The Joint History Project for all Southeast European countries (JHP 2.0) continues. It builds on the work of hundreds of historians and teachers from the region who, between 1998 and 2016, authored workbooks in eleven languages, covering history from the Ottoman Empire to 2008.
JHP 2.0 will continue to mobilise knowledge and creativity among historians, teachers, artists, journalists, and others who wish to promote a democratic political culture in the Southeast Europe.
The idea behind the project is to make the books available in digital format for a new audience, particularly younger generations. The focus will be on creating social media content, videos, articles, academic studies, and other materials to spark curiosity, empathy, and critical thinking about history.
The first materials are available, as the first media campaign titled “LEARN and INSPIRE” began on Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, a scientific conference on the concept of borders in Southeast Europe is scheduled to take place in Podgorica on 16 May. The central question of the conference will be whether the region has moved beyond the tendency toward demarcation and particularism.
The President of the project scientific committee is Proffessor Kristina Koulouri from Greece, while Ditmir Bushati, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania,chairs the “Friends of JHP 2.0,” a group of academics, diplomats, and civil society activists from Southeast Europe who believe in the necessity and justification of this project. The JHP 2.0 team is led by Zvezdana Kovač from Montenegro, a longtime director of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe (CDRSEE) based in Thessaloniki, which originally pioneered this initiative.
JHP 2.0 is implemented by the European Fund for the Balkans, with financial support from the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.