The rise and re-emergence of populist politics across Europe has profound implications for social spheres and institutions, including museums and heritage. Because of heritage's identity-building capacities, it can become both a resource and a tool to support populist politics, exclusionary identity-building and political polarization. The populist use of the past functions as a form of selective storytelling and representation that can instrumentalise, appropriate and intervene in sites of cultural heritage, including monuments, memorials, street names, public iconography, (lived) heritage and archaeological sites, and museums. 

This final conference of the international research project Challenging Populist Truth-Making in Europe: The Role of Museums in a Digital 'Post-Truth' European Society (CHAPTER), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, will explore how the growing influence of populist politics is aecting museums in Europe and what this means for people working in the heritage and museum field. The three-day conference will include a keynote speech, panels, roundtable discussions and presentations of the main findings of the CHAPTER project. It will also see the launch of the CHAPTER museum app, which oers digital interactions and tours of the exhibitions in Berlin, Krakow and London, aimed at inspiring young visitors to critically engage with populist truth-making. 

Registration: If you want to attend the conference, please register until 31 August 2024 at julia.leser(at)hu-berlin.de.
More information about the project: https://projectchapter.eu/About.