Global Perspective on Heritages of Hunger conference | Heritages of Hunger Consortium | Charbonnel Lounge, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto

HREC is a partner of the Heritages of Hunger Consortium, an initiative from Radboud University in the Netherlands, focusing on “Societal Reflections on Past European Famines in Education, Commemoration and Musealisation.” They seek to contribute towards overcoming divisions among European communities by analyzing European famines connected to episodes of war, neglect, and environmental crisis which continue to function as negative European heritage, but can also evoke transeuropean solidarity via the relief schemes and mediations their legacies engendered. By investigating and reassessing current practices of education in schools, museums, heritage sites and surrounding commemorations around famine and hunger (1845-1947) as specific dimensions of Europe’s troubled modern pasts, the Consortium will develop educational resources and recommendations that strengthen the consciousness of transeuropean legacies in heritage initiatives.

Global Perspective on Heritages of Hunger conference

In 2024, HREC Research co-organized, and HREC ED participated in, the Consortium’s final in-person conference in Toronto (April 3-5th, 2024). This conference took place during April Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation and Prevention Month and was the culminating meeting of this global consortium’s network of educators, researchers, and institutions related to the global European famines project. It was a summation of work that has been done to date on European famines throughout history, and on new research undertaken by younger scholars, including on the Holodomor. On the last morning of the conference, Valentina Kuryliw led an excursion to the Toronto Holodomor Memorial on the CNE Exhibition Grounds near the Prince’s Gates with former UCC-Toronto President Oksana Rewa, Chair of the Holodomor Monument Committee responsible for its erection. A bus took approximately 35 participants to the site where they listened to presentations on the recognition and memorialization of the Holodomor in Canada, its inclusion into the Canadian educational curriculum, and the importance of the monument for Canada and the Toronto community, the largest Ukrainian community in the country. The bus monuments tour excursion also visited the Irish Famine monument in Ireland Park on the Waterfront.

Global Perspective on Heritages of Hunger conference

Heritages of Hunger is an international project coordinated by Marguerite Corporaal of Radboud University (RU), and headed by: Radboud University, the Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD), The Netherlands. HREC has been a partner since the beginning of this project to inform and share educational practices on the topic of the Holodomor.

For more about the Heritages of Hunger Project and Consortium:

Global Perspective on Heritages of Hunger conference