Wondering about history in times of permanent crisis

Abstract

In this talk, I address the shifting relations between various local and indigenous forms of knowledge about the past, on the one hand, and academic history, on the other. I argue that within these forms of knowledge, certain processes are occurring that bring them closer together in terms of common aims, methods and approaches to current problems. At a time of ever new crises and threats, I turn to Ariella Azoulay’s idea of potential history, which serves as a form of laboratory revealing the potential for (and conditions of) coexistence in conflicts. Furthermore, I highlight pasts that are resistant to history and thus generate space for creating alternatives to history as a discipline that incorporate various (both non-Western and non-human) modes of understanding change. This text also explores the issue of historians’ responsibility in terms of their response-ability to the challenges of the contemporary world.