SEMINAR: History School Textbooks in a Comparative and Historical Perspective

In the 20th century, there has been perhaps nothing of quite the significance in the imparting of history as the school textbook -- within it was to be distilled what history was expected to be in the linking of past, present and future generations.

As school attendance became a universal requirement in the industrialised world, the history textbook assumed a decisive function in defining national identity, constituting national language, tracing the agendas of civilisation, narrating race, gender and class and imparting conceptions of how to interpret and re-interpret the perceived past. On their pages, societal debates, conflicts and consensus continue to be hammered out.

This seminar brings together scholars, researchers and history schoolteachers to discuss some aspects of the history school textbook as a source for understanding the past and as a key into the canonical ways of imparting national and other identities.

It intends to draw on the research work of various scholars working at UWA (Giuseppe Finaldi, Ryota Nishino, Daniela Baratieri) in order to trace a series of comparative national case studies considering themes such as national myth making; race; gender; telling the history of a particular war; war-crimes and so on. The seminar is aimed not only at an academic audience but also the pedagogical one in the wider community as a whole.

The day will be divided into a morning session considering historical case studies across Japan, South Africa, Italy and Australia, with the afternoon dedicated to a roundtable discussion chaired by Charlie Fox on the topic of the history school textbook and the imparting of history in Western Australia.

Anna Clark, co-writer with Stuart Macintyre of The History Wars, will present the opening public lecture and will also participate in the seminar itself.

Seminar Registration costs: History School Textbooks Registration Full - $30

History School Textbooks Registration Concession - $10

Please visit www.ias.uwa.edu.au for more information and online registration.