Encounters with the historical imagination

Professor Giacomo Lichtner, from the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, presents his inaugural lecture.

In this inaugural professorial lecture, historian Giacomo Lichtner considers the contested roles that imagination plays in history: from filling evidential gaps to constructing national narratives of the past, and from dreaming new questions to harnessing the evocative powers of artistic invention. Imagination simultaneously tethers us to the past and frees us from it, allowing us to subvert it, adapt it, and sometimes find relevance in it.

Starting from Holocaust Studies, where the role of imagination is especially controversial, and then moving through the politics of memory and representation, this lecture reflects on Professor Lichtner’s encounters with the historical imagination, and challenges us to consider our role in (re-)imagining the past.

Professor Giacomo Lichtner with the Vice-Chancellor and Professor Sally Hill — Inaugural Lecture: Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bryony James, Professor Giacomo Lichtner and Professor Sally Hill.

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