FACING THE PAST. PUBLIC HISTORY FOR STRONGER EUROPE

Public history helps to engage citizens in the co-production and communication of the past while maintaining ethical and methodological standards, strengthening social cohesion, resilience, and democracy in a digital age.

The aim of EUROPAST is to enhance the scientific excellence and research capacity of Vilnius University (VU) and strengthen the profile of its staff in the field of public history.

To accomplish this aim, the project will establish structured collaboration between scholars from VU and leading researchers on public history from the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany (ZZF), the Centre for European Studies at Lund University in Sweden (LU), and the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History in Luxembourg (uni.lu).

The work plan envisages: exploratory research on best practices of public history and models for the future; a coordinated training programme delivered through a series of three summer schools, research colloquia with special attention paid to early career researchers; a series of research and institutional exchanges among project partners; outreach workshops with public history practitioners and decision makers and the establishment of a network of research managers.Through joint research, training and networking, supported by an integrated set of dissemination, exploitation and communication activities, the project will establish a long-lasting, interdisciplinary research network.

Distinguished by strengthened research and research management capacities, stronger strategic networking, and new, more creative approaches to public history as a citizen science of the past, the network will contribute to the enhanced reputation and profile for VU, generating proposals for major new research projects.

The EUROPAST network will endure beyond the lifetime of the grant and will make an ongoing contribution to the diffusion of knowledge and best practices beyond academia.