Veranstaltung Denkanstoß Geschichte Political Activism and material culture: definitions, practices, periodisations 23.04.2026 A dialogue between researchers, archivists and museum curators – Workshop, Padua, 4./5 May 2026 Image: Creator: University of Padua The workshop is part of the project “ACTIVATE”, a 4-year initiative to develop innovative methodologies, new knowledge and share best practice on material, audiovisual and born-digital documents as well as data between researchers, archivists, curators and public educators through a reflective approach on social and political dissent in Europe in a long-term and comparative perspective. The project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2023 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101182859. Further information about ACTIVATE is available at https://activate-horizon.eu/ 4-5 May 2026, University of Padua (Sala Bortolami at Palazzo Jonoch Gulinelli, via del Vescovado 30, Padova) The workshop is co-organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the University of Padua. Programme (pdf) Programme 10:00 - 13:00 Monday 4 May Chair: Michele Magri (University of Paris-Est Créteil) Carlotta Sorba (EUI-University of Padua) and Alessio Petrizzo (University of Padua), Introduction Session 1. Uses and reuses: what is political in a political object? Guillaume Poisson (University of Lausanne), The snuffbox, a political object for Liberals in 19th-century France and Spain Jitka Gelnarová (National Museum, Prague), Unruly objects: tracing feminist activism in the collections of the National Museum in Prague Discussion Coffee break Katarzyna Jarosz (Vizja University), The obscure object of desire: the political role of toilet paper in the Eastern blockKarolina Koziura (University of Toronto), (Un)ordinary objects: archives, affective presence, and diasporic communities of care Discussion 14:30 - 17:30 Session 2. Activists as memory makers Chair: Laura Valentini (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) Paul Boulland (CNRS, Paris), Presence, traces, and memories. Investigating activist objects through collections, archives, and oral histories (post-1945 France) Emily Aran Brockenbrough (University Institut of Lisbon), Collecting militancy: political stickers, citizen archives, and revolutionary memory in Portugal Giulia De Carlini (University of Bologna), From Tschüss SED to Tschüss DDR: protest objects and the reframing of GDR memory Discussion Coffee break Emma Martin (University of Manchester), Towards a Tibetan material culture of dissent Clara Martín Rivero (Pompeu Fabra University), Can K-pop light sticks and memes be protest objects? The Museum of Japanese Colonial History’s exhibition “Democracy and the Flag” Discussion 10:00 - 13:00 Tuesday 5 May Session 3. Archiving and displaying the material of politics: processes, instruments, challenges Chair: Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA Archivum, Central European University) María Zozaya-Montes (University of Évora), Proposal for an inventory of political objects: a model to register, record, identify, understand, and preserve printed and modelled arts from Europe Néguine Mathieux (Carnavalet Museum, Paris), Political objects on the art market: the value of activism Roberto Balzani and Elena Musiani (University of Bologna/Museum of the Risorgimento, Bologna), ‘Homes’, chronologies, objects. Proposals for the creation of a museum of 19th-century history in Bologna Discussion Coffee break Francesca Olivini (National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo Da Vinci, Milan), Just another (monkey) wrench? Ondřej Daniel (Charles University), Disobedient things, fragile lives: ethical dilemmas in archiving militant material culture at the Czech and Slovak Archive of Subcultures Discussion Anja Kruke (Friedrich Ebert Foundation), Concluding remarks 14:30 - 17:30 Internal seminar for the Activate Consortium concerning the project of the online exhibition Chair: Anja Kruke (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) Laura Valentini (Friedrich Ebert Foundation), How to present political objects: concept and approach for the ACTIVATE online exhibition on the material culture of transnational activism General discussion Event logo Image: Creator: © 2025 Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli 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. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
