"Communism through archival documents" in Tirana III

IDMC organized the last workshop on the series of the workshops with the history teachers. This workshop focused in analysing and discussing the archival documents on everyday life in communism in the 1970s and 1980s, to produce the second volume of the pedagogical manual: "Communism through Archival Documents".

The workshop was opened by IDMC project coordinator, Matilda Karcanaj and the trainer of the workshop, Dr. Idrit Idrizi. Matilda Karcanaj acknowledged the participants with IDMC work and spoke about the importance of teaching young people about the history of the tough dictatorship in Albania. Dr. Idrizi, explained structure of the workshop and spoke about the importance of using the archival documents when teaching history.

Then the participants were invited in a discussion on how to approach communism and archival documents, moderated by the trainer of the workshop, Dr. Idrizi. Later on the teachers were involved in another discussion about the article "Reflective Archival Work" by the German historian, Prof. Dr. Klaus Gestwa. Among others they discussed about the different ways of reading archival sources. They agreed that it is necessary to read the archival documents in order to make them speak. And the work of the historians when addressing the archival documents is their translation for the readers.

On the second day the teachers, led by Dr. Idrizi analysed in groups the archival documents which will be used for the second volume of the manual "Communism through Archival Documents". They worked separated in three groups to formulate the key questions and definite the key concepts. After the group work, a representative of each group presented their findings for the other participants. In the end of the training, the evaluation form for the workshop was completed and the certificates of participation were delivered to each participant.

About the Trainers

• Dr. Idrit Idrizi is a researcher, Post-Doc scientific assistant at the University of Vienna (Post-Doc-Track program). He studied History and Human Rights and has a PhD in History from the University of Vienna. His research fields are Communism and Memory about Communism in Albania and Southeastern Europe.
• Fatmiroshe Xhemalaj is a history expert and ambassador of EUROCLIO. She is one of the initiators of HTA (ALBAN) and former President of HAT. She was Secretary of the Scientific Commission of the History and Geography at MOA–ALBANIA for the approval of the school textbooks, and Secretary of the History Commission for revision of the history textbooks in Albania and Greece.

Organizer

Contact

Matilda Karçanaj, Project Coordinator | E-mail

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