Public History on the Battlefields of Europe: Experiences of Dealing with Painful Pasts in Former Yugoslavia

History and representations of the past have become an increasingly public issue, especially over the past decades. Public and Applied History are aiming at responding to this challenge. They provide an innovative approach to historical sciences that deals with the intersections between academic research and society’s methods of producing historical knowledge.

This approach is the underlying idea of the Jean Monnet Network Applied European Contemporary History as well. As part of the broad field of Public History, the network aims to explore how methods of dealing with the past can be informed by a deeper understanding of the historical cultures of the neighbouring European countries. Comprising members from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Poland, and Serbia, the network strives to explain national cultures of history in their specific constructions and further create relationships between them, thus making potential conflicts both appreciated and understood. During our first conference, we would like to discuss the network’s approach with interested scholars and practitioners from European countries in order to map the European landscape of Public and Applied History.