How We Do It
Four areas:
Organisation and management
Jon Nichol, Hilary Cooper and Michael Mitchell run HEIRNET: Jon oversees the annual conference, Hilary publications and Michael looks after the monies.
Concerning the future, as members of a gerontocracy, we are in the process of establishing a permanent HEIRNET committee of younger, active and supportive colleagues who in turn will take over HEIRNET when we fade gracefully, or otherwise, from the scene.
The HEIRNET website A key element in managing HEIRNET is our permanent website www.heirnetonline.com that we established last year – before it was an annual phenomenon linked to our conference, emerging phoenix like each autumn from the ashes of the previous conference. A permanent website enables us to oversee the annual conference, a range of HEIRNET publications and provide news, information and discourse via Social Media to ensure and develop HEIRNET as an international forum for history educators discourse on History Education research and developments.
The HEIRNET Annual Conference
HEIRNET and the conference’s host institution manage each conference – 2020’s host is the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Conference planning is well advanced. On 1st November 2019 we had a for a most positive meeting in Amsterdam with the Amsterdam team; the conference flyer is due for circulation soon and the website’s revised 2019-20 version, including full information about the HEIRNET 2020 Amsterdam conference, will be up and running on 30th November, n.b. not a ‘dead in the ditch’ date [1] .
In planning the annual conference we are also delighted to draw on the advice of HEIRNET’s annual conference committee, see table below, whose membership is mainly drawn from the organisers of the current and previous conferences.
| Committee Members | University or Affiliation | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Hilary Cooper | Cumbria | Cumbria, England |
| Jon Nichol | HEIRNET | Devon, England |
| Michael Mitchell | CARE | Devon, England |
| Arthur Chapman | University College LONDON | England |
| Terry Haydn | East Anglia | England |
| Andreas Körber | Hamburg | Germany |
| Roland Bernhard | Salzburg | Austria |
| Thomas Hellmuth | Vienna | Austria |
| Andrea Brait | Vienna | Austria |
| Arie Wilschut | Amsterdam University of Applied Science | Netherlands |
| Carla Van Boxtel | Amsterdam | Netherlands |
| Nicole Roussou | Ionian | Corfu, Greece |
| Charalambos Kourgiantakis | Ionian | Corfu, Greece |
| Eleni Apostolidou | Ionian | Ioannina, Greece |
| Caitriona Ni Cassaithe | Dublin City | Dublin, Ireland |
| Fionnuala Waldron | Dublin City | Dublin, Ireland |
| Yosanne Vella | Malta | Malta |
| Alejandro Egea | Murcia | Spain |
| Laura Arias | Murcia | Spain |
| Jorge Ortuño Molina | Murcia | Spain |
| Terrie Epstein | City University, New York | USA |
| Lukas Perikleous | Nicosia | Cyprus |
| Helena Pinto | Porto | Portugal |
| Isabel Barca | Minho | Portugal |
| Dolinha Schmidt | Brazil | |
| Christian Mathis | Switzerland | |
| Andre Sokolov | Yaroslavl Pedagogic | Russia |
| Judith Breitfuss | Vienna | Austria |
[1] Boris Johnson, Britain’s Prime Minister said he would ‘die in a ditch’ if he failed to achieve BREXIT by 31st October. Search parties are scouring the ditches of Britain but have yet to sight his body…
Social Media
A growing, even dominant element – concerning this, please consult the Social Media section here.
Developments to the HEIRNET conference programme
Each year the HEIRNET conference focus reflects the interests of our hosts and delegates. We also revise and add new themes and topics to the programme based both upon colleagues’ feedback and the evolving nature of and challenges to and opportunities for History Education.
The 2020 Areas, Themes and Topics include a new Area on Teacher Training and Professional Development and topics such as:
- Populism,
- the emergence of a Fifth Estate, i.e. social media and its impact on public opinion,
- the Internet as a learning tool,
- the impact of Artificial Intelligence over the past decade alongside the Fourth Estate of publishing and broadcasting.
- The concept of the Guilty Past
History Education Research Journal
A major element in HEIRNET is the publication of an academic journal. Since 2001 we had published this as the International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research. In 2018 the University College London Press became the journal’s publisher, ensuring its future as a professionally edited and produced peer reviewed open access on-line publication. This involved relaunching the upgraded journal with a new name – the History Education Research Journal [HERJ]. For information about HERJ, submission of articles for publication and its management, click on the HISTORY EDUCATION J’NL link to its website section.
You can find fuller details of HERJ and other publications of the University College London Press [UCL Press] here.
