In Between? Searching for Local Histories in Borderlands of Europe

‘In Between?’, an educational project running since April 2016, aims to explore the history of the 20th century and its legacy in border regions. The participants are given the opportunity to conduct oral history research in European borderlands. Gaining theoretical knowledge and interdisciplinary and practical skills, they record history’s witnesses, local activists and representatives from local institutions, in order to create a podcast about the specificities of the border region they visit.

Target group

The participating students (aged 18–26), selected in an international two-stage recruitment process, represent various fields of interest, including history, cultural anthropology, sociology, linguistics, journalism and the arts.

Course aim

In the 2024 edition of the programme, the participants will meet in Warsaw for a three-day workshop where they will be introduced to interviewing techniques, oral history and audio documentation methods. Following this, the group will be divided into two smaller teams and embark on study trips to one of the selected regions: Masuria in Poland and the Estonian-Finnish sea border area. During a one-week stay, the groups will meet with history witnesses, scholars, representatives of local institutions and local activists in order to make recordings for an audio documentary about the history and life of the inhabitants of the region visited. Once the project is completed, the audio documentaries or podcasts will be made available on the ENRS website, on Spotify and on Simplecast.