NGHM-Tracker (11/26)
How do categories shape history — and how does history shape us? The October 2026 NGHM newsletter explores memory sites, refugee-migrant distinctions, and new semester teaching across contemporary history and migration research. — Translated from…
NGHM researches | Conflict landscapes in the longue durée: New interdisciplinary project approved
The presidium of the University of Osnabrück is funding the interdisciplinary project "Konfliktlandschaften" ["Conflict Landscapes"], involving six professorships from the fields of archaeology, history, political science, and remote sensing. It…
»Difficult Heritages« in Athens | Karya and the uncomfortable legacy of the German occupation of Greece in the Second World War.
In 1943, hundreds of Jewish men from Thessaloniki were forced to blast rock at Karya under the Organisation Todt. A new Athens exhibition examines this and other difficult heritages — and the scholarship behind bringing them to light. — Translated from…
Work on the Production of Categories | Impressions from a Conference in Cambridge
Who draws the line between 'refugee' and 'migrant'? Impressions from the conference "The Refugee-Migrant Distinction: Toward a Global History" at Darwin College in Cambridge (15–16 October 2026): six panels ranging from the Greek-Turkish population…
VR Experiment “Changing Places”: Participants Sought
Can virtual reality change how we perceive familiar places? Participate in the "Changing Places" VR experiment at Osnabrück's StudZ on 21 or 28 October, 12–6 p.m. Compensation: €10. — Translated from nghm.hypotheses.org
NGHM reads | 17 | Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class (1963)
E.P. Thompson's 1963 masterwork didn't just study the working class — it argued that class *happens*, forged through shared experience. Our latest reading list entry explores why this founding text of "history from below" still matters. — Translated from…
The Footnote Society | or | Following the Reference Wherever It May Lead.
Pierre Bayle's 1697 dictionary famously let footnotes devour the page itself — a radical act with real consequences. A new Osnabrück reading circle traces what that gesture unleashed. — Translated from nghm.hypotheses.org
Sites of Violence, Traces, and Digital History Culture | »The ›Emsland Camps‹ as a Conflict Landscape in Transformation«, Osnabrück and Dalum, 24 and 25 September 2026.
Beneath an industrial estate near Dalum lie the unmarked graves of approximately ten thousand Soviet POWs. How do we read landscapes that conceal more than they reveal? A new conference project confronts this question head-on. — Translated from…
NGHM-Tracker (9-10/26)
From Oregon archives to Vienna conferences, the NGHM team's August–September double issue spans continents and methods. At the heart: how farmworkers challenged the term "guest worker" — through picket signs, punctuation, and protest. — Translated from…
History@SFB 1604 | The transfer project with its VR experiment “Changing Places” at the Experimentiermeile 2026 at the Ledenhof
What happens to our sense of place when familiar spaces look different? The Transfer Project of SFB 1604 brought its VR experiment "Changing Places" to Osnabrück's Experimentiermeile, inviting visitors to explore the Peace Hall in virtual ... —…
NGHM reads | 16 | Ulrich Herbert: Das Dritte Reich. Geschichte einer Diktatur (2016)
Can a dictatorship spanning twelve years be distilled into 120 pages without losing its complexity? Ulrich Herbert's 2016 survey proves it can. Our latest NGHM reads explores how a leading historian of the field achieves this analytical feat. —…
Gaps in the Culture of Remembrance | Between Commemoration and Repression. Panel Discussion on 1 October at the vhs Osnabrück.
Who decides what history remembers — and what it buries? On 1 October, a panel in Osnabrück examines gaps in remembrance culture around the Sinti and Roma genocide and post-1945 racist violence. — Translated from nghm.hypotheses.org
OUT NOW | The Holocaust and Varieties of Migration
Migration was not only a consequence of Holocaust-era violence — it helped organize and execute it. This Open Access volume reframes both Holocaust and migration history through a revealing new lens. Read more at the link below. — Translated from…
Out Now | Conflict Landscapes Volume 3: The Hürtgenwald in Context.
Volume 3 of *Konfliktlandschaften* examines how the 'Battle of Hürtgen Forest' was constructed as history rather than lived as one. How does an unnamed series of operations become a charged cultural landmark? Read the full post to find out. — Translated…
NGHM reads | 15 | Wilkerson: The Warmth of Other Suns (2010)
What moved six million people to leave the South? Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of the Great Migration in The Warmth of Other Suns (2010) through three life stories, reversing the perspective: from factors to agents. Episode 15 of #NGHMliest
NGHM Research | From “Wasteland” to Climate Protector: New Cooperative Project with the Emsland Moormuseum Approved.
From "wasteland" to climate asset: peatlands now store a third of all soil carbon, yet were systematically drained for decades. A new approved project examines how—and why—societies reverse course so dramatically. — Translated from…
NGHM reads | 14 | Jordan: Theories and Methods of Historical Scholarship (2021)
Stefan Jordan's *Theorien und Methoden der Geschichtswissenschaft* has reached its fifth edition in 2021 — a testament to foundations sturdy enough to absorb twelve years of disciplinary change. NGHM reads it closely. — Translated from…
Keynote | ICDAR 2026 Vienna | History and Document Analysis in Dialogue
On 1 September 2026, I delivered the second keynote at ICDAR 2026, the central conference on machine document analysis, held at TU Wien. This report elaborates the argument of that talk: the recognition of historical handwriting is largely a solved…