HISTORIES ON THE FRINGES AND BETWEEN THE MARGINS
Unofficial Histories is a public conference to discuss how society produces, presents, and consumes history beyond official and elite versions of the past.
It aims brings together those who wish to consider historical engagements and understandings that take place within, on the edges of, or outside “official” sites that produce and transmit historical knowledge and ideas.
Roll up, roll up! The fourth annual Unofficial Histories conference will take place in Amsterdam over two days:
Friday 5th June 2015 will be a day of papers, presentations and debate at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
Saturday 6th June 2015 will be a relaxed day exploring the ‘Unofficial Histories of Amsterdam’.
Like a famous Dutch beer advertising slogan, the Unofficial Histories conference aims to refresh the parts other conferences cannot reach. Our commitment is to developing new and alternative ways of thinking about and producing history and we take our stand with all those eccentrics, misfits, agitators and outliers who have helped to activate radical and dissident currents in our historical imagination.
From Raphael Samuel, we take the view that history is a very broad-based activity that ought to be a common enterprise, both collaborative and democratic. We also believe that history is ultimately a political undertaking and, as Howard Zinn put it, “historians cannot choose to be neutral; [they] write on a moving train.” For us that means exploring the myriad ways in which politics and history collide, fuse, or brush past one another, not just in the content of our interpretations, but also in the forms and practices we use to present and communicate our ideas, and in the general conditions under which we produce them. It also means insisting upon the idea, unfashionable in some quarters, that history still matters and can be a call to action.
We are very pleased to announce the programme for Unofficial Histories 2015! For further details:
https://unofficialhistories.wordpress.com/uh15/programme/