PAUL ZANAZANIAN

I am currently an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada.

My scholarly work is multifaceted and interdisciplinary. It brings together different aspects of historical theory, cultural and narrative psychology, cultural sociology, cultural anthropology, and history education. It also builds on perspectives emerging from pragmatism, phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, and the study of Indigenous knowledge systems. My work is both theoretical and empirical in nature and seeks to offer concrete outcomes in terms of research findings, knowledge mobilization, and pedagogical mindsets and tools.

At the core of my interests lie the notion of historical consciousness and how individuals and current-day societies use history for organizing their knowledge of the world and their presence in it. I view historical consciousness as a mode of sense production that influences the underlying decisions individuals make when giving meaning to time’s flow for navigating social reality. My concern lies in the concept’s role and importance for life orientation purposes, particularly regarding how understandings of it’s uses are processed and mobilized for taking action.

“My concern lies in the concept’s role and importance for life orientation purposes, particularly regarding how understandings of it’s uses are processed and mobilized for taking action.”

I have numerous publications in line with my theoretical and empirical work, in such journals as Canadian Ethnic Studies, Ethnic Studies Review, Historical Encounters, and Curriculum Inquiry. Seeking to chart new directions for the study of historical consciousness, I have also co-edited a special issue, “Revisiting Historical Consciousness as a Theoretical Construct and Exploring its Broad Understanding for Contemporary Education and Educational Research”, in the Journal of Curriculum Studies in 2019. My new forthcoming book, Historical Consciousness and Practical Life: A Theory and Methodology, with University of Toronto Press, where I discuss many of the ideas that I share on this website, will be published in February 2025.

For more information, please refer to my McGill University webpage:
https://www.mcgill.ca/dise/paul-zanazanian

Research Projects Using the Practical Life Methodology

Ongoing

‘The Practical Life Methodology of Historical Consciousness’ in an International Perspective

The purpose of this international, multi-site research project is to test the applicability and validity of Zanazanian’s (2025) practical life methodology of historical consciousness for examining the workings of social actors’ historical consciousness and the ways in which it impacts their positionality when faced with social issues of a historical nature.

The practical life methodology works specifically as an analytical scheme for reading:

How social actors structure their thinking when making historical sense of social reality;
How they enact the knowledge claims that they consequently make.

GREECE
Headed by Eleni Apostolidou.

Educating the Refugee Youth in Greece
To grasp how educators who work with refugees (in hosting centers for refugees) employ their historical consciousness to position themselves regarding the integration of “non-Greeks” into Greek society.

IRELAND
Headed by Caitríona Ní Cassaithe and Peter Whelan.

The Men (and Women) Beyond the Wire: A study of Irish republican political ex-prisoners’ use of history as an interpretative filter for language revitalisation
To grasp how former-republican-prisoners-turned-language-activists employ their historical consciousness to position themselves regarding the promotion of the Irish language in Northern Ireland.

ISRAEL
Headed by Nimrod Tal and Simcha Getahun.

Let My People In: The Biblical Past in Ethiopian Jews’ Battle for a Place in the Zionist Israel
To grasp how Jewish-Ethiopian social activists employ their historical consciousness to position themselves regarding their struggles against racism and efforts to help ease the integration process of their community into Israeli society.

USA
Headed by Gabriel A. Reich.

Organizing for Change: Historical Consciousness and Teacher Activism
To grasp how teacher-activists employ their historical consciousness to position themselves regarding their labor and social activism around improving work conditions and professional autonomy in Virginia.

PROJECT LEADER: Paul Zanazanian. PROJECT MEMBERS: Eleni Apostolidou (University of Ioannina/ Hellenic Open University), Caitriona Ni Cassaithe (Dublin City University), Gabriel Reich (Virginia Commonwealth University), Nimrod Tal (Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and Arts/ The Israeli Institute of History Education), Simcha Getahune (Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and Arts), and Peter Whelan (Dublin City University).

Past project

Historical Consciousness and History Teaching: How English-Speaking Teachers Interact with Québec’s National Narrative and Integrate their Students

This research project aims to better understand the workings of English-speaking history teachers’ historical consciousness and how this impacts their use of Quebec’s national history program for purposes of integrating English-speaking students into larger society. It pursues two specific objectives:

To grasp how English-speaking teachers use history to inform the manner in which they interact with Quebec’s official narrative and teach it to their students.
To discern how English-speaking teachers interpret the national history program’s treatment of Quebec’s English-speaking community’s realities and use that interpretation to develop their students’ sense of identity and belonging to the state.

Funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). Établissement de nouveaux professeurs-chercheurs.

Past project

Historical Consciousness and Community Education: How English-Speaking Community Leaders in Quebec Make Sense of the Past for Fostering Community Vitality and Civic Engagement

This research project aims to understand English-speaking Quebec community leaders’ historical consciousness and how it conditions the social posture from which they educate group members about civic engagement. It seeks to answer two specific questions:

How do community leaders mobilize notions of history for fulfilling their public role as educators in vitalizing English-speaking Quebec and to what ends?
What do they know of the history of Anglo Quebec and of the potential for enhancing civic engagement by its teaching to the community?

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Insight Development Grant.

OPEN-ACCESS PUBLICATIONS

Zanazanian, P. (2026). Past futures and future pasts as a shuttle for moving towards an embodied practical life approach to teaching history. In K. Kalusche, H. Bormuth, & J. Meyers-Hamme (Eds.). Selbstständig: Geschichtslernen als Befähigung zum Historischen Denken. Festschrift für Andreas Körber zum 60. Geburtstag. Wochen Schau Wissenschaft.
https://www.wochenschau-verlag.de/media/07/0f/76/1765451243/9783756617579.pdf?ts=1765451243#page=18

Elmersjö, H. A., Lundberg, S. & Zanazanian, P. (2025, e-pub ahead of print). The Relationship between Past and History in Teachers’ Theoretical Understandings and Professional Practice, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1-17.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00220272.2025.2476940?needAccess=true

Zanazanian, P. & Nitsche, M. (Eds.) (2025). History and its Educational Relevance for Overcoming Tensions in Current Times. Historical Thinking, Culture, and Education, 2 (1), 4-154.
https://eterna.unibas.ch/htce/article/view/2129/2556

Zanazanian, P., Åström Elmersjö, H., & Nitsche, M. (Eds.) (2024). Revisiting History: Teachers and Learners. Historical Encounters, 11(2), 1-150.
https://www.hej-hermes.net/_files/ugd/f067ea_7e34b14be9f04615ac34c2ff7c837937.pdf

Åström Elmersjö, H. & Zanazanian, P. (Eds.) (2024). Teachers and the Epistemology of History. Palgrave Macmillan.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58056-7

Zanazanian, P. (2024). From the Ideal-Type Historian and its Associated Conceptions of Teaching History to a More Embodied and Practical Life Approach (pp. 353-367). In: Äström Elmersjö, H., Zanazanian, P. (eds.) Teachers and the Epistemology of History. Palgrave Macmillan
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-58056-7_19

Åström Elmersjö, H. & Zanazanian, P. (2022). History Teachers and Historical Knowledge in Quebec and Sweden: Epistemic Beliefs in Distinguishing the Past from History and its Teaching. Historical Encounters, 9 (1), 181-195
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1652325/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Zanazanian, P. & Nordgren, K. (2019). Introduction. Special issue: Revisiting Historical Consciousness as a Theoretical Construct and Exploring its Broad Understanding for Contemporary Education and Educational Research. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51 (6), 771-778
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2019.1652940

Zanazanian, P. (2019). Examining Historical Consciousness Through History-As-Interpretive-Filter Templates: Implications for Research and Education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51 (6), 850-868
h ttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00220272.2019.1652935

Zanazanian, P. (2019). Mobilizing Historical Consciousness for Concerted Social Action: English-speaking Quebec’s Community Leaders and Their Quest for Group Vitality. Canadian Ethnic Studies/ Études ethniques au Canada, 51 (1), 111-133
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/716005/pdf

Zanazanian, P. (2017). Teaching History for Narrative Space and Vitality: Historical Consciousness, Templates, and English-Speaking Quebec. In H. Å. Elmersjö, A. Clark, & M. Vinterek. (Eds.). Teaching Rival Histories: Pedagogical Responses to the History Culture Wars (pp. 107-131). London: Palgrave Macmillan
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-55432-1_6

Zanazanian, P. (2015). Historical Consciousness and Metaphor: Charting New Directions for Grasping Human Historical Sense-Making Patterns for Knowing and Acting in Time. Historical Encounters Journal 2 (1), 16-33
https://www.hej-hermes.net/_files/ugd/f067ea_aad4d3c31c4946a7adfeb6119fdab3db.pdf

Zanazanian, P. (2015). Historical Consciousness and Being Québécois: Exploring Young English-Speaking Students’ Interactions with Quebec’s Master Historical Narrative. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 47 (2), 113-135
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/78/article/583326/pdf

Zanazanian, P. (2012). Historical Consciousness and the Structuring of Group Boundaries: A Look at Two Francophone School History Teachers Regarding Quebec’s Anglophone Minority. Curriculum Inquiry, 42 (2), 215-239
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2012.00591.x

Zanazanian, P. & Moisan, S. (2012). Harmonizing Two of History Teaching’s Main Social Functions: Franco-Québécois History Teachers and Their Predispositions to Catering to Narrative Diversity. Special issue: History Curriculum, Geschichtsdidaktik, and the Problem of the Nation. Education Sciences, 2 (4), 255-275
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1118207.pdf

Zanazanian, P. (2010). Historical Consciousness and Ethnicity: How Signifying the Past Influences the Fluctuations in Ethnic Boundary maintenance. Ethnic Studies Review, 33 (2), 123-141
https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1347&context=esr

Zanazanian, P. (2008). Historical Consciousness and the ‘French-English’ Divide Among Quebec History Teachers. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 40 (3), 109-130
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/423487/pdf