PDA

It will bring together participants from different countries, disciplines and professional backgrounds to identify priority problems and transform them into collaborative initiatives.

The workshop should not seek to create one universal interpretation of history. Its purpose is to determine how different interpretations can be responsibly documented, compared and used to build cooperation.

Key Workshop Questions

1. When does historical interpretation become a geopolitical instrument?
2. How can shared heritage be recognized without denying the distinct identities of communities?
3. How should conflicting memories of the same historical event be represented?
4. Who has the authority to interpret, preserve and digitally reproduce heritage?
5. What new forms of cooperation can complement the physical restitution of cultural objects?
6. How can museums and archives become spaces of diplomacy?
7. How can AI be used without creating fabricated or politically manipulated history?
8. What heritage requires urgent protection from conflict or climate change?
9. How can local communities participate in decisions about their own heritage?
10. Which shared historical subjects could become pilot projects for PDA?

Workshop Structure

Session 1. History as a Field of Contemporary Power

Participants examine how historical narratives influence borders, national identity, international legitimacy and conflict.

Output: an initial map of contested historical narratives.

Session 2. Civilizations as Connected Systems

The session challenges the representation of civilizations as isolated cultural units and examines historical exchange, migration and mutual influence.

Output: a framework for studying interconnected civilizational development.

Session 3. Shared Heritage and Competing Ownership

Participants examine cases involving cultural symbols, historical personalities, archaeological sites, religious heritage and museum objects claimed by several communities or states.

Output: principles for representing layered and shared ownership.

Session 4. Heritage in Conflict and Crisis

The session addresses emergency documentation, illicit trafficking, risk mapping, digitization and post-conflict reconstruction.

Output: a list of priority heritage protection cases and potential partners.

Session 5. Restitution and New Models of Cooperation

Participants consider physical return, shared custody, rotating exhibitions, long-term loans, digital reunification and jointly governed collections.

Output: a framework for heritage restitution dialogue.

Session 6. Digital History and Artificial Intelligence

The session examines AI reconstruction, archive integration, translation, authenticity, provenance and digital manipulation.

Output: draft principles for responsible AI use in historical and heritage projects.

Session 7. From Knowledge to Diplomatic Action

Participants convert the strongest ideas into project concepts with defined objectives, teams, partners and intended results.

Output: three to five initial PDA project proposals.

Expected Workshop Results

By the end of the workshop, the group should produce:

• a Working Group Charter;
• a map of priority historical and heritage issues;
• an editorial and ethical framework;
• a list of institutions and specialists to engage;
• three to five pilot project concepts;
• a twelve-month action plan;
• a schedule of publications and public dialogues;
• an initial international network of participants.

Proposed Pilot Projects

1. Shared Heritage Map

A digital map showing historical sites, routes, traditions and cultural objects connected to more than one country or civilization.

2. Parallel Histories

A publication and dialogue series presenting several evidence-based interpretations of the same historical event.

3. Heritage at Risk Observatory

A participant-supported system for documenting cultural heritage threatened by conflict, climate change, natural disaster or illicit trafficking.

4. Digital Reunification of Dispersed Collections

A platform that virtually reconnects objects, documents and artifacts currently held in different countries and institutions.

5. Heritage Diplomacy Lab

A project environment where museums, archives, universities and communities develop joint exhibitions, restoration projects and negotiated heritage initiatives.

Who Should Participate

• historians and archaeologists;
• anthropologists and linguists;
• museum and archive professionals;
• diplomats and international lawyers;
• representatives of cultural and religious institutions;
• indigenous and local community representatives;
• specialists in provenance and restitution;
• climate and heritage-risk experts;
• digital humanities and AI specialists;
• educators, journalists and documentary producers;
• foundations and international organizations;
• project designers and technology partners.

Participation Formats

Participants may contribute by:

• publishing research or historical evidence;
• proposing a contested or shared heritage case;
• joining an expert review;
• representing a community or institution;
• developing a digital or educational tool;
• participating in a restitution or memory dialogue;
• creating an international project team;
• supporting implementation, funding or public communication.

Final Working Principle

We do not need a single version of the past. We need a shared method for understanding its complexity and transforming historical knowledge into cooperation.

The purpose of the group is not to eliminate differences in historical memory. It is to prevent those differences from being converted automatically into hostility, exclusion and conflict.

History becomes diplomatic action when understanding the past creates the possibility of a shared future.