Historians without Borders is a Finnish organisation. It was founded at the initiative of
Erkki Tuomioja
Erkki Sakari Tuomioja (born 1 July 1946) is a Finnish politician and a member of the Finnish Parliament. From 2000 to 2007 and 2011 to 2015, he served as the minister for foreign affairs. He was president of the Nordic Council in 2008.
Tuomioja ...
, the former foreign minister of Finland. The purpose of the organization is to further public discussion about history and to promote the use of historical knowledge for peace-building and conflict-resolution.
The organisation has an international network of Historians without Borders and coordinating committee, with which the organisation aims to promote their goals.
History
In June 2015, Erkki Tuomioja convened a number of historians and policy makers to a meeting, which led to the founding of HWB. First board was appointed, which included names like Finnish politician and historian Pilvi Torsti, former editor-in-chief of
Helsingin Sanomat
''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...
Janne Virkkunen and executive director of
CMI Tuija Talvitie. Erkki Tuomioja has acted as Chairman of the Board since the founding meeting. Behind the initiative was Tuomioja's concern, that history is often used and abused for personal or political purposes. Inadequate knowledge of history makes people more vulnerable to manipulation of politicians, who can use historical myths and propaganda to their advantage easier. HWB aims to prevent the abuse of history by bringing historians and their knowledge to society and conflict-resolution.
HWB has aimed from the beginning to the wider international co-operation between historians across the borders. With this in mind, HWB organised in May 2016 and international conference "Historians without Borders: The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts" at the University of Helsinki. Around 300 participants gathered in Helsinki and the conference ended with the creation of an international network of Historians without Borders and the appointment of a Coordinating Committee. Members of this committee are Jan C. Behrends,
Carl Bildt
Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs ...
, Vasu Gounden,
Margaret MacMillan
Margaret Olwen MacMillan, (born 1943) is a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford. She is former provost of Trinity College, Toronto, and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously at Ryerson Univer ...
, Erkki Tuomioja,
Christina Twomey
Christina Louise Twomey, is an Australian historian and academic.
Education and career
Twomey was born in Queensland and attended Mac.Robertson Girls' High School in Melbourne. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of ...
and Sergei Zhuravlev.
[{{cite web , url = https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2016/05/18/abuse-of-history-and-historians-without-borders, title = Abuse of history and Historians without Borders, work = DailySabah, accessdate = 2018-03-15]
Aims
* promote and deepen general and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of history
* promote open and free access to historical material and archives
* promote interactive dialogue between different views and interpretations of history to bring closer diverging views of the course of historical events
* support efforts to impede the abuse of history to foster conflicts or to sustain enemy images and distorted myths, and to contribute to the use of history in defusing and resolving conflicts.
References
External links
https://www.historianswithoutborders.fi/
Organisations based in Finland
History organizations