Moving Europe - Negotiating Legacies of Migration at the Museum
About the Project
March 2025 marked the kick-off for Moving Europe – Negotiating Legacies of Migration at the Museum. Throughout this two year long project, the Migration-Lab-Team at the University of Hildesheim will work alongside with EuroClio (https://euroclio.eu), a network of migration museums across Europe, local immigrant communities and students who will research local histories of migration at the museum.
Our partners on this project are: EuroClio, Young Islam Conference in Berlin, Museum of Italian Emigration in Genoa, Emigration Museum in Gdynia, History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, Migration Museum of Denmark in Farum, Multicultural Center in Stockholm.
Project Objectives
Moving Europe aims to empower museums, school teachers, and young people to explore and negotiate legacies of migration by directly involving members of migration communities. Unpacking different experiences and historical legacies of migration, especially those rooted in European colonial history, will help us better understand its impact and consequences on various groups in society. The project seeks to increase awareness about the complexities of migration and invites the general public to address stereotypes, prejudices, myths and misconceptions about migrants.
The migration museums will partner up with teachers and invite their students to participate in local and international youth activities where students will lead research projects on histories and experiences of migration. Applying a tested methodology based on place-based learning to promote youth agency, museums will form the center of students’ learning experience. Students will use this research to co-create exhibitions, podcasts and a trans-European source collection.
Research
The Migration-Lab-Team will evaluate the activities and conduct empirical research asking for example:
- What are current challenges and the „state of the art“ of diversity-sensitive education in museums and schools in Europe? How do schools and museums collaborate?
- How are different narratives of migration presented and communicated in museums across Europe? What different participatory approaches are there in the museums?
- What opportunities does the museum offer as an extracurricular place of learning with regard to diversity-sensitive education? What are the challenges?
- In which way do migrant community organizations see themselves represented in the exhibitions and participative offers of the museums?
Expected Outcomes
- International peer-learning events for museum educators and school teachers
- Local youth programmes with public local exhibitions
- International youth programme with museum visits
- Job-shadowing museum residencies
- Research on stereotypes and myths about migrants
- A guide for educators on how schools can partner with museums to create youth-led research projects on migration history
Research Team Migration Lab, University of Hildesheim
Prof. Dr. Viola B. Georgi
Elias Braun
Maria Nesemann
Alina Modl (student assistant)
Projekt Partners
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.