The interviews

No less innovative than the technological infrastructure is the content L@E participants are provided with: interviews to leading European historians, sociologists, Political Science experts, offering a multifaceted view of historical phenomena all across Europe.

19 scholars have been interviewed up to now (July 2007), and more than 50 documents, still preserving the “question/answer” original style, have been created from the transcripts.

Though carefully refined, interviews still retain the freshness of the original face-to-face colloquium, in which the expert is pushed to disclose the very essence of his knowledge in a straightforward and passionate way. Unlike most school textbooks, L@E interviews offer a multi-perspective view of history; students are thus introduced into a lively and thought-provoking “debate at academic level” (as one teacher defined it).

L@E’s theme

L@E core topic is the birth of Nation-States in Europe. As this phenomenon occurred almost everywhere in Europe, it offers the ideal common ground for confrontation. Local histories are interesting, for they are typically unknown to students (Italians do not know anything about Polish history, Spanish do not know anything about Swedish history, etc.); global processes at European level are interesting too, as they are common among different countries.

A number of interviews present the history of each country, others introduce common “transversal” topics that affected all Europe, such as the formation of national identities. New topics are under preparation.

The scientific committee

The cultural aspects of L@E are under the supervision of a distinguished scientific committee (years 2006-07, 2007-08):

• Alberto Martinelli, Professor of Political Science at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy (coordinator)
• Yves Mény, France – President of the European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization, Italy
• Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, Professor of Methodology of Comparative History, Universitat Bielefeld, Germany; European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization, Italy

In previous years (2004-05, 2005-06) the scientific committee was composed of a larger number of scholars, ideally representing all the countries and areas involved at that time.

• Alberto Martinelli (coordinator)
• Margaret Archer, President of the International Sociological Association, Founding member of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences, UK
• Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, Professor of Social History of European Institutions and Cultures, University of Sevilla, Spain; European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization, Italy
• Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, Professor of Methodology of Comparative History, Universitat Bielefeld, Germany; European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization, Italy
• Bo Strath, Professor of Contemporary History, European University Institute, Italy – Norway
• Marek Ziolkowski, Institute of Sociology, Poznan University, Poland; President, UNESCO/MOST Intergovernmental Council