The main activities and research outputs of the Public History and Outreach (PHO) research group in 2023 came from the following projects: Public History as the New Citizen Science of the Past (PHACS), REMIX and Ranke.2.
Doctoral researcher Camilla Portesani and postdoctoral researcher Violeta Tsenova, both members of the PHACS team, pursued the collaboration with the House of European History in Brussels, with students from Poland, Bulgaria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Violeta Tsenova organised a two-day conference on Agonism and Conflicting Memories.
The PHO research group was actively involved in the creation of a brand new Master in Digital and Public History at the University of Luxembourg. The MADiPH was accepted in December 2023 and began receiving applications on 1 February 2024.
The PHACS team continued its collaboration with the University of Wrocław in Poland, which led to the 2023 Public History Summer School in Wrocław. Thomas Cauvin and Sandra Camarda contributed to the Horizon Europe Twinning Project “EUROPAST: Facing the Past. Public History for a Stronger Europe” with Vilnius University, the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Lund University (Sweden). Cauvin and Camarda organised a four-day summer school at Lund University.
In 2023, Sandra Camarda continued to coordinate the History@Play lecture series, exploring the intersection between digital games and public history. She organised a Forum Z in November 2023 on history and video games, teaming up with the Rotondes cultural centre, the gaming convention Game On and the BTS school of Game Programming and Game Design.
In June 2023, two FNR PSP-Flagship grants were awarded to Joëlla van Donkersgoed and Dominic Santana, respectively, for the projects Historesch Gesinn and Radio Luxembourg.
Aliénor Gandanger developed “Gazengel”, a digital comic about the lives and activities of researchers at the centre.
The PHO research group hosted three public historians in residence in 2023: Prof. Olwen Purdue from Queen’s University Belfast, Chao Tayana from the Museum of British Colonialism (Kenya) and Prof. Faye Sayer from the University of Birmingham.
The REMIX team won two awards, the Luxembourg Design Silver Award for Minett Stories in the Digital Design category and the SHOT Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits for Minett Stories. Dominique Santana won the FNR award for Outstanding Promotion of Science to the Public for the web documentary A Colônia Luxemburguesa.