International Society for Intellectual History 2019 Conference
Revolutions & Evolutions in Intellectual History
5 – 7 June 2019, University of Queensland, Australia
Keynotes: Michael Hunter (Birkbeck), Erika Milam (Princeton), Evelleen Richards (Sydney)
The Printing Revolution, Copernican Revolution, Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Darwinian Revolution, French Revolution, Russian Revolution, Sexual Revolution, Information Revolution. The past is often viewed through the lens of revolutions, great upheavals in the way the peoples, societies and cultures of the past understood their place in history and their relation to the world around them. Contrasted to these are the evolutions, gradual processes of modernisation and secularisation, reformation and enlightenment, subjugation and liberation that erode longstanding traditions and forge new ones. Revolutions and Evolutions in Intellectual History proposes to explore not only historical, philosophical, cultural, material, social and scientific revolutions and evolutions in human thought, but to question the historiographical categories that afford the past real and imagined motions in space and time.
Sponsored by The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland.
Call for Papers
The International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) invites proposals for papers and panels. The first and principal form of contributions will be brief papers (20 mins, followed by 10 mins of discussion) relating to the theme of revolutions and evolutions in intellectual history at large. Papers can concentrate on any period, region, tradition or discipline, including the arts, humanities and sciences, 1450 to present. As well as individual papers, we welcome proposals for panels of up to three papers and a commentator. The range of subjects of investigation is extremely broad, and may include, but is not limited to:
- specific revolutions in history, such as the Printing, Copernican, Scientific, Information, Industrial, Darwinian, French, Sexual, etc.;
- ‘evolutions’, or gradual processes in history, such as modernisation, secularisation, reformation, and enlightenment, etc.;
- neglected revolutions and evolutions in intellectual history;
- the legitimacy of revolutions as historiographical categories to understand the past;
- the relationship between the intellectual, cultural, social and material in historical revolutions and evolutions;
- the issue of change and continuity in intellectual history over the longue durée;
- the relationship between human and natural scales of time;
- the relationship between truth and meaning in narratives of intellectual history.
Within the general remit of the conference there will also be a workshop, Imagining the Darwinian Revolution: The Place of History in Science, which will be open to all conference attendees. Those wishing to have a paper considered for inclusion in this workshop, however, are asked to acknowledge this in their submission. Please note that there are a limited number of places available, and that papers not accepted for the workshop will be considered for the wider conference.
Proposals for individual papers and panels are due by 1 December 2018 and must be submitted via the Conference Submission Form.
Conference Committee: Ian Hesketh, Michael Hunter and James A. T. Lancaster.
