The international conference #DHJewish - Jewish Studies in the Digital Age, brought together more than sixty scholars and heritage practitioners to discuss how the digital turn affects the field of Jewish Studies.
WARLUX aims to study the biographies of young Luxembourgers, born between 1920 and 1927, who were drafted by the Nazi German authorities for the Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst) and the German Army (Wehrmacht). In this regard, a call for contributions from the public was carried out by the WARLUX team. Families and witnesses in Luxembourg were called on to share their memories and personal documents. Families and witnesses were asked to look in their cellars and attics, in old boxes and cupboards from grandparents and parents to find documents and photographs about this period of time.
Who were the Luxembourgers who signed up to the French Foreign Legion? What were they doing in France? Why did they decide to enlist? How have they been depicted over time, and how are they remembered? Drawing on the latest research on the topic and covering the period from the 19th century to the interwar years, with a particular focus on the First World War, the Légionnaires projectprovides a comparative analysis of the history of the French Foreign Legion and the Luxembourgers who emigrated to France. The resulting story has been presented on a variety of different platforms, with outputs including an exhibition launched on the 30 June 2021 at the Musée 3 Eechelen, a book, a digital treasure hunt, a social media campaign and a forthcoming online archive.
FL’ESCH Back is a Facebook discussion group on the history of Esch-sur-Alzette and its residents, districts and cultural heritage. The group is open to everyone. Visitors are encouraged to share their interest in the history of Esch-sur-Alzette by publishing testimonies, documents, photos and films about the town’s past. Rooted in the concept of public history, which seeks to develop links between society and historical research, the group was created to shine a light on the history of Esch-sur-Alzette and to showcase the town’s past in writing and through events and other outreach activities related to research results.
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Dominique Santana receives the Paul Belche Award
The Rotary Club Esch-Bassin Minier presented its Paul Belche Award, a donation of €10,000, to the C²DH to support the research project “A Colõnia Luxemburguesa” led by the young historian and film director.
On the 18 October 2021, the C²DH and De Gruyter published the first issue of the Journal of Digital History (JDH). As an international, academic, peer-reviewed and open-access journal, the journal sets new standards in history publishing based on the principle of multi-layered articles.
In October 2021, the C²DH launched the digital exhibition of the Popkult60 research project on the transnational history of 1960s popular culture. The exhibition is the result of the collaboration between PhD students and postdoctoral researchers of the Popkult60 (for “Transnational popular culture – Europe in the long 1960s”) project based at the University of Luxembourg and the University of the Saarland.
On 21 October, the National Research Fund (FNR) held its annual Awards Ceremony, a celebration of science and research in Luxembourg where researchers and science communicators are recognised for outstanding efforts.
The Award of Outstanding Mentor, a new category introduced in 2021, goes to Prof. Dr Andreas Fickers, director of the C²DH. Winner of the category Outstanding Promotion of Science to the Public is the REMIX team for the interactive multimedia installation “Historical Voices from the Minett”.
Former C²DH PhD candidate Vitus Sproten’s thesis on the history of free radios in the Netherlands, Belgium and North Rhine-Westphalia wins the ‘excellent thesis award’ granted by the Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Sciences.
On 7 December 2021, the C²DH presented the book “Histoire de la justice au Luxembourg (1795 à nos jours)” (The history of Justice in Luxembourg (1795 to the present day)) at the Cité Judiciaire in Luxembourg City. The book, published by De Gruyter, offers an account of the development of the legal system in Luxembourg, from the introduction of contemporary jurisdictions during the French period – under the Directory, the Consulate and the Empire – and the introduction of a legal system in Luxembourg after independence in the 19th century, to the constitutional reform in the 2000s. It represents a valuable contribution to research on the formation of the Luxembourg state.
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Présentation du livre à la Cité judiciaire à Luxembourg
Jointly developed by the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), by Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM/ Georges Mason University)and Digital Scholar, the research and development project Tropy has been awarded $500,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the largest supporter of the arts and humanities in the US through its Public knowledge programm. Tropy, a free and open-source software tool that allowshumanities researchers to make effective use of the digital images that are now at the center of their archival researchpractices. Since its beta launch in 2016, Tropy has become essential software used by thousands of humanities researchers around the world.
The C²DH shares and promotes the results of its research via a wide range of publications. Its researchers produce scholarly publications aimed at their peers and a specialist readership. These publications provide a detailed description of the research or experiments conducted and the conclusions reached.
As an international hub for contemporary and digital history, the C²DH regularly organises academic and outreach events. The academic events, attended by researchers and practitioners from the C²DH, partner institutions and other research centres, explore major research topics such as digital history, contemporary history, hermeneutics and participatory history.
