Lise Zurné receives Lira Fonds grant for popular science book on historical re-enactment

Sensitive themes during re-enactments

Zurné is a visual anthropologist and cultural historian who researched how ‘amateur historians’ re-enact wars within the phenomenon of historical re-enactment, for which she conducted extensive field research in both Europe and Indonesia. She looked at how these hobbyists deal with sensitive themes such as colonisation, gender roles and the portrayal of suffering and violence.

The Lira Fund awards four scholarships per year, one of which is for a young researcher who obtained their PhD within the last five years. Lise Zurné was selected for this scholarship. According to the Lira Fund, her approach of linking themes such as colonial history and gender to re-enactment is unique. They also see the planned book as potential material for educational practice. A wonderful compliment indeed.

Combination of text and images

Zurné on her submission: ‘During my field research, I shot a lot of footage that I couldn't really use in my academic publications. So, I thought it would be great if it could still find a place somewhere. And when I came across the Lira Fund grant, a popular science book seemed like the perfect place for it. In my application, I also made it clear that I wanted to focus on a beautiful combination of text and images.’

More than men playing war

Historical re-enactment appeals to a wide audience and is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. It brings history to life. But it is also often seen as a hobby for men who want to play “war”. Zurné's earlier research shows that this image is inaccurate. The reality is much more complex, with a wide range of participants, including women and historically marginalised groups. They want to provide a platform for perspectives that they feel have been overlooked. Behind the scenes, serious and sometimes heated discussions regularly take place about which point of view deserves a platform.

This complex dynamic makes re-enactment a fascinating phenomenon: it exists in a field of tension between how serious subjects become part of hobby culture. The aim of the book is to show the layered nature of the hobby and to link it in a manageable way to theories about rituals, identity, gender, heritage, and collective memory. The working title of the book is therefore appropriately “Playing with War”.

A different ball game than academic writing

Writing a popular science book is quite a change for Zurné. ‘I really enjoy being able to transform my doctoral research into something that is accessible to a wider audience, but I must think carefully about how I explain things and how they relate to the present day. That's a significant difference from writing a dissertation or paper, which are full of references and concepts and are almost always in English. Plus, you're writing for an audience that already knows about the subject. That's the challenge, and I find it really exciting. But I think I'm good at it because I'm not the most theoretical academic in the sense that I mainly look at what people actually do and how they assign meaning to things, rather than approaching something purely conceptually.’

‘The visual material will certainly help with that. Because re-enactment is, of course, very much about costumes, material culture and portrayal. So, I'm glad that people will soon be able to see what it really looks like and how many facets it has. There's more to it than just putting on a uniform.’

According to Zurné, the subject is also very fitting for ESHCC. ‘We offer a Master's programme in Applied History, which is about how people commemorate the past and deal with history in the present, including in everyday life outside the institutional context. I think it's great to see that it fits so well.’