Call for Participation | History and Archives in Practice 2025

Deadline: 30 September 11:59PM

In 2025, people around the world will reflect on 80 years since the end of World War II, remembering this pivotal moment in global history and commemorating the lives lost during the conflict. 

Those of us working with history and collections - archivists, historians, researchers and practitioners - think about memory on a daily basis. However, memory itself is an elusive and plural concept, it is both material and immaterial, and working with memory is not without its challenges. With HAP25 we want to consider these challenges, share our learnings, celebrate our successes, and delve into the possibilities that occur at the intersections of history and archives. 

We seek to explore how we understand and work with memory, considering questions like: How are memory, storytelling and remembrance felt and practised? How do we decide what memories to collect, and whose stories to tell? And how can we imagine new, expansive and intersectional ways of working with memory within our practices?

HAP25 aims to explore, but is not limited to, some of the following topics:

• Commemoration and remembrance: How and why do individuals, communities, and nations work together to commemorate and remember? How have practices changed over time and how might they look in the future? What is the role of historians and archivists and what can we learn from those outside of our professions
• Storytelling, history and archival practice: How does storytelling inform, challenge and expand our practices as historians and archivists?   In what ways can we tell stories to enhance access to and collaboration with histories and collections? And how do innovative forms of collecting and engaging impact our understanding of storytelling?
• Ethics and working with memory:  What are the ethical challenges and considerations of working with and recording memory? How can storytelling and working with memory challenge archival absences?
• Home, personal memories and archives: How might we rethink collecting practices, to incorporate contemporary objects and personal archives? How do family historians work with memory? 
• Community memory: How do communities work to ensure the inclusion of their stories and experiences? How do we best collaborate on this? Who is best placed to be doing this work? How do national memory narratives change? How do community memories get a place on the transnational stage of remembering?
• Institutional memory and beyond: How is institutional memory accessed? How can institutional memory interact with and respond to memory beyond the institution? How can historians, archivists, information managers and stakeholders collaborate to ensure that institutional memory is reflexive and reflective of the needs of different users?  
• Beyond materiality: How do we think about the immaterial and material memory of collections How can we collaborate with conservators, heritage scientists and practitioners to look beyond the materiality of a record to preserve its memory

HAP25 is particularly keen to highlight and support smaller organisations, underrepresented collections, and marginalised voices as well as new and emerging research.

Bursaries for contributors

A limited number of bursaries will be available for contributors to support their participation, such as travel and childcare. 

Contributors will be informed of the outcome of their submission and invited to apply for bursaries on Tuesday 22 November. They will be informed of the outcome of their bursary application before Wednesday 4 December. 

How to submit a proposal? 

Please submit an abstract (300 words) by 30 September 11:59PM using the form on the IHR website: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HAP25-CfP

What format can I submit? 

‘History and Archives in Practice’ encourages a wide range of formats that best showcase a collection and the experience / lessons of collaborative working between archivists and historians on shared projects. 

Please get in touch with HAP organisers at [email protected] if you have any questions or whether you’d like to discuss your idea for another format.