The C²DH Public History Department has begun working on the compilation of an image database on Luxembourg’s industrial heritage.
This database will showcase different layers of time and space to explore how the country’s landscapes and environments were transformed through the era of industrialisation and beyond. The image base draws upon rich photography holdings consisting of the CNA collection of ARBED Dommeldange (c. 1880-1970), the Fonds Jean-Pierre Conrardy (1930s-1980s), the work of amateur photo clubs (c. 1930s), a photography project on the “Liewen am Minett” (1986), and last but not least the work of Luxembourg artist René Wampach (1920-2000), who created a huge number of drawings and paintings depicting Luxembourg’s different regions and their gradual transformation. The image base will provide a visual history of industrialisation, the formation of urban spaces, the peripheralisation of migrants, workers’ everyday lives, industrial decline and structural transition and, finally, the emergence of new environments. The aim is to reevaluate the rise, fall and revitalisation of industrialised small towns by analysing a huge variety of images and bringing them into proximity with collective memories, national identity formation and visions of the future.
The C²DH’s “Contemporary History of Luxembourg” research unit has set itself the objective of studying questions with varying temporal, spatial and theoretical contexts, with the aim of producing new scientific knowledge about the phenomena and processes that have had a major impact on Luxembourg and whose comparative value goes beyond the national perspective: the history of the formation of the nation state, the history of the two world wars, periods of occupation and their legacy, antisemitism and the Holocaust, collaboration and resistance, attempts at authoritarianism, democratisation, the history of trade unions and the welfare state, the history of migration, and the history of societal and cultural transformations since the 1970s.
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The world of finance, a “glocal” history field
The financialisation of the world economy during the 20th century is a relatively new topic in the discipline of historical research.
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Luxembourg, a land of migration
Luxembourg is and always has been a country characterised by migration, with waves of emigration in the 19th century and immigration since the early 20th century.
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The activities of the C²DH’s “Digital History” (DH) unit can be broken down into three overlapping categories: 1) research and development in digital methods; 2) university teaching for the Bachelor’s in European Cultures and the Master’s in European History, as well as in-house skills training; 3) outreach – disseminating research through public events and websites.
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A framework for young researchers
One of the original features of the C²DH, like the University of Luxembourg as a whole, is the international dimension of its research and the multicultural approach to academic study.
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