Call for Participation: Unofficial Histories 2014

Unofficial Histories 2014
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June 2014- Huddersfield, UK
 A public conference to discuss how society produces, presents, and consumes history beyond official and elite versions of the past.
 -Call for Participation- 
The Unofficial Histories conference seeks to bring together those who wish to consider the value and purpose of historical engagements and understandings that take place within, on the edges of, or outside “official” sites that produce and transmit historical knowledge and ideas. The third annual Unofficial Histories conference will take place in Huddersfield over two days:
 ■Saturday 7 June 2014 will be a day of papers, presentations and debate at University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield.
■Sunday 8 June 2014 will be a relaxed day of informal activities in Huddersfield exploring the theme of ’Unofficial Histories’.
We now invite presentation proposals for the meeting on Saturday 7th June 2014 to be held at University of Huddersfield. Taking its cue from the assumption that history is, as Raphael Samuel put it, “a social form of knowledge; the work, in any given instance of a thousand different hands”, the conference aims to open up to examination the ways in which historians, curators, writers, journalists, artists, archivists, geographers, film makers, musicians, playwrights, activists, enthusiasts and others, produce and present the past in the public realm, popular culture and in everyday life. How is this history produced, transmitted and consumed? Who is producing and consuming it, and why? What subjects, ideas and themes are presented? What styles and mediums are used? We hope to sharpen the awareness of the different sites and forms of historical production and consider how they impact public perceptions and consciousness of history. We hope to explore the interactions between competing and corresponding impulses in history-making: the scholarly and the political; the academic and the everyday; the imperatives of funding, sustainability, ethics and access. Finally, we would like to consider whether such “unofficial histories” have political effects that might serve democratic and emancipatory goals, and if and how they can be seen as sources of dissent and resistance against conventional, privileged models of historical knowledge.
 Presentations of 5-20 minutes (different approaches to communication are encouraged) are welcomed on any aspect of the above, which may include: ■People’s History & the History of Everyday Life ■History on TV, Radio and the Internet ■Memory, Myth and Folklore ■History and the Arts ■Class, Culture and Ethnicities ■Museums, Heritage and Archives ■Historical Re-enactment and Living History ■Family History and Genealogy ■Feminist, Women’s and Gender History ■History Education, Teaching and Curricula ■Oral History, Testimony and Biography ■History and the Politics of Now ■Uses and Abuses of History ■The Role of the Historian ■Local, Regional and Community History
 Please submit proposal abstracts of 250-300 words, including a proposed presentation duration (5-20 minutes), by Wednesday 28 February 2014 to unofficialhistories@outlook.com