Historical Consciousness and Practical Life

Date: Thursday 17th April 2025 at 5.30-7pm London, UK time (GMT+1). This event will take place on line via Zoom. Please register here.  

Abstract: Paul Zanazanian will present an overview of his new book, Historical Consciousness and Practical Life, which introduces a novel approach to examining how everyday people construct and employ historical knowledge in their daily lives. In viewing history as an embodied cultural practice that constitutes the background to our meaning making, the book demonstrates how researchers and others can investigate the ways in which people make sense of time’s flow in their now-moment engagements with the world and use that information to position themselves regarding key social problems with historical roots. 

Author/Presenter: Paul Zanazanian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His research examines the workings of social actors’ historical consciousness in their everyday means of knowing and doing when constructing social reality for purposes of living life. From exploring historical consciousness’s role in the structuring of group boundaries to examining its impact on individuals’ sense-making and position-taking, Paul Zanazanian’s theoretical pieces have been published in Ethnic Studies Review, Historical Encounters, and in a special issue he co-edited for the Journal of Curriculum Studies (2019). His new book, Historical Consciousness and Practical Life: A Theory and Methodology (2025), introduces both his concept of history-in-the-now and what he names historical consciousness’s practical life methodology.