12 October 2016. The Historical Association of the Canton of St.Gallen turns history into an experience – and has also done so in many years of cooperation with the University of St.Gallen. In this year's Autumn Semester, the Historical Association will focus on anniversaries and commemorative days.

Cantonal Archaeological Office, settlement names, enslavement
The lecture series will be started by the Cantonal Archaeological Office, which on the one hand will look back on its own 50-year history (19 October) and, on the other hand, present its current work in the depiction of the Rapperswil mithraeum – a temple of the Mithras cult (26 October). After many years of research work, the Historical Association is now able to celebrate the completion of the "St.Galler Namenbuch: Die Siedlungsnamen", a project concerning settlement names in the canton. The project team will provide an insight into the linguistic, historical and cultural relationships of place names in the canton (16 November). A critical view of the Christian occident, which for a long time represented itself as free of slavery, will be provided by an examination of the many-faceted enslavement practices between 1400 and 1600 (7 December).

Commemorative days and the Sykes-Picot Agreement
Commemorative events provide the Historical Association with an opportunity to look for historical answers to present-day issues. The 140th anniversary of the birth of Martha Cunz, a St.Gallen art deco artist, will provide an occasion for studying the influence of Japanese art on European art deco around 1900 (2 November). The bicentenary of Arnold Otto Aepli, one of the most important Swiss statesmen from St.Gallen, outlines Switzerland's modernisation process after 1848, which still continues to shape our social system today (23 November). In the light of the current refugee crisis, a lecture will focus on the Sykes-Picot Agreement concluded 100 years ago, which marked the emergence of the Middle East as we know it today (30 November).