EUSTORY Summit 2024

How to (re-)act in everyday conflict situations? What lessons can we learn from the past to respond to injustice with confidence and solidarity? 

In this workshop, you will use the imaginative scope of theatre to explore methods for advocacy, resistance and creating dialogue across borders. 

Building on your experiences with clashing standpoints, you will learn techniques of forum theatre and improvisation to explore new possibilities of conflic resolution: What happens when you intervene in an unjust situation? How can you show solidarity and raise awareness for discrimination at the right time? Stage conflict scenarios in small groups and develop your skills for taking a stand!

Unleash your inner performer, prepare interactive theatre scenes and learn methods of civic engagement for your everyday life!

How to hold a constructive discussion when views on history and remembrance clash? And where to put the feelings?

In this workshop, you will engage in dialogues with your peers and explore methods of bringing different opinions together. 

Constructive social debate is an essential foundation for democracy and a peaceful coexistence – but it is challenging. Learn more about yourself and others through discussion and gain new skills of bridging gaps! Take part in a series of “Timeout Dialogues” that are sure to generate unpredictable insights and new perspectives on communication. What are the issues that move you? Bring them to the workshop and discover that international understanding is possible despite different backgrounds! 

Become a communication expert and take dialogues to the next level – in Riga and in your own community!

What to do when bricks that carry (hi-)stories have to give way to modern infrastructure? How can we keep relics and memories of the past alive while cities develop further?

In this workshop, you will find out how transformations of urban landscape affect microhistory – in Riga, but also in your hometown – by reshaping lives of city residents.

Explore Tornakalns with your camera. This historic district of Riga with its wooden architecture is currently facing a big transformation: The construction of “Rail Baltica”. This infrastructure project aims to connect the Baltics to the European railway network and will fundamentally change the district. Old – seemingly insignificant – buildings will get demolished to clear the way for future-oriented constructions. What historical layers will get buried under the new infrastructure? Can we at least save the stories of these places?

Using the tools of photography and contemporary art you will narrate personal stories of the neighbourhood and discuss examples of changing urban landscapes from your home countries.

Get creative, take your own photos on-site and discover new ways of looking at local history!

Do we need monuments in the digital age? How do we want to commemorate in the virtual space and where are the limits?

With this workshop we want to explore new dimensions of European cultural heritage in the context of contemporary social, cultural and technological transformations. How do we do this? By prototyping a digital monument!

In small groups, you will gather criteria of commemoration, renegotiate forms of memory making, and co-create your own digital immersive experience with the support of creative technologists and XR-specialists. 

Hands-on sessions will allow you to use a range of techniques, from paper-prototyping to sketching or AI-prompting to designing your own XR/immersive memorial. 

Dare to rethink remembrance in the public space and develop your own virtual monument in Riga!

How can we make forgotten history visible in the media? What does it need to turn it into a gripping story?

In this workshop, you will dive into the manifold facets of history journalism and explore its opportunities – but also its challenges.

We invite you to bring an untold story from your local or family history that you want to make known. Get inspired during a meet & greet with journalists from the popular Latvian TV programme “It happened here” as you hear how they trace untold stories and prepare them for TV.

In hands-on group sessions, you will learn how to bring your stories to life and edit your pieces for publication on the EUSTORY History Campus blog.

Explore the world of media, bring your forgotten (hi-)story to light and finetune your storytelling skills!

This workshop is geared towards anyone with some journalistic experience and those seriously interested in becoming part of the EUSTORY History Campus Editors’ team 2024/2025.

To what extent do different pasts and national politics shape the way we talk about climate change? How can shared – but also diverging – experiences unite us for joint climate action?

In this workshop, you will deal with the historical roots of different environmental policies and develop strategies for constructive conversations and actions on climate protection.

Heat waves, rising sea levels, displacement: the effects of global warming are already evident today and will affect the future of young people. It is a joint responsibility for politicians and for citizens across borders to act in order to mitigate climate change.

In a simulation game of an international climate summit, you will act as a representative of your country and negotiate environmental agreements with your peers. By talking about your own experiences and ideas, you will create your own action plan for your local  community.

Act as both, politician and citizen, and develop joint measures for climate protection in an international team!

How to detect history-based propaganda? Which techniques do media and popular culture use to spread subtle propaganda narratives and how can we counter these?

In this special workshop, participants will explore how history-based propaganda manifests in popular culture, learn to ask critical questions about media products and analyse various storytelling components. Results will be displayed in text-based animated videos made by the participants.

In the framework of this year’s EUSTORY Summit in Riga, this workshop is exclusively addressed to prize winners from the national history competitions 2024 in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The selection process of participants has already taken place, new applications are no longer accepted.