3. The Writings of Contemporary History Today

The Institut d’histoire du temps présent, the European Network for Contemporary History (EURHISTXX) and the network “Historiography and Epistemology of History” organize a series of lectures in preparation of the international conference to be held in Paris, October 2010, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the IHTP :

The seminar will compare the perspectives of contemporary history in different intellectual, scientific, and linguistic contexts. Whatever one calls it – “histoire du temps présent” or ”histoire immédiate” (instant history), “Neueste geschichte” or “Zeitgeschichte”, “historia del presente”, “historia actual” or “historia vivida” or simply contemporary history – this is the only part of historiography which constantly provokes conflicts about its definition, its boundaries, even its legitimacy, disputes which doesn’t occur, at least not with the same intensity, for ancient, medieval or modern history. The series intends to understand the diverse ways to define contemporary history, but overall to analyze the real practices, the research topics, the cultural contexts into which historians all over the world try to understand today their “own” time”.

First session : Thursday April 2, 2009

2:00 - 5:00 PM at the IHTP

Questioning Contemporary History in France

This opening session will gather Guy Pervillé, Professor at Toulouse II-Le Mirail University and Director of the Groupe de recherche en histoire immédiate, Henry Rousso, Senior researcher at the CNRS (IHTP) and Jean-François Sirinelli, Professor at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and Director of the Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po. Moderator : Philippe Bourdin, Professor of Modern History at Blaise-Pascal University of Clermont-Ferrand. The sessions is audio taped and available on the IHTP’s website (read more...)

Friday May 29, 2009 meeting canceled.

Friday June 05, 2009 Eli Zarestky, New School for Social Research, New York, Visiting Professor at the IHTP, "Contemporary History viewed from the United States" (read more...)

Friday October 16, 2009 Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Professor at Laval University, Canada. (read more...)

Friday December 11, 2009 (date needs to be confirmed) Thomas Lindenberger, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Linz, Austria.

Janvier 2010 29, Anne Pérotin-Dumon, University of Chili, Santiago, Chili (date needs to be confirmed)