Poland Hosts EUSTORY Network Meeting 2023

Participants of the Annual EUSTORY Network Meeting in Warsaw | Photo: Daria Krotova
Participants of the Annual EUSTORY Network Meeting in Warsaw | Photo: Daria Krotova

35 participants from 22 countries met at the EUSTORY Annual Network Meeting in Warsaw from 8-12 March 2023. We would like to thank KARTA Center Foundation who made its newly opened dialogue centre for Eastern Europe "Eastern House" available for our meeting.

Existing challenges for educational work such as populism and the consequences of migration as well as recent challenges resulting from the war in Ukraine made this meeting a very intensive one.


Thursday, 9 March 2023

Ghetto Heroes Monument | Photo: Körber-Stiftung
Ghetto Heroes Monument | Photo: Körber-Stiftung

The competition organisers visited the Ghetto Heroes Monument sculpted in 1948 and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the POLIN Museum.

Warsaw city tour | Photo: Körber-Stiftung
Warsaw city tour | Photo: Körber-Stiftung

Afterwards, a guided tour of the remains of the Jewish ghetto provided an opportunity to discuss European history as well as Polish remembrance culture and commemorative politics.


Friday, 10 March 2023

Opening panel with Jarosław Kuisz (Kultura Liberalna) and Jacek Stawiski (TVN24) | Photo: Daria Krotova
Opening panel with Jarosław Kuisz (Kultura Liberalna) and Jacek Stawiski (TVN24) | Photo: Daria Krotova

During the opening panel, Jarosław Kuisz, editor-in-chief of the Polish magazine Kultura Liberalna, and Jacek Stawiski, TV journalist (TVN24), discussed aspects of the complex relationship between Poland and Europe since 1989 and the new turn that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken for Poland. They also offered different perspectives on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, because besides the isolated Russian propaganda, Western and Eastern European perspectives as well as interpretations from the global South differ regarding the conflict. By pointing out different historical experiences, they created an awareness for the reasons behind the differences and similarities.

Alicja Wancerz-Gluza (KARTA Center Foundation), Jarosław Kuisz (Kultura Liberalna) and Zbigniew Gluza (KARTA Center Foundation) | Photo: Daria Krotova
Alicja Wancerz-Gluza (KARTA Center Foundation), Jarosław Kuisz (Kultura Liberalna) and Zbigniew Gluza (KARTA Center Foundation) | Photo: Daria Krotova

The founders of the KARTA Center Foundation, the couple Alicja Wancerz-Gluza and Zbigniew Gluza, gave insights into the concept of their newly founded dialogue centre "WITRYNA - Eastern House for Dialogue", the venue of the EUSTORY Annual Meeting 2023.

The house offers different Eastern European action groups in exile a space for exchange, project work and events.

More about the concept of the Eastern House.

Online input by Noam Pupko, Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Italy) | Photo: Körber-Stiftung
Online input by Noam Pupko, Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Italy) | Photo: Körber-Stiftung

Noam Pupko from the organisation Rondine Cittadella della Pace presented experiences with a method developed in Italy for peace education between current and former warring parties.

Natalia Kolyagina (left) und Natalia Konradova (right) (Zukunft Memorial e.V.) with Lusine Kharatyan (Hazarashen, Armenia) in their midst | Photo: Daria Krotova
Natalia Kolyagina (left) und Natalia Konradova (right) (Zukunft Memorial e.V.) with Lusine Kharatyan (Hazarashen, Armenia) in their midst | Photo: Daria Krotova

Natalia Kolyagina and Natalia Konradova presented key points of a pilot project for Russian youth in Europe. It is building on the work of Zukunft Memorial e.V. which was banned in Russia.


Saturday, 11 March 2023

Petro Kendzor (screen) and Polina Verbytska (stage), NOVA DOBA (Ukraine) | Photo: Daria Krotova
Petro Kendzor (screen) and Polina Verbytska (stage), NOVA DOBA (Ukraine) | Photo: Daria Krotova

Petro Kendzor, Ukrainian competition organiser, and his wife, historian Polina Verbytska, gave insights into the work of NOVA DOBA, the All-Ukrainian Association of Teachers of History, Civic Education and Social Studies in Ukraine, which is continuing during the war.

Petro Kendzor talks about his experience during the first year of Ukraine's state of emergency

Lusine Kharatyan, NGO Hazarashen (Armenia) | Photo: Daria Krotova
Lusine Kharatyan, NGO Hazarashen (Armenia) | Photo: Daria Krotova

Lusine Kharatyan from the Armenian NGO Hazarashen - Armenian Centre for Ethnological Studies, talked about the experiences with the pilot history competition in Armenia, which Hazarashen launched together with DVV International Armenia in 2021. The focus was on the question of how to empower students to engage critically with history.

Nandina López-Jacoiste Ortiz, Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda (Spain) | Photo: Daria Krotova
Nandina López-Jacoiste Ortiz, Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda (Spain) | Photo: Daria Krotova

Nandina López-Jacoiste Ortiz from the Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda in Spain presented the new, comprehensive online platform of the Spanish-Portuguese history competition which implements the digitalisation push during the Covid pandemic, for example, by integrating virtual meeting points as well as installing innovative tools.

Participants getting first-hand insights into an Israeli virtual reality project | Photo: Daria Krotova
Participants getting first-hand insights into an Israeli virtual reality project | Photo: Daria Krotova

Shamir Yeger from Bar-Ilan University in Israel provided the conference participants with first hand insights into a history teaching project that is currently being tested in several Jewish-Arab schools in Israel via several virtual reality goggles installed on site.

Screenshot of the specially programmed Metaverse | Photo: Körber-Stiftung
Screenshot of the specially programmed Metaverse | Photo: Körber-Stiftung

With the help of this metaverse, students from different social groups in Israel are provided with new learning opportunities for dealing with identity and shared history, which also involves the use of Virtual Experiences developed together with teachers.

(LTR) Shamir Yeger (Israel), Luke William O’Donnell (Ireland), Zuzana Jezerská (Slovakia), Espen Espensen (Denmark), Miguel Monteiro de Barros (Portugal) | Photo: Körber-Stiftung
(LTR) Shamir Yeger (Israel), Luke William O’Donnell (Ireland), Zuzana Jezerská (Slovakia), Espen Espensen (Denmark), Miguel Monteiro de Barros (Portugal) | Photo: Körber-Stiftung

Since 2022, the EUSTORY working group HistEdu has been looking at the topic of "Positioning Contested History in 21st Century Classrooms". The group was initiated by Zuzana Jezerská from the Slovak Centre for Communication and Development, Bratislava.

At the network meeting, EUSTORY representatives from four different countries presented the pilot projects they developed and which they are currently launching together with trainee teachers and experienced teachers in Denmark, Ireland, Israel and Portugal. The pilot projects focus on methods of dealing with controversial historical issues in the classroom.

To find out more about the project please click here.

Valbona Bezati, Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture (Albania) | Photo: IDMC
Valbona Bezati, Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture (Albania) | Photo: IDMC

Valbona Bezati from the Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture (IDMC) in Tirana presented the successful Albanian history competition "Ask Your Grandparents", which joined our EUSTORY Network in 2023. More information on the Albanian competition is available here.

Photo Gallery

Network Meeting in Warsaw, Poland, 2023 (Photos: Daria Krotova and Körber-Stiftung (last two) )


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