Call for Applications
Seminar: "Textbooks in south-eastern Europe: a place for sources?"
26-29 May 2014, Georg Eckert Institute, Braunschweig, Germany

Textbooks from south-eastern Europe make little use of primary sources and of images as sources. This may be considered regrettable, as the inclusion of sources can be an early aid to school students in the critical study and interpretation of historical documents and images and assist them in understanding various diverging views on one and the same event.
The aim of this seminar is to discuss the role of sources in teaching in schools and the ways in which they are used (or not used) in textbooks. Experts from a Braunschweig-based textbook publisher will be on hand to discuss possible ways of incorporating sources into textbooks; further, we will test multi-perspective approaches to historical events using the example of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. We will work during the seminar with a collection of digital sources on the period 1914-1918. The Georg Eckert Institute’s library, which holds an extensive textbook collection, will be available for textbook authors to discover new ideas for future works.
As the seminar will be conducted exclusively in English, participants will need to be able to communicate actively and effectively using the English language. If you are interested in attending the seminar, please fill in the form attached below and return it by email to Claudia Lichnofsky at lichnofsky@gei.de by 28 February 2014. The Georg Eckert Institute is able to refund travel and accommodation expenses for 8 participants from south-eastern Europe.

Call for Applications
Academic conference on “Myths in south-eastern European textbooks”
22-24 October, Tirana.

Heroes and myths have fascinated humanity since antiquity and they shape our view of history. They can function as screens onto which territorial and national demands are projected. Myths can be created from both characters and events from history that are deemed memorable by a society. The prevailing narrative of the hero or the myth generally bears little relation to the person as they existed or the event as it actually occurred.
South-eastern European historical sciences are frequently moulded by national constructs of myths and heroes, which, in turn, have an effect on the narratives in history textbooks. This allows the legitimisation of a nationalistic world view and can be a catalyst for conflict within “multi-ethnic” societies and even between the individual states of a region.
This conference is organised by the Georg Eckert Institute in cooperation with the department of history at the faculty of history and philology of University of Tirana, aims to highlight myths and their potential for creating conflict and to provide a forum for discussions regarding their role in history teaching.

Contact: Claudia Lichnofsky
lichnofsky@gei.de

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