The Department of History at the University of Oulu in Finland organized the Conference on Imagology and Cross-cultural Encounters in History on August 29¿31, 2007. The papers presented at the conference are published here. The purpose of the conference was firstly to consider utilization of an imagological viewpoint in the study of history in general. The themes included national and international symbols, persons and groups of people, but also images, as explaining factors in political and economic decision-making.

Secondly, the conference examined interaction between cultures, because it has always been apparent how difficult it is to understand others and dissimilarity. Images of others and dissimilarity are similar to a biological territory that protects one¿s own species. The purpose of the conference was to shed light on these problems through examples from different ages, which provide an additional perspective in examining corresponding phenomena today. If we understand the processes related to images, we can also understand ourselves better.