Lectures on Microhistory
Hungarian historians visit Volda University College on April 15th and 16th.
Background
As one of the most fashionable trends of current historiography, microhistory can aim to have a larger share in the teaching of history at university level. Especially since it is necessary in the process of European unification that history courses which put the stress on the common experiences of ordinary people of all of Europe, and indeed, of the whole world, gradually take over from courses held in the spirit of traditional national histories that tend to poise members of different nations against each other. With these needs and possibilities in mind, and financed by Tempus Foundation (Budapest), Icelandic, Norwegian and Hungarian historians envisage developing the curriculum of an English-language course that could subsequently be taught in various European universities ? and beyond. The course is to be in English, destined for the MA level, based on the most outstanding results of the microhistory in the last three decades.
First, theoretical foundations and the main lines of the project should be fixed at a roundtable discussion on 25 August 2008 in Reykjavík by Icelandic researchers working at the Center for Microhistorical Research of the Reykjavík Academy and Hungarian historians from Eötvös University, Budapest working in the field of microhistory. (Other historians are warmly welcomed if they can finance their participation.) Then, with the participation of Hungarian and international Erasmus students, an English-language course ?Microhistory? will be held in Budapest in the spring semester in 2009.
Hungarian historians from Eötvös University will go to Volda University College and the University of Trondheim to lecture there. The conclusions of the project will be drawn at a workshop to be held in Budapest on 19th June 2009 with the participation of Icelandic, Norwegian and Hungarian historians. We welcome - and we shall try to find a way to invite - the participation of other microhistorians at this workshop. Then the curriculum of a suggested English-language MA-course "Microhistory" will be finalized and offered to universities all over Europe and, indeed, elsewhere as well.