Birthday Bash Panel: 'The Future Of The Past'

History has long been regarded as the bedrock of understanding of the present, shaping our collective memory and guiding our cultural, political, and intellectual landscapes. Yet, in recent years, its place in education and public discourse has been steadily eroded—dismissed as irrelevant, overshadowed by market-driven priorities, and, at times, deliberately sidelined. University history departments are shrinking or closing, reflecting a broader societal shift that prioritizes fields deemed more economically valuable.  At the same time, history is not simply being neglected—it is being rewritten, reinterpreted, and, in some cases, deliberately obliterated. From war conflicts that manipulate historical narratives to serve political ambitions to the suppression of inconvenient truths, history remains a battleground. The ever-evolving field of Artificial Intelligence makes it increasingly difficult to differentiate between actual and fabricated data. 

Thus in this era of mass digital information, selective memory, and ideological polarization, the need for rigorous historical scholarship is more urgent…