History in the Public Sphere: An Introduction 2022/23 Fall
Instructor: Constantin Iordachi
Course description:
The aim of this course is to explore, from a comparative and transnational perspective, the process of the creation, presentation, and dissemination of historical knowledge to the general public, customary referred to as “public history.” The course focuses on the main fields, methods, and practices of public history. It addresses the following questions: How is history created and recreated for the public? Who are the main societal actors involved in these processes? What are the main forms of interaction and dissemination? What is the relationship between “academic history” and “public” or “applied history”? What is the state of development and prospects of the future of public history?
The course takes a multi-faceted approach to public history, to include the following fields: professional history outside academia, popular history (as forms of ‘non-academic’ history), applied history (connected with real social issues), and the uses and abuses of history by political actors, as reflected in memory politics, museums and monuments.
To cover all these facets, the course will critically review a great variety of fields of manifestation of public history, from diverse countries, continents and historical periods, with a focus on forms of collective memory, projects on preservation of historic heritage; public archives; digital history and centers for the documentation, collection and recording of historical data or oral testimonies, etc.
LIST OF CLASSES
Week 1: Introduction
Class 1 (Monday, 19 Sep.): What is Public History? Definitions, Methods, and Practices
Class 2 (Wednesday, 21 Sep.): The Historian as a Public Figure
Week 2: The Concept of the Public Sphere
Class 3 (Monday, 26 Oct.): Habermas, Modernity and the Public Sphere
Wednesday, 28 Sept: No class
Class 4: Tour of Historic Vienna – Scheduled on 10 November
Week 3:
Class 5 (Oct. 3): Habermas and his Critics: New Perspectives
Class 6 (Oct. 5): The Rise of National Museums
Week 4:
Class 7 (Monday, 10 Oct.): Guest Lecture: Prof. Laszlo Kontler: The Enlightenment, its Legacy and the Public Sphere
Class 8 (Tuesday, 12 Oct.): Lecture Muhammet Mazi; History, Politics and the Public Sphere in Contemporary Turkey: The uses and abuses of the Ottoman Past
Week 5: Heritage, History and Public Memory
Class 9 (Monday, 17 Oct.): Cultural Heritage and Public MemoryClass 10 (Wednesday, 19 Oct.): Photography as Evidence and as Memory
Week 6: Universal Museums and Repatriation
Class 11 (Oct. 24): Museums in the Twenty-First Century. Guest Lecture: Prof. Khadija Zinnenburg Carroll: Universal Museums and the Repatriation of Art Artefacts
Oct. 26 National Holiday – No Class
Week 7: Journalism and Public History
Class 12 (Monday, 31 Oct.): Public History and Journalism
Class 13 (Wednesday, 2 Nov.): Political Propaganda in Totalitarian Regimes: The Case of Nazi Germany
Week 8: Public History and Memory Politics
Class 14 (7 Nov.): Budapest. Memory Politics in Public Space
Class 15 (9 Nov.): Memory Politics in post WW II-Austria
Class 16 (Thursday, 10 Nov.): Memory Politics in Public Spaces: Vienna City Walk. Visit to the House of Austrian History
Week 9: Oral History, Memory and Identity
Class 17 (14 Nov.): Oral History: An Introduction
Class 18 (16 Nov.): Biography and Public History
Week 10: Community Histories
Class 19 (21 Nov.): Community History
Class 20 (23 Nov.): History in Simulation and Re-Enactment
Week 11: Digital Transformations and Public History
Class 21 (28 Nov.): Archival Traditions and Practices
Class 22 (30 Nov.): Digital History
Week 12: 21st Century Transformations of the Public Sphere
Class 23 (Monday, 5 Dec.): Social Media and the Transformations of the Public Sphere
Class 24 (Wednesday, 7 Dec.): Summing Up