Finding and Shaping a Public History Story

How can historical research and different kinds of sources be transformed into a compelling public history story? What changes when research moves beyond academic writing and begins to address wider audiences?

As part of Who Owns Memory? Democratic Participation in Digital Public History, our third workshop will be led by Magdalena Chmiel, historian, cultural anthropologist, educator, and project manager.

Drawing on a concrete case study from her research on the everyday memory of the former Kraków Ghetto area, Magdalena will explore how interviews, photographs, historical sources, and observations of the urban landscape can be brought together to shape an engaging, focused, and responsible public history narrative.

The workshop will also invite participants to reflect directly on their own developing projects:

🔹 What story do I want to tell?

🔹 Which sources can help me tell it?

🔹 Whose perspectives are present—and whose may be missing?

🔹 Who is my audience?

🔹 How can I move from a broad research topic to a focused public-facing story?

Magdalena brings together more than ten years of experience in education with research and international project work in the fields of memory, difficult heritage, Holocaust education, public history, and civic education.

📅 2 September 2026

🕕 18:00–20:00 EEST

💻 Online

Workshop description

How can historical research and different types of sources be transformed into a public history project? This workshop looks at what happens when research moves beyond academic writing and is used to reach and engage wider audiences. Magdalena defended her master’s thesis, Memory Tactics in the Everyday Life of Residents of the Former Kraków Ghetto Area, in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. The research she conducted for her thesis will be used as the main case study for this workshop. Through interviews, photographs, historical sources, and observations of the city, participants will look at how different research materials can be used to shape a public history narrative. Participants will also have space to reflect on their own research and project ideas: what story they want to tell, which sources they could use, whose perspectives they want to include, and who they want to reach.


Meet the facilitator

Magdalena is a historian, cultural anthropologist, educator, and project manager based in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on memory, difficult heritage, and public history, with a particular interest in how people experience the past in their everyday lives. She has over ten years of experience in education, working with young people and teachers, especially in Holocaust education and historical learning. She has also worked on international projects in the fields of history, heritage, and civic education, combining project coordination with the development of educational activities and workshops. Her work brings together research, education, and public engagement.