Histeuropa

ERASMUS-JMO-2022-MODULE

DISCOVERING THE EUROPEAN HISTORY OF EUROPE

Project leader: Robert Belot, professor of contemporary history
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

AN OBSERVATION: LOW KNOWLEDGE OF EUROPE

Students have generally a poor knowledge of Europe: the European institutions but also and above all the history of Europe, from the Middle Ages to today. Hence a weak sense of belonging. Hence the difficulty, including among teachers, to seize the opportunities offered by the EU. When we try to define Europe we use to say that Europe is first of all a common History. But what is this history?

THE OBJECTIVE: DISCOVERING EUROPE IN THE LONG TERM

The objective is to train students and (futur) teachers in a new approach to the history of Europe: a European history of Europe that aims to go beyond the traditionally national-centric approach as well as the institutional approach of the "construction of Europe".

THE META-QUESTION: WHAT IS BEING EUROPEAN?

Three meta-questions will guide our project. What distinguishes Europe today from the non-European world? Can we discover a unity of the European culture beyond its national diversities? And finally, what does it mean to be European in the era of globalization and great migrations?

THE APPROACH: TRANSNATIONAL AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY

How to do it? 1/ By emphasizing the multi-dimensionality of European reality: political history and the history of ideas and mentalities, but also cultural, techno-scientific, (de)colonial, energy, economic and geopolitical history. 2/ By adopting a trans-period perspective that goes beyond the usual academic divisions. The chosen angle will be essentially historiographic and will have to highlight the works of European historians who have dared to propose transnational readings.

AN INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGY

The device will be deployed at the undergraduate level and will be pedagogically innovative thanks to the involvement of students in a logic of co-creation and dissemination of the evaluated deliverables to a wider public: Youtube channel, virtual encyclopedia of European history and heritage, workshops, online publication...

Robert BELOT est professeur d’histoire contemporaine à l’université de Lyon-Saint-Etienne où il a dirigé le Département des Patrimoines culturels. Coordinateur académique de l’Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree DYCLAM+. Il a été titulaire de la Chaire européenne Jean Monnet EUPOPA de 2018 à 2022.

Sa recherche porte sur l’histoire de l’Europe (XIX^e-XX^e siècles) et la construction socio-politique de la mémoire et du patrimoine. Il a consacré son habilitation à diriger les recherches (Sciences Po Paris) à l’itinéraire politique d’Henri Frenay, qui a été publiée aux éditions du Seuil (« L’Univers Historique ») sous le titre : Henri Frenay, de la Résistance à l’Europe.

Il a coordonné le Partenariat Stratégique Européen (ERASMUS+) Projet Patrimoine Européen pour un Avenir Culturel Ensemble (ProPeace) impliquant 9 pays, de 2017 à 2019.

Dernières publications :

Deutschland in den Europaprojekten der Résistance, Baden Baden, NOMOS, 2023

Patrimoine, Péril, Résilience, Paris, Maisonneuve&Larose/Hémisphères, (co-direction Philippe Martin), 2022

La mémoire anti-allemande en France. Henri Frenay et l’affaire Speidel (1957), Lyon, Presse Fédéraliste éditions, Collection « Textes fédéralistes », 2022

The rebirth of Europe after the war. Hopes, divisions and failure among the French Resistance, Lausanne, Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe,  coll. Les Cahiers Rouges, 2022 https://jean-monnet.ch/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/22-10-rebirth-of-europe-r--belot-cr-n-219.pdf

Resistenza e la rinascita dell'idea europea (1942-1947), collana “Fonti e studi sul federalismo e sull’integrazionne europea”, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2022, 282p. https://www.mulino.it/isbn/9788815298171

 Visions of Europe in the Resistance. Figures, Projects, Networks, Ideals (Robert Belot and Daniela Preda eds.), Bruxelles, M.I.E. Peter Lang, Euroclio vol. 112, 2022, 560p.