Heritages of Hunger: Societal Reflections on Past European Famines in Education, Commemoration and Musealisation

Europe’s recent economic and refugee crises have challenged its cohesion, sparking off Euro-scepticism, rifts between communities and anti-immigration sentiments. Heritages of Hunger seeks to contribute towards overcoming divisions among European communities in two ways. First, through investigating and reassessing current practices of education, in schools, museums, heritage sites and surrounding commemorations, about famine and hunger (1845-1947) as specific dimensions of Europe’s troubled modern pasts. Second, through developing educational resources and recommendations that will strengthen consciousness of transeuropean legacies in heritage initiatives. These European famines, connected to episodes of war, neglect, environmental crisis, continue to function as negative European heritage. However, famines also evoked transeuropean solidarity, through relief schemes, and the mediations of their legacies bear similarities that can promote future transnational identification and reconciliation. The project aims to uncover the past and present significance of European famines in formal education (schools) and informal education (museums, commemorative practices). It provides pioneering, comparative analyses of how heritages of famines in Europe have been transmitted. It investigates whether these educational and heritage practices are nation-oriented or transnational, emphasise conflict or mutual understanding. What methods and resources hold future potential for the development of curricula and practices that contribute to the construction of transeuropean identities? Furthermore, it addresses the significant impact on famine legacies in education and heritage practices of European immigrant communities across the globe. On the basis of its results, the consortium will create a MOOC and a database of visual and textual famine legacies. Both can be used adaptably by stakeholders (educational, heritage institutes), as a way to connect national and local pasts to wider European experiences, and as a stimulus for alternative teaching practices. The project will also develop a report with recommendations for teaching heritages of hunger and migration directed towards policy makers, educational institutes and the heritage sector.