history to a wider community of researchers and practitioners at the national, regional (CEE), and European Union levels.

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Participating institutions

Vilnius University (coordinator, Lithuania), Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (Germany), Lund University (Sweden), Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH, Luxembourg).