RHN 39/2026 | Call
Organisers: Centre for Agrarian History (CAG)
23 – 24 November 2026, Leuven, Belgium
Deadline for Submissions: 15 June 2026
Call for Papers:
Agricultural Heritage and the Public History of Agriculture after 1945 in Northern and Western Europe
International Workshop
The Centre for Agrarian History (CAG) is organising an international workshop on agricultural heritage and the public history of agriculture after 1945, in collaboration with the Interfaculty Centre for Agrarian History (ICAG, KU Leuven) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. The workshop takes place on 23–24 November 2026 in Leuven, Belgium. We welcome proposals from museum professionals, archivists, historians, curators and heritage practitioners across Northern and Western Europe. Abstracts can be submitted until 15 June 2026.
Agriculture has undergone a profound transformation over the past 75 years. Rapid mechanisation, motorisation, scaling-up and specialisation, alongside agriculture's shifting position in society at large, confront heritage institutions and researchers with fundamental questions. Many agricultural heritage collections remain firmly anchored in the era of horse-powered and early mechanised farming. But how do you document and represent the turbulent decades that followed in a heritage collection? What role is there for large machinery and equipment that places enormous pressure on depot capacity, and what for audiovisual records, photographs or personal documents? And what position should heritage organisations and historians take in today's public debates about agriculture, food and the rural world?
These are the questions this workshop aims to bring together and test against experiences from across Northern and Western Europe, a region shaped by shared agro-economic developments, yet marked by significant differences in heritage policy and public engagement. The workshop is conceived as a forum for critical exchange and collective reflection. Contributions may present completed research, ongoing projects, conceptual frameworks or unresolved dilemmas in curatorial and collection practice. The workshop is part of CAG's research and heritage programme Boerengeheugen (Farmer’s Memory).
The full call for papers, including thematic focus areas, practical information and submission details, is available here. Abstracts of around 300 words should be submitted to sven.lefevre@cagnet.be by 15 June 2026.