News

Who Owns History? A Clash of Perspectives

0 209

On Saturday the 23rd November, Manchester Metropolitan University’s Department of History, Politics and Philosophy are hosting a one-day conference examining multicultural issues in the study and teaching of history.

This conference is aimed at scholars and members of the public who are interested in two of the contentious issues in our study and understanding of history: 1) to what extent does Eurocentrism define history, and are there alternative ways of explaining history? 2) what aims and objectives should govern a history curriculum in schools in multicultural Britain?

While the political and economic power of the West has been manifest throughout the world over the last three centuries, equally remarkable has been the cultural dominance of the West too.

The morning of the conference will seek to address this idea with lectures and seminars from Professor Tim Whitmarsh, Dr George Joseph, and Dr Keekok Lee. The morning sessions will address a range of issues from the European Identity and its conception in the framework of ancient Greek civilisation, to the multicultural aspects of the transmission of mathematics, and finally how certain notions in ancient Chinese philosophy helped shape and influence the Enlightenment.
The afternoon sessions will examine the study of history in British schools since the Second World War. Often a source for valuable and contentious ideas, the battlegrounds of the curriculum frameworks surrounding the study of history have been reignited following the curriculum review instigated by Education Secretary Michael Gove.These battles are waged at the school and classroom level more than at the level of national policy, which often operates at ‘arm’s length’ through bodies such as OFSTED rather than through democratically debated legislation.

In the afternoon’s schedule Dr Robin Whitburn, Mr. Abdullahi Mohamud and Mr. Robin Grinter will take a perspective on the history curriculum frameworks. Firstly outlining the battles currently being fought in schools, then a look at some possibilities, and inherent challenges, that are present at the level of the classroom through which teachers can frame new histories for a diverse multicultural Britain. The closing session will outline a thematic model for a British history curriculum that draws upon many humane and secular traditions that have been embedded in British life for centuries‘Who owns History?’ is set to be a conference that challenges some fundamentally assumed Eurocentric positions of the study of history and the implications for recent curriculum reforms, and a close look at what the aims and objectives of a history curriculum should look like.

For any academic, teacher or member of the public with a vested interest in the way in which we define our approach to the study of history, this is a conference not to be missed.

Fee: £ 18 for people in employment; £ 10 for students, retired senior citizens and people not in employment. The fee includes lunch and a booklet containing papers submitted at last year’s multicultural conference on Islamic Civilization

(This year’s conference is partly funded by a generous contribution from Mr. Eruch Cavasji, a resident of Denton, Greater Manchester).

Further information and application form please contact Burjor Avari, at MMU — b.avari@mmu.ac.uk

Closing date for application: Friday, November 15, 2013.

About the author / 

aAh!

aAh! Magazine is Manchester Metropolitan University's arts and culture magazine.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More News Stories:

  • Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026: Celebrating creativity, community and new voices

    Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…

  • Bloodstock 2026: Sunday review- 25 years of circle pits

    Featured image: Katja Ogrin With many sore heads and limbs this morning after the most hardcore day of the festival taking place yesterday, many are recovering from the moshing and pit brutality of the previous day’s antics. As the tradition of a morning movie in the Serpents Lair prevails, the crowd sprawls out onto the plush,…

  • Bloodstock 2026: Saturday review – Breaking the circle pit rule

    Featured image: Abbi Draper After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026. Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early…

  • Bloodstock 2026: Friday review – Lamb of God reminds us ‘This is an Invitation’

    Featured image: Abbi Draper After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal. As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings…