The Nordic-Belarusian History dialogue was organised by HWB Finland at the University of Lund, Sweden, in January 2020. The Belarusian participants of the dialogue were historians from independent and state-affiliated institutions. The Nordic historians came from Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish universities and had demonstrated a research interest in Belarus. The dialogue was supported by a grant from the Nordic Council of Ministers. Despite the potential for mutual distrust between the perceived "government-affiliated" and the “non-affiliated” camps of Belarusian historians, the dialogue succeeded in generating an open discussion on various debated aspects of Belarusian history and establishing avenues of mutual interest for Nordic and Belarusian historians. All major challenges that emerged from the dialogue stemmed from the perceived lack of clear aims and objectives for the history dialogue. The history dialogue is a potential tool for voicing, reflecting and potentially reconciling different narratives of Belarusian historiography, providing the current shortcomings are overcome in the future. For future events, the author of the report suggests to clarify the aims and the objectives of the history dialogue, introduce mechanisms of joint ownership, select the participants carefully, and train the moderators.
Read the report in English.
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