Re-Think History Discussion Series 2023
The series aims to bring together internal and external participants in order to explore challenging questions about how we seek to understand and interpret history.
The Cathedral will provide an open and supportive forum for dialogue, welcoming interpersonal collaboration and respectful engagement between individuals with a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. In this way, the Cathedral will seek to foster connection between local communities and collect the reflections and ideas generated by each event.
Each event will take place in the Wessex Learning Centre from 6.15pm. For more information, please contact curator.enquiries@winchester-cathedral.org.uk
Session 1: What is history?
Date: 16th January 2023
The focus of this session is the question of viewpoint and perspective. The writing of history always occurs in a specific social, political and historical context, which will, to a greater or lesser extent, have some bearing on the type of historical narratives produced. When we interpret texts and objects, we need to ask whether there exists a particular bias or subjective lens, through which these texts and objects were created, since this may affect our own interpretation. In this first session, participants will explore the purpose of commemoration and its relationship to the interpretation of historical events.
Session 2: (How) should we commemorate the past?
Date: 30th January 2023
This session builds on the previous session through a deeper exploration of the act of remembrance and memorialisation of people and events in the context of the Cathedral. It asks the questions: (How) should we commemorate the past? Should the commemoration of individuals and events change over time, in the light of new evidence and in order to reflect changing societal values? Does the way in which we choose to display statues influence how they are perceived? Can we recognise memorials both as a site of commemoration and as an historical and artistic artefact?
Session 3: Who writes history?
Date: 13th February 2023
The focus for this session is representation and exclusion. Who writes history? Which stories have been typically excluded from history? Why do you think this is? The session will explore how particular groups have been excluded from history based on their gender, class, sexuality and race. Historical narratives have tended to concentrate on the lives of wealthy white men, but there is now a greater awareness of and interest in work to uncover ‘hidden’ histories, in order to deepen our understanding of the past and readdress the imbalance.
Session 4: How is the history we learn – or are subjected to – relevant to how and where we are living today?
Date: 27th February 2023
The focus for the final session will be how we learn about history. How can we think differently about the stories we tell and the interpretations of the past we offer to visitors to the Cathedral? How can the lived experiences, subjective responses and personal connections of individuals to historic objects provide an important opportunity for learning? In what way might they help us to understand how and why past events continue to resonate for people today?