In Dialogue with the Living Past: workshopseries

Doctoral School

In Dialogue with the Living Past: theoretical and methodological reflections on the co-creation of historical knowledge

 

 

In the second semester (February – June), we will take a hands-on approach. With a dedicated group, we want to tackle your personal questions and work together on specific ethical, methodological, or other issues that researchers encounter in working with interlocutors.

 

For historical research, oral history and ethnographic research are methods that essentially bring the past ‘alive’ through direct interactions between researchers and their interlocutors. However, historians are traditionally less familiarised with the ethical and emotional challenges that undeniably accompany these interactions. We aim to approach this based on three main questions: (1) who are the gatekeepers of historical knowledge production; (2) how can historians use ethnographic methods in an ethically responsible way; and (3) how do we theoretically reflect on and pragmatically approach the positions of ‘expert’ and ‘participant’?

Direct interactions with (personal experiences of) interlocutors inevitably come with relational and socio-political ethical questions (Vandekinderen, Roets en Van Hove, 2014). This course is aimed at researchers from various disciplines who draw on methodologies rooted in oral history and ethnography. Its main objective is to help them navigate the numerous challenges they face, and introduce them to debates that emerged following a previous reading group series (September – December 2024). The course will do so by organising four workshops. These are aimed at encouraging participants to share their own valuable experiences and insights, and to critically reflect on methodological difficulties, including questions on the relational and socio-political ethics of doing ethnographic research. The course focuses on three questions: (1) who are the gatekeepers of historical knowledge production; (2) how can historians use ethnographic methods in an ethically responsible way; and (3) how can we both theoretically and pragmatically approach the positions of ‘expert’ and ‘participant’?

 

 

Program

12/02 – Workshop session I — Tina Degendt (14-17h)

26/02 – Workshop session II  — Karolina Kluczewska (14-17h)

12/03 – Workshop session III  — Lieselot De Wilde (14-17h)

26/03 – Workshop session IV — Lise Zurné (14-17h)

14/05 – Conference/colloquium (9h30-18h30)

 

What we offer:

Four workshops in which an expert will combine an explanation of its own research and experiences, with an interactive platform in which we go deeper into specific, personal questions, difficulties, challenges from your own research. In this way, we will be learning from each other and each work, guided by an expert on the topic. The purpose is that your input is of important relevance, in a way that the workshops will try to really interact with your work, and formulate ‘answers’ to challenges present at your work.

A conference day in May on which you present a poster (and a presentation) of your research and come into contact with others who work around similar topics. In a panel formula, you will be able to go deeper into different topics related to the methodological and ethical reflections on the co-creation of knowledge.

 

What we expect:

As part of the Doctoral Schools, this workshop series counts as credits if you are present on at least three of the four workshops, as well as on the conference. 

We kindly ask participants to bring questions/challenges you experience at your work and you would like to discuss.

We expect from PhD students who took part in the series of workshops to present a poster and/or paper at the conference.

 

Conference

More information about the conference and paper/poster proposals here .