Lisbon to host 2026 International Public History Conference amid rising challenges to academic freedom
The International Federation for Public History (IFPH) has announced that Lisbon, Portugal, will host the 8th International Conference on Public History from September 7 to 11, 2026. This upcoming conference, titled "The Public History of Difficult Pasts," is framed against a backdrop of increasing political pressures, including right-wing movements challenging academic freedom by targeting memory, diversity, human rights, democracy, and history itself.
The IFPH explicitly condemns current trends such as book banning, censoring historical narratives, surveillance of educators and students, and attacks on sites of remembrance. The organisation stresses that these actions threaten not only academic freedom but the foundational principles of public history. The conference aims to confront these challenges by promoting critical engagement with complex and painful histories, amplifying marginalized voices, and fostering transnational discussions on reconciliation, accountability, and restorative justice.
Public history as a discipline has historically engaged with global issues such as colonialism and its legacies, the transatlantic slave trade, Indigenous genocide, armed conflicts, authoritarian regimes, and mass atrocities. The IFPH’s upcoming conference continues this tradition by emphasising the ethical and political imperative to represent how diverse communities and individuals have lived these difficult pasts. However, the organisers recognise the complexities involved, including the risk that amplifying some voices may inadvertently silence others and the ethical challenges in presenting traumatic histories in the public sphere. The conference will explore these dilemmas while addressing how political manipulations and revisionist discourses increasingly shape public memory.
The venue for the conference will be Colégio Almada Negreiros in Lisbon, a site reflecting Portugal’s rich cultural heritage. The extensive call for papers invites submissions on a broad range of themes, including colonial legacies, commemorations of the slave trade, Indigenous genocide, civil wars, dictatorship, and mass atrocities. The call also highlights emerging methodological concerns like countering historical denialism, navigating competing narratives, sharing authority with affected communities, digital humanities, museum practices, and archival activism.
The conference seeks contributions that spotlight survivor testimonies, community-based historical projects, oral history, and intersectional approaches incorporating gender and sexuality. It also invites papers on educational strategies to engage youth with sensitive histories and encourages comparative and transnational perspectives. Justice and reconciliation remain central themes, with an invitation to explore truth commissions, reparations, memorialisation, restorative justice, and collective healing.
The call for papers officially opens on September 30, 2025, and closes on November 30, 2025, with results announced by March 2026. The programme is expected to be available by June 2026, and registration for on-site attendance will open until August 2026.
This conference represents a significant platform for associations, confederations, and trade bodies involved in public history and related sectors to engage with urgent contemporary debates surrounding historical memory, ethical representation, and political contestation. It underscores the vital role these organisations play in facilitating dialogue, promoting inclusive narratives, and supporting members confronting challenges to history and remembrance in their communities.