The Teaching of History Workshop - Pilot Project

The main reason for this workshop is to continue our promotion of civil society projects. In this case we are exploring with Romanian schoolteachers the various versions of history teaching, (one which puts the lid on nationalism/populism). We are discussing the dark side of Central European countries history that is either ignored or denied.

21ST - 23RD FEBRUARY, 2020

The History Workshop was conducted by John Lotherington

THEMES:

The challenge of fake history
Why teach history?
The relationship between history teaching and national identity
How have political change and political forces in other countries shaped history teaching since 1989?
How history teaching has reacted to political, social and economic developments in Romania since 1989?
Where has history teaching reacted? Where has it lagged? Where has it actually surprised enquiry?

Panellists

John Lotherington

John Lotherington is director of the 21st Century Trust in London, which in 2009 forged a long-term partnership with Salzburg Global Seminar where John also leads the health and health care innovation programs. He began his career in history education and maintains an interest in that area. His publications as editor and author include The Communications Revolution; Years of Renewal: European History 1470 to 1600; The Seven Ages of Life; The Tudor Years; and introductions to The Florentine Histories by Niccolò Machiavelli, The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione, and the Divine Comedy by Dante. He is an associate board member, and former Chair, of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development, a trustee of Cumberland Lodge, and a governor of Goodenough College, London.

Dr.Eric Weaver

Eric Beckett Weaver is an associate professor teaching political science at the University of Debrecen. He received his doctorate in History from The University of Oxford in 2008. He is the author and editor of a variety of books and articles on nationalism, minorities, and politics in Southeastern Europe.

Professor Christopher Coker

Christopher Coker is Professor of International Relations, LSE and Director LSE IDEAS. His most recent book is The Rise of the Civilizational State. He is a former editor of the Atlantic Quarterly. His books include Twilight of the West, Future War and Barbarous Philosophers: reflections on the nature of war from Heraclitus to Heisenberg. His books have been translated into 8 languages, though not alas Romanian! He lectures extensively in Europe US and Asia.

carol capita

Prof Carol Căpiță graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of History-Philosophy, in 1988. After a brief period as a Secondary School teacher (both in rural and urban schools), he became a staff member of his alma mater since 1990. He holds a PhD in Ancient History and a PhD in Educational Sciences. His interests (in the field of Education) lie in the area of curriculum development, the use of sources in History teaching, and the initial teacher training of History teachers. He published a number of articles on the Didactics of History, as well as being co-author (with Laura Căpiţă) of two books on the Didactics of History, various teaching materials for the initial and continuing teacher training, and several History textbooks. He worked as an independent expert with the Council of Europe for the last 16 years.

Slobodan Markovich

Dr. Slobodan G. Markovich, MBE is Full Professor at the School of Political Science of the University of Belgrade where he lectures Political Anthropology, Political History of South-East Europe and Image of European Other. He is also Full Professor at the Institute for European Studies in Belgrade. He has been Research Associate at LSEE/LSE since 2012, and at LSE IDEAS since 2018. He has been the head of the Centre for British Studies at the School of Political Science in Belgrade since 2017. His published monographs include a book on Freud’s pessimism: Pessimistic Anthropology of Sigmund Freud (Belgrade, 2012), on Serbian economist, politician and diplomat Chedomille Miyatovich. A Victorian among Serbs (Belgrade, 2006), and a monograph on British-(Balkan)Serbian relations: British Perceptions of Serbia and the Balkans 1903-1906 (Paris, 2000, in English). His (co-)edited collections of papers in English include: British-Serbian Relations from the 18th to the 21st Centuries (Belgrade, 2018), Problems of Identities in the Balkans (Belgrade, 2006), and Challenges to New Democracies in the Balkans (Belgrade, 2004). He has been the coordinator of annual meetings “Psychoanalysis and Culture” since 2016.His research interests include: Construction of Ethnic/National and Religious Identities in the Balkans, British-Balkan Relations, psychoanalytic anthropology, and History of European Pessimism.

LOUISA SLAVKOVA

Louisa Slavkova is founding member and director of Sofia Platform, a democracy development organization based in Bulgaria. She was visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Institute in Columbia, NYC and programmes manager of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Louisa served as an adviser to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Nickolay Mladenov (2010 – 2013). Prior to that, Louisa worked with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education. She is passionate about democracy, civic education and dealing with the communist past.

WOJCIECH PRZYBYLSKI

Wojciech Przybylski is the editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight and chairman of Res Publica Foundation in Warsaw. Previously Wojciech has been the editor-in-chief of Eurozine – a magazine representing a network of European cultural journals, and – a Polish journal Res Publica Nowa. He has launched and leads the ‘New Europe 100’ project that is networking and bringing forward a community of successful innovators from CEE across the fields of business, research media, NGO and public administration run jointly by Res Publica, Financial Times and Google. He is a member of the advisory board of the European Forum of New Ideas. His expertise includes European and transatlantic affairs as well as policies related to innovation and culture. He has been publishing in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, Journal of Democracy, EUObserver, VoxEurop, Hospodarskenoviny, Internazzionale, Gazeta Wyborcza, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and several others. His new book ‘Understanding Central Europe’ (co-ed. with Marcin Moskalewicz) has been published in 2017 by Routledge.

VALUR INGIMUNDARSON

Valur Ingimundarson is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Iceland and Chair of the Board of the EDDA – Center of Excellence. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in New York. His research focus is on geopolitics and security; Arctic politics and governance; Iceland’s foreign, defence and security policies; the politics of justice and memory in Europe; U.S.-European political relations during and after the Cold War; and post-conflict politics in the former Yugoslavia. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Centre for International Studies (CIS), London School of Economics, the Paris-based École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), the Otto Suhr Institute, Center for Transnational Relations, Foreign and Security ATASP at the Freie Universität in Berlin and the Shanghai Institues of International Studies (SIIS). His works include: The Geopolitics of the ‘Future Return: Britain’s Century-Long Challenges to Norway’s Control over Spitsbergen, The International History Review (2018); Iceland’s Financial Crisis: The Politics of Blame, Protests, and Reconstruction [ed. et al.] (New York and London: Routledge, 2016); Nordic Cold War Cultures: Ideological Promotion, Public Reception, and East-West Interactions [co-ed.] Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 2015); Managing a contested region: The Arctic Council and the politics of Arctic governance, The Polar Journal (2014); The Mikson Case: War Crimes Memory, Estonian Identity Reconstructions, and Transnational Politics of Justice in Annette Vowinckel et al. (eds.); Cold War Cultures (New York: Berghahn, 2012); The Rebellious Ally: Iceland, the United States, and the Politics of Empire, 1945–2006 (Dordrecht and St. Louis: Republic of Letters, 2011); A Risk Assessment for Iceland: Global, Societal, and Military Factors: Findings of an Interdisciplinary Commission (ed. and chair) (Reykjavik: Icelandic Foreign Ministry, 2009); The Politics of Memory and the Reconstruction of Albanian National Identity in Post-War Kosovo, History and Memory (2007).