Using Tangible Memories: 8th International Confrence on Public History [Conference Sessions]

Registration for the conference opens on July 1st; please sign up through the IFPH 2026 Lisbon Website.

Members of the Slave Wrecks Project will host two panels entitled “Using tangible memories to navigate difficult pasts” at the International Conference on Public History in Lisbon. The panels will bring together members of the Slave Wrecks Project network, collaborators, and scholars to discuss Portugal’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and how museums and scholars can work to deconstruct colonial paternalistic narratives.

Learn more about our work in Portugal 

Conference Overview

“The 8th International Conference on Public History, organised by the International Federation for Public History, IFPH, will take place in Lisbon from September 7 to 11, 2026. It will be hosted by IN2PAST – the Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory, a transdisciplinary consortium of seven research centres, at Colégio Almada Negreiros on the Campolide campus of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

In a time of escalating attacks by right-wing movements on memory, diversity, human rights, democracy, and history itself, the International Federation for Public History (IFPH) reaffirms its commitment to fostering critical engagement with the ways societies confront, interpret, and relate to their difficult pasts and challenging presents. The IFPH strongly condemns book banning, the censorship of historical narratives, the surveillance of students and educators, the targeting of sites of remembrance, and the imposition of ideological agendas — particularly right-wing distortions — that not only threaten academic freedom but undermine the very principles upon which public history is built. Against this backdrop, the conference seeks to challenge historical revisionism and silencing, to amplify marginalised voices and memories, and to promote transnational dialogues on reconciliation, accountability, and restorative justice.

Public History has long addressed global historical processes such as colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the genocide of Indigenous peoples, as well as phenomena that emerge in multiple contexts, including armed conflicts and dictatorships. It embodies both a political and ethical commitment to examining how difficult pasts have been lived and remembered by different communities and individuals, ensuring that their perspectives are acknowledged and respected. At the same time, engaging with these histories through Public History raises significant challenges. Sharing authority with specific communities and amplifying marginalised narratives may unintentionally silence other voices, while also presenting complex ethical dilemmas.

Furthermore, Public History operates within the public sphere, engaging diverse audiences and navigating competing representations of the past in an era increasingly marked by the political instrumentalisation of history and the spread of revisionist and denialist discourses.” – International Federation for Public History

Slave Wrecks Project Panel Speakers

• Raquel Machaqueiro, Slave Wrecks Project, The George Washington University | The São José Paquete d’África: tangible pasts in building more equitable futures [Convenor, Chair and Panelist]
• Paul Gardullo, Slave Wrecks Project, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture [Chair]
• Stephen Lubkemann, Slave Wrecks Project, The George Washington University [Chair]

Panelists

• Inês Brandão, Gulbenkian Museum | Luxury/Loss: Public Mediation of Conflict, Empire, and Exile in Non-Contested Collection
• Marta Lourenço, MUHNAC-CIUHCT-PRISC, University of Lisbon | In the shadow of colonialism: 19th and 20th century scientific collections of the National Museum of Natural History and Science
  University of Lisbon
• Orlando Serrano, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History | Learning as Rehearsal: Crafting a Present, Shaping a Future
• David Felismino, William Pimenta and Ana Margarida Campos, Museum of Lisbon – EGEAC |Unveiling Overlooked Histories: The Museum of Lisbon’s Transatlantic Biographies
• Stephen Lubkemann, Slave Wrecks Project, The George Washington University, and Cezar Mahumane, UEM-CAIRIM, Slave Wrecks Project, and José Andrade, Museu da Ilha de Moçambique,
  Slave Wrecks Project | Navigating the Paradoxes of Postcolonial Representations of the Maritime Past on Mozambique Island-Museums, Memorials, and Shipwreck Sites
• Luis Filipe Santos, AfrOrigens, Universidade Federal da Bahia | Corpos de Madeira, Corpos Negados: Arqueologia Marítima e Reparação Históric