This week the LRE Foundation joined the initial in-person meeting for the Critical History Tours project kick-off in The Hague. This EU-funded initiative focuses on designing and promoting successful critical history walking tours across Europe. It aims to challenge the way historical debates manifest in public spaces, enriching the way history is taught, shared, and understood across Europe.
The innovative Critical History Tours (CHT) project engages with tension tied to historical debates in modern societies, focusing on how these debates manifest in public spaces, particularly in contested urban areas. By utilising the medium of walking tours as an intervention located at the intersection of public history, heritage, and tourism, the project aims to address these tensions constructively.
The project’s leading partner EuroClio, the European Association of History Educators, invited the Critical History Tours partner organisations to the kick-off meeting in The Hague from 16 to 18 February 2025. Joining the LRE Foundation as fellow partner organisations in the project are Uncomfortable Oxford, Atrium (Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes of the XXth Century in Europe’s Urban Memory), the Balkan Museum Network and the International Students of History Association (ISHA).
The Critical History Tours project aims to map existing critical historical guided tours in European cities, create new adult education opportunities by providing high quality lectures, workshops and courses for historical tour guides with an officially recognized certification. Furthermore, the project intends to strengthen cross-sectoral and transnational cooperation between providers of critical history tours, give the local population the opportunity to participate in guided tours, engage in conversations about local and global contested histories and improve public awareness and critical understanding of Europe’s historical heritage.
LRE Foundation project assistant Lisa Schweiger is excited about working on the project in the future: “I am looking forward to challenging existing historical narratives by developing new guided tours involving contested sites. There is a high demand for looking at our history from a different perspective and leaving the beaten tracks. Our partner organisations all have great expertise in their field of work, which will enable us to successfully carry out this ambitious project.”
Critical History Tours aims to leave a lasting impact on local tourism by combining a critical approach to contested history, public engagement, and the education of tour guides. It aims to engage in conversations about local and global contested histories and represent typically neglected social groups by bringing them to the center of the public education sphere.
The three-day meeting in The Hague marked the project’s official start, bringing together all partner organisations to align on objectives and establish a collaborative framework. Participants explored the project’s aims and objectives, discussed timelines and partner roles, and shared ideas on how to conceptualize lectures, workshops and trainings for future critical history tour guides.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
