Public History III

Global Memory

The third year of the Public History Forum focuses on the global dimension of memory. We understand memory as a web of globally shared institutions, media, practices and images that co-shape our visions of the past and future. Public space is hence a place where elements of this fabric are reproduced, contradicted and utilised in new contexts. For example, how is climate crisis altering our vision of the future and the past? Which Czech history affairs received film or different adaption for the world audience? What do they have in common, and how do historical controversies abroad and in the Czech Republic differ? How is Czech education doing within this context? The conference aims not to measure "Czech" approaches by "world" trends but to describe the relationships that connect the Czech and thus the Central European experience with history and the dynamics of memory on a global scale.

Public History platform

History has always been in direct and tight contact with the present and the future. The past seeps and breaks into the present, providing a breeding ground for future reflections and events. This relationship is seemingly apparent to many experts, but in the broader social debate, space is devoted to it only occasionally, most often in the form of partial or occasional events. Representatives of Charles University, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and non-governmental organization Antikomplex, therefore, decided to create a platform that should provide regular opportunities not only for interdisciplinary discussion but also for a more general exchange of views and experiences, which are currently touching upon the issue of the public history.

Main speaker

Wulf Kansteiner

Wulf Kansteiner is Professor in Memory Studies and Historical Theory at Aarhus University in Denmark. He is co-founder and co-editor of the journal Memory Studies. Kansteiner's work focuses on the methods and theories of memory studie including critical explorations of key concepts such as trauma, generation, transnational memory, and others, as well as the role of visual media in the culture of remembering and Holocaust history, memory and historiography. His publications include Agonistic Memory and the Legacy of 20th Century Wars in Europe (co-editor Stefan Berger), Probing the Ethics of Holocaust Culture (co-editors Claudio Fogu and Todd Presner).