Episode 42: Teaching Colonialism Through Museums

Dr. Sara Karn joins our podcast to talk about her research on historical empathy, a cognitive-affective process of attempting to understand the thoughts, feelings, experiences, decisions, and actions of people from the past, within their historical contexts. Sara joined the EuroClio Annual Conference in Brussels this year as her dissertation, Perspectives on Historical Empathy for History Education in Canada: Purposes, Problems and Possibilities, was nominated to EuroClio's recently launched History Education Dissertation Prize. During her conversation with Andreas Holtberget, Sara also mentioned a couple of her recent articles:Designing historical empathy learning experiences: a pedagogical tool for history teachersWalking in their footsteps: Historical empathy and experiential learning on battlefield study tours

Historian Brent Geerts (KU Leuven) joins the Past Times podcast to unpack his PhD research on how museums like the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium and Belgium's Royal Military Museum shape the way students engage with colonial history. Geerts discusses the "emotional affective approach" to museum learning, the tension teachers feel between staying neutral and taking a stance, and why classroom visits to colonial heritage sites echo and complicate the emotional weight of history education.

Historian, educator, and EuroClio Board Member Juraj Varga joins the podcast to discuss Making Visegrad Histories Digital, a free online resource hub for teaching communist-era history across the Visegrad region, as well as plans for a new Central and East European teacher network within EuroClio. The conversation also covers Slovakia's new history curriculum and the recent controversy over the government's attempt to cancel Velvet Revolution commemorations, and what it sparked instead.

In this episode, Andreas Holtberget talks to Nayla Hamadeh about her motivations for founding the Lebanese Association for History (LAH) and its impact on history teaching in Lebanon as a post-conflict country following the civil war. Nayla and Andreas go on to talk about the current war on Lebanon and its implications for teaching and the importance of a teacher's community in times of conflict. You can find Nayla Hamadeh in conversation with EuroClio founder Joke van der Leeuw-Roord in the Winds of Change podcast, and read more about her work in Lebanon in an interview with Bjorn Wansink on our website.

This podcast by Maastricht University student Alex Gonzalez Diaz discusses contested historical sites, Syncretismo in Guadalajara (2017), and Monumento al Mestizaje (Malinchismo) (1982) in Mexico City. It provides context and history of the monuments, introduces the actors involved in the contestation, and explores themes of syncretism and ethnic hybridisation. Syncretismo by Ismeal Varjas combines indigenous Aztec imagery with Mexican Catholic iconography, which created backlash and calls for the misuse of public funds after its inauguration. Monumento al Mestizaje was unveiled in 1982, created by Spanish-born artist Julian Martinez Soras, and was quietly relocated to a hidden park due to public disapproval. Monumento al Mestizaje depicts Mexico's infamous conquistador, Hernán Cortés, and his indigenous translator, viewed as the original traitor, La Malinche. Through analysing both sides of the contestation and the themes of syncretism and ethnic hybridisation, these public monuments explore questions of unity and identity as well as leftover legacies of settler colonialism within Mexico.

Contested Histories co-director Marie-Louise Jansen and Timothy Ryback, Director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, joins our podcast to celebrate 10 years of the Contested Histories intiative. The intiative, now hosted at EuroClio, maps contestations and controversies over statues, memorials, street names and other representations of disputed historical legacies in public spaces. Together, our guests reflects on the origins of the initiative, the different kinds of contestetations and remedies that the intiative maps, and their use for (history) educators.

Stefania Gargioni and Maria Vlachaki, history educators in Paris and Thessaloniki, join the podcast to talk about their ongoing work for EuroClio's Moving Europe project. The two are making a step-by-step guide for teachers on how they can collaborate with (migration) museums in taking history outside of the classroom.

Simona Stankutė joins our podcast to talk about her recent residency with EuroClio and the work done by her colleagues at the Lithuanian History Teachers' Association creating an alternative history curriculum. We talk about challenges of overcrowded curricula , the steps needed to change a curriculum, and how teachers in Lithuania are in dialogue with the government in shaping the future of history teaching there.

Em. prof. dr. Judith Pace (University of San Francisco, USA) joins our podcast to talk about her research on teaching controversial topics, notably her latest academic work in South Africa, while also sharing some tips and recommendations for teachers. Judy's latest article, Deliberative dialogues with preservice teachers in Bosnia-Herzegovina and South Africa using a gradient of controversy approach, discussed in the podcast episode, was published shortly after this podcast.

In this episode Andreas Holtberget speaks with Jessica Ellison from the National Council for History Education in the United States. They talk about the challenges arising from Trump's re-election, from defunding of education and the chilling effects of his many executive orders to book banning and teacher solidarity in response.