What is your position on the future challenges and promises of cultural history? This guiding question structures an interactive 45-minute session facilitated by the PhD/RMa Council of the Huizinga Institute for Cultural History.
The Huizinga Institute brings together early-career and senior historians from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds who all engage with cultural history. Building on this diversity, the session invites participants from all career stages and fields of expertise to take part in a “positionality game” on the future of the discipline. Participants respond to a series of pressing statements, collected by Huizinga Research Masters’ students, by positioning themselves physically in the room along five defined stances: strongly disagree, somewhat disagree, neutral, somewhat agree, and strongly agree. Each round is followed by a short, moderated discussion in which participants are invited to explain their positions and exchange their views. Statements may address issues such as the accessibility of historical writing, the revision of the historical canon, and the social responsibilities of cultural historians. By bringing together students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, professors, historians working in the cultural sector, and other interested participants, the session fosters an open and transgenerational exchange on the present and future of (cultural) history. The embodied format encourages active engagement and opens up the opportunity for discussion in a low-threshold space to collectively imagine a possible future for historical research, teaching, and professional practice.