The Italian Association of Public History (AIPH) announces the 3^rd National Public History Conference at the Department of Letters and Cultural Heritage, University of Campania Vanvitelli (Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Caserta) from the 24^th to the 28^th of June 2019.  The Association’s 2019 plenary meeting will also take place during the Conference in Capua. AIPH 2019 will continue the promotion of Public History that started in Ravenna in June 2017 and continued in Pisa in June 2018.  Numerous challenges of Italian and international experiences and practices of Public History will be discussed.

Department of Letters and Cultural Heritage, University of Campania, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Italy, 24–28 June 2019

Argument

The Italian Manifesto of Public History was approved at the AIPH annual plenary meeting in June 2018.The Manifesto commits us to:

• the promotion of historical knowledge and of the methodologies of historical research with different audiences, encouraging multidisciplinary dialogue;
• the valorisation of practices and experiences that focus on the active involvement of groups and communities, also in the digital world;
• the promotion and valorisation of innovative and high-quality research, whose results are obtained through participative practices and methodologies that may facilitate the emergence of new documents;
• the definition and sharing of professional and academic best practices, including standards for evaluating Public History scholarship;
• the provision of professional growth and training of Public Historians who work outside academic circles, with professional expertise regarding the methodologies of historical research and of the teaching and the communication of history;
• the development of Public History as a new academic discipline;
• the opposing of the ‘abuses of history’, understood as the practices of mystification of the past in order to manipulate public opinion;
• the promotion of Italian historical, material and immaterial cultural heritage, in all its forms;
• the provision of professional skills, where history as critical knowledge, and the methodologies of historical research, are necessary for the resolution of today’s issues.

Consistent with this manifesto, the AIPH intends to foster greater awareness of the value of historical knowledge, an essential resource for the understanding of the present and planning for the future in our societies and also, as a fundamental requirement when exercising full citizenship.

The AIPH Conference in Capua will engage with a variety of Italian public history experiences. This is the reason why the Association choose to indicate a set of fields for submitting proposals. The conference will examine ways in which history is present in society today, from universities to public places, in schools and learning institutions, in high and in popular culture and, finally, in the daily life of our communities. The invitation to participate aims at those who work in the public history sphere and with various professions aiming at the production of historical and educational content. Proposals are invited for many fields:

1.Memory

• Anniversaries & celebrations (in particular the commemorative events for 2019)
• Interactions between history and memory
• Monuments and memory places
• Re-enactments and living history
• Oral history and history of communities
• Abuse of history

2. Media & production of historical contents

• Social media and web
• Digital public history practices and projects
• Audio and video productions
• Crowdsourcing, content generated by the public & collaborative writing
• Role of photography in public history projects
• Open access and new forms of communication
• Applications for smartphones/tablets
• TV series, film and documentaries
• Literature
• Comics
• Theater
• Scale battles, modelling and collectibles
• Board games and videogames

3. Professions

• Who are the public historians in Italy?
• Professional ethics and public history
• The university and public history
• Schools, teachers and public history
• History in museums, libraries, archives, exhibitions, galleries
• History festivals
• History magazines and their audiences
• Public and private consultancies with history
• The market of history
• The social role of the historian
• Popular narratives

4.Territories

• Light archaeology and territorial identities
• Public archaeology
• Material and immaterial cultural heritage
• Public policies
• Urban history and smart cities
• History of the environment and of the landscape
• History and business of communication
• Cultural tourism

During the 3rd AIPH National Conference, June 2019, special attention will be given to the following seven specific themes:

1. Abuse of history: the neo-Bourbon counter-history
2. The promotion of historical and archaeological heritage
3. Historical landscapes as cultural heritage
4. Oral history in public history projects
5. The role of ancient history in Public History
6. Teaching history in schools and universities
7. Identity, xenophobia, racism

How to apply 

Two types of original proposals (not already accepted for previous AIPH meetings) can be submitted:

1. Individual papers, which will be integrated into panels by the Scientific Committee. Each proposal must contain a summary in Italian and English (ca. 2000 characters each) and a short C.V. with address and email of the proponent.

2. Panels with 3 or 4 participants with a coordinator among them (or in addition). Each proposal must contain an abstract (ca. 1500-2000 characters) in Italian and English, which describes the general theme of the panel and an abstract of each single paper in the panel in both languages (about 1500-2000 characters). The C.V. of each panel participant and the address and email of the coordinator and of all panellists must be included. Panels with speakers from the same institution are not recommended. Comparison of experiences and diversified geographical and professional origins will constitute positive elements for the evaluation.

Proposals must be received by 31 January 2019

at the address of the secretariat of the Association: segreteria@aiph.it 

The expected duration for each panel is 90 minutes. At least 20 minutes are dedicated to discussion with the public.

The first draft of the programme will be made public by 15 March 2019.

A Call for Posters for the illustration of individual projects will be launched on 15 February 2019 and will close on 15 April 2019.

Registration Fees

There is a registration fee for all participants and for the public, with the sole exception of panel co-ordinators invited by the programme committee and participants to roundtables organised at the initiative of the programme committee.

• Ordinary registration costs are (compulsory by 10 May 2019 for all selected participants in panels and in the poster section):€80, and after that date: €95.
• Registration for students and temporary workers under 35 (compulsory by 10 May 2019 for all selected participants in panels and in the poster section): €35, and after that date: €45.

For members of the AIPH

• Ordinary registration by 10 May 2019 (mandatory by that date for all the participants selected in the panels and in the poster section): €40, and after that date: €55.
• Registration for students and temporary workers under 35 (mandatory by 10 May for all the participants selected in the panels and in the poster section): €20, and after that date €30.

The payment can be made from now on (indicating the type of registration) by bank transfer to:

AIPH – Associazione Italiana di Public HistoryCassa di Risparmio di Firenze ‑ Via Bufalini, 4/6, 50122 – Firenze (FI)IBAN: IT08H0616002800100000013926BIC-SWIFT: CRFIIT3F

Scholarships

Among those selected by the programme committee, the AIPH will offer scholarships, which will partially cover travel and accommodation expenses. The scholarships will not be reserved exclusively for AIPH members, but preference will be given to them, in order of priority.When applying for a scholarship, candidates must declare their academic/work status and current domicile. The application must also contain a short paragraph of motivations.