The main activities and research outputs of the Public History and Outreach (PHO) research group in 2022 came from the following projects: REPAIR, REMIX, Public History as the New Citizen Science of the Past (PHACS), Memories of Ambassadors and Ranke.2. These projects all have funding from Luxembourg, and several of them involve international collaboration. The projects run by PHO members gave rise to a number of research outputs, ranging from traditional academic outputs such as publications, interviews and conferences to formats more suited to a broader public, including Forum Z sessions and exhibitions.
Concluding conferences were held in 2022 for the REPAIR and REMIX projects, both in their closing phase. The two projects together provided three Forum Z sessions (“Liewen am Minett revisited” in collaboration with the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel, “Le patrimoine industriel: local – régional – international” in collaboration with the Entente Mine Cockerill, and “Reparieren gestern und heute” in collaboration with Repair Café Lëtzebuerg). The REMIX project also presented a multimedia exhibition, “Remixing Industrial Pasts”, in the Massenoire (Feb.-May 2022) as one of the two opening events for Esch2022. The exhibition was accompanied by a geo-based online game: a digital treasure hunt to discover the industrial past of Belval Campus. On 28 May, the REMIX team launched the online exhibition Minett Stories, which contains 22 chapters based on various forms of transmedia storytelling (e.g. interactive videos and maps, graphic novels, radio plays and video essays). As part of the REPAIR project, the second issue of a fanzine was produced by the PhD candidates participating in the project (Thomas Hoppenheit and Rebecca Mossop).
Under the umbrella of the PHACS project, and specifically the “HistorEsch” strand, a series of public history activities was organised in Esch-sur-Alzette by Thomas Cauvin and Joëlla van Donkersgoed, together with various partners such as the KulturFabrik and the Nuit de la Culture. The first, ArtistESCH, involved creating an urban art fresco inspired by the historical photographs and stories of people from the Lallange neighbourhood. It was unveiled in May 2022 and will remain on view. The second initiative was the launch of a multilingual inclusive oral history audio tour which is accessible through a local phone number. The third project was an exhibition, which ran in September 2022, and an accompanying multilingual catalogue featuring crowdsourced objects that provide a personal connection to the history of Esch. The Facebook group Fl’ESCH Back grew exponentially and was an invaluable tool for gathering information and participants in the various projects.
The oral history project “Memories of Ambassadors” was carried out in partnership with the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. The project involves interviewing retired ambassadors who speak about their career in diplomacy in Luxembourg. It is led by François Klein and Marco Gabellini on behalf of the C²DH. Cécile Duval contributed to the online exhibition “Framing Luxembourg” , a “scrollytelling” experiment by STATEC and the C²DH. The website presents “a history of Luxembourg in statistics as well as a history of statistics in Luxembourg”.
The Ranke.2 project has undergone a thorough analysis and has been reorganised. A thinkering grant made it possible to examine the feasibility of designing a teaching game as part of the project, mainly at a workshop held in September. In 2022, the foundations were also laid for collaboration with the Herder Institute for a new lesson that should be developed in 2023.
Finally, many PHO members (especially Karin Priem, Stefan Krebs, Thomas Cauvin, Thomas Hoppenheit, Tizian Zumthurm, Marco Gabellini and François Klein) authored various publications in 2022, including books, book chapters and journal articles.
Milestones
In 2022, Camilla Portesani, a doctoral researcher in the PHACS team, focused on collaboration with the House of European History in Brussels. With the goal of diversifying and enriching the narrative of a section of the permanent collection dedicated to European heritage and memory, she has been scaffolding participatory history-making and preparing the methodology for five workshops (with international students) which will lead to a temporary installation in museum venues. She organised an online international symposium in which experts engaged in a stimulating conversation about the co-production of history in museums through public participation.
The REMIX project finalised its public history projects in relation with Esch2022. The team organised the multimedia exhibition “Remixing Industrial Pasts: Constructing the Identity of the Minett” as one of the opening events of the European Capital of Culture Esch2022; the “Minett Stories” Rallye, a treasure hunt as an innovative tool for public engagement; and the Minett Stories website as a showcase for transmedia storytelling.
In connection with the opening of the temporary exhibition “Remixing Industrial Pasts” (27 February 2022 to 15 May 2022), the “Minett Stories” Rallye was deployed as a special version of the “Rallye” platform, a software ecosystem that enables mobile location-based serious games. Over 400 people played the game, which was particularly appreciated for its educational value.
The PHO research group was actively involved in the University of Luxembourg becoming the new headquarters of the International Federation for Public History (IFPH, January 2022). As a result, the C²DH will organise the 2024 IFPH annual conference. The PHACS team continued its collaboration with Wroclaw University in Poland, which has led to a series of Public History Summer Schools. The 2022 Summer School, organised jointly with the PHACS team, took place in Wroclaw in June 2022 with more than 40 participants.
In 2022 the team also launched a new lecture series called History@Play, exploring the intersection between digital games and public history. The programme involves talks from international scholars and practitioners to discuss issues of historical representation, accuracy and authenticity; immersion and re-enactment; video game co-design as a participatory strategy; gaming communities, paratextuality and historical culture; and using gaming to explore difficult history and heritage[SC1] . The PHO research team contributed to a working group to redesign and develop the CVCE historical website in 2023.
Funding
In collaboration with three other universities, the PHACS team – on behalf of the C²DH – received funding for a Horizon Europe Twinning Grant. Starting on 1 December 2022, the three-year project (2022-2025), entitled “EUROPAST: Facing the Past. Public History for a Stronger Europe”, is a collaboration between Vilnius University (Lithuania, Lead), Lund University (Sweden), the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF) (Germany) and the C²DH. The project aims to develop international public history research networks and collaboration between academic research and cultural institutions.
The C2DH’s internal Thinkering Grant for 2022 was awarded to three proposals for small-scale experimental projects, and the PHO was pivotal in all of them. “Participatory data physicalization – Brill Street 100 years later” (Aida Horaniet Ibanez, Daniel Richter and Joëlla van Donkersgoed) aimed to develop a visual vocabulary to encourage curiosity and readability of historical census data. “Escher kaffi: taking the pulse of the city” (Laura Steil and Joëlla van Donkersgoed) was a participatory study to provide an insight into the recent and more historical transformations of café culture in the (post)industrial town of Esch-sur-Alzette. Finally, “Playing Ranke.2” (Helena Jaskov, Sofia Papastamkou, Daniele Guido) offered the opportunity to experiment with the creation of teaching games.
In September 2022, based on the HistorEsch activities, Joëlla van Donkersgoed submitted a proposal for the FNR’s PSP-Flagship programme together with the Archives of Esch-sur-Alzette and the Lëtzebuerg City Museum. The proposal received a positive initial review pending the final decision in February 2023.