Early modern times in school and pop culture - a public history seminar

Seminar at the University of Oldenburg in the winter semester 2023/25
Lecturer: Dr Lucas Haasis

Description:

The way we imagine the past and the images we create of the past and its eras are not arbitrary. They follow certain patterns and viewing habits, some of which have been handed down over centuries and some of which are completely new, for example through new films, series or computer games. We call these patterns historical images and they are very powerful. Images of history are made up of different influences, react to current discourses and events and, last but not least, depend on location. Images of history allow conclusions to be drawn about collective identity constructions and are therefore never neutral. Images of history do not have to be authentic or historically accurate - and this is precisely the crux of the matter for history studies and teacher training. Today, modern images of history are primarily characterised by pop culture. This is also where young people first come into contact with history - when they play a game or watch a new series, for example, and then take many things at face value. The premature assumption of reality or the idea that "history was like this" is a direct consequence of this type of contact with past eras. However, history, epochs and events of the past are not static, have never been "true" and are not "set in stone", but everything we know or think about history is constructed and therefore changeable. Ultimately, it always depends on which formats are used to communicate history and who the addressee is.

The research field of so-called "public history" addresses this constructed history and the various forms of modern history, questions their impact and provides perspectives for critically analysing and consciously dealing with them. In the seminar, we will focus on public history and link it to the requirements of teacher training programmes.

If we in educational institutions today want to follow the mission of giving children a critical view of history and skills such as media literacy, then we ourselves must first learn to deal competently with these media.

In this seminar, we will look at modern forms of communicating history in relation to the early modern era. We will look at images of history in games, series, films, comics, VR applications and social media, for example, and learn how to analyse and critically question these images of history.

The seminar is accompanied by an online lecture series with renowned experts on Tuesday evenings.

Students are required to develop their own format for communicating history (such as a podcast, game pitch or social media post). Your own project will be presented in a poster at a final event at the end of the semester.

The seminar cooperates with two schools - the Artland-Gymnasium Quakenbrück and the IGS Flötenteich - and will work together with pupils.