Public History

Workshop led by the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg, 17-18 June 2021. Submission deadline: 21 April 2021

There is more than just one East Berlin. People made very different experiences with the capital of the GDR. Hence there are also plenty of different memories of the East German capital. An exhibition on the history of East Berlin has to take these different perspectives into account and should be based on shared authority.

The C²DH (University of Luxembourg), the film production company Samsa Film, and the Centre National de l'Audiovisuel (CNA) are currently producing the transmedia documentary “A COLÔNIA LUXEMBURGUESA » by the Luxembourg-Brazilian director and historian Dominique Santana, with the support of the Film Fund Luxembourg and Esch2022. This transmedia project takes us to the core of the so-called Colônia Luxemburguesa and invites us to discover together a century of common industrial, cultural and social heritage.

The Temporary History Lab, set up in the Annexe22 pavilion in Esch-sur-Alzette from September to October 2020, was part of the research project “Remixing Industrial Pasts in the Digital Age”.

Report of the international workshop held on 26 November 2020 with experts from European universities who have initiated public COVID-19 platforms to collect testimonies.

The international online symposium will bring together scholars, museum professionals and heritage practitioners to discuss how participatory history is constructed, developed, and implemented in museums.

Hands on History session with Theresa McCulla (Smithsonian Museum) - online event.

Hands on History session with Peter Crooks (Trinity College Dublin) - online event.

Hands on History session with Mark Tebeau (Arizona State University) - online event.

The international online symposium “Making History Together: Public Participation in Museums” will take place on 15 December 2020. It will bring together scholars, museum professionals and heritage practitioners to discuss how participatory history is constructed, developed, and implemented in museums.

The C²DH is organising a temporary history lab on the Place de la Résistance in Esch-sur-Alzette. The lab will host a number of participatory events to explore the history and identity of the Minett: participants can take a picture of themselves and learn more about the exciting history of the selfie, record a text for a loved one with our sound postcards and learn about this forgotten history and technology, and experience a fascinating video installation with “Historical Voices from Esch”.

During the summer semester we co-taught a course called The Recurated Museum, which explored the evolving role of museums in digital spaces. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic mid-semester and the subsequent explosion of movements like #MuseumAtHome and #CultureChezNous, we directly confronted many of the ideas we featured in class in a way that we could not have previously imagined.

Today, April 10, C²DH researchers launched the digital memory bank covidmemory.lu. The platform #covidmemory offers people living or working in Luxembourg the opportunity to share their personal experiences with one another and to archive them for future generations.

Dans le contexte de la pandémie Covid-19, le C²DH vient de lancer un projet de collecte de témoignages de personnes travaillant dans le secteur médical et soignant.