International Conference, April 2020, University of Akureyri, Iceland (more info)
Half-Remembering and Half-Forgetting – Teaching the (Medieval) Past Today
Postponed to late summer/early autumn!
In recent decades, the humanities seem to be stricken with a peculiar disorientation as to their societal relevance. However, the growing feeling of their being in a state of crisis might serve as a welcome reminder of their civic task in a likewise increasingly challenged society. [...] In the face of both the ideological catastrophe in the first half of the 20th century, and the rise of populism and nationalism in our days, the interdisciplinary field of medieval studies, with its strong focus on a ‘Germanicʼ past, has a special obligation to address this challenge. Popular ideas of the Middle Ages have recently been called the result of a banal medievalism somewhere in between half-remembering and half-forgetting the past, often denoting anything one wishes to be ideologically disassociated from. At the same time, scholars in the field seem to be reluctant in rethinking their stance in not only researching but particularly teaching a past whose relevance for the present appears more ambiguous than ever. [...]