Posted on 22 September 2017
During a half-day seminar at the Historical Archives of the European Union on 20 September 2017, students from the summer school, organized by the Department of History and Civilization at the European University Institute, were informed about the essentials of archival work and research techniques used in the archives. Finally they were given a tour of the storage facilities.
The visit to the archives is part of a 4-day summer school programme in Comparative and Transnational History. The programme also includes hearing from leading specialists in the area and getting feedback on the students’ own research project.
This year’s visit at the Archives included presentations about the basics of archival work, a presentation of available fonds, and the use of audio-visual collections and oral history in historical research.
Archivists from the HAEU presented the students with documents and fonds concerning this year’s summer school topics. These included the connected history of empires and imperialism, transnational history of science, the history of gender, social action and nationalist politics in border regions, and the history of international organizations and natural resources.
Benedetto Zaccaria, research assistant at the EUI’s Alcide De Gasperi Centre and one of the speakers at the visit, said: “It was a good opportunity to discuss the advantages of oral history and how it can interact with archival sources.”
This second edition of the summer school’s visit at the Archives also gave the students a chance to discuss their own research and how they could use archives and information gained during their visit to improve their research.