Two new websites have just launched, addressing matters of great interest. The first, Historical Encounters, a venture of the Hermes group at the University of Newcastle, is an online journal of historical consciousness, historical cultures and history education.
Historical Encounters will publish two issues a year (open access) and its first number has some interesting articles from Australian and overseas authors, including Anna Clark on ‘Inheriting the past: exploring historical consciousness across generations’ and Henrik Åström Elmersjö on peace education and related issues. We hope to look more closely at these and other articles in the near future.
Hermes was, of course, the Greek god of transitions and boundaries. Dwelling on Mount Olympus also was Eirene or Irene, the goddess of peace (hence irenology or peace studies) and Emeritus Professor Joseph Camilleri of La Trobe University has had a distinguished career in international relations and peace studies. Joseph has started a personal website. He says:
Our world today is undergoing a transition as profound as any in human evolution. In such a transition we face immense risks but also promising possibilities. The question is how best to reduce the risks and embrace the possibilities. Dialogue may not be the whole answer, but it is a vital though often neglected part of the answer.
We will put links to both sites in our Recommended links section.
1 September 2014