'War! Popular Culture and European Heritage of Major Armed Conflicts' is the Research Excellence Initiative project, carried out by a team of nine researchers of the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC).
This research project examines how the heritage of modern war history is represented and appropriated in contemporary popular culture, and which modifications or additions can be advised to harmonise these appropriations with the requirements and principles of democratic historical and civic education.
Subprojects
The lines of inquiry will be carried out in four subprojects, all focusing on Europe:
- Dr. Robbert-Jan Adriaansen, "Historical Reenactments as Simulation of the Past: a New Paradigm for Research" (start: 1 April 2018);
- Laurie Slegtenhorst MA (PhD project): "Popular Culture and the Second World War";
- Pieter Van den Heede MA (PhD project): "Games set in war-devastated European (urban) landscapes";
- Siri Driessen MA (PhD project): "Visiting war sites and cemeteries";
- Lise Zurné MA (PhD project): "Performing Urban Pasts: Historical Reenactments with Sensitive Heritage" (start October 2017);
- Dr. Susan Hogervorst (Post-doc project): "The use of digital testimonies on war and liberation in educational contexts".
Partners
What makes this project unique, is the combination of the expertise of two research centres at the ESHCC: the Centre for Historical Culture (CHC) and the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Culture and Communication (ERMeCC). Also, the members of the project closely collaborate with the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Open University (OU) and the Erasmus Studio (ES), the institute for e-research at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
