Reminder: Intellectual Hinterlands CFP Deadline: 10 January 2014
International Society for Intellectual History
Intellectual
Hinterlands
25-27 June 2014 at Victoria College, University of Toronto
Keynotes: Sarah Hutton (Aberystwyth), Alan
Charles Kors (UPenn)
& Martin E. Jay (Berkeley).
Organized
by: James DiCenso (Toronto), Howard Hotson (Oxford), and James A.T. Lancaster
(Warburg).
Over the past few decades,
intellectual history has undergone significant changes, as it has adapted to
advances in cultural history, the social sciences, the history of the book and
the letter, material culture, learned practices, the fine arts, and the history
and philosophy of science, among others. Due to its inherently
interdisciplinary nature, the adoption of new methods from outside disciplines
could be said to be one of its greatest strengths. Yet, at the same time, the
speed with which intellectual history has been able to adjust to changes in the
outside world has meant that its identity has become fluid; lacking firm
definition. What methods today define the practice of the intellectual
historian? Is intellectual history a discipline still circumscribed by the
“great book” and by “great thinkers,” its focus on canonical authors and their
texts a help or a hindrance? Is a canon indispensable for connecting
to students and broader readerships? Or should we emancipate ourselves from it
entirely? Intellectual Hinterlands proposes to investigate the
increasingly expansive historical, contextual, and methodological spaces in
which intellectual history is now practiced, and to question whether, as
intellectual historians, our unique perspective enables us to address the
problems now facing liberal education, the humanities, and society at large.
Call for papers
Intellectual
Hinterlands seeks
papers and panels which address two general
aspects of intellectual history: first, sessions built upon the success of
cultural and intellectual contextualization, which stress the historical
continuum of ideas which proceed the individual, “great” thinkers
around whom courses, publications, and our discipline has principally been
built; and second, sessions which take aim at methodological problems,
such as the place of “great thinkers,” “great books,” and “grand narratives” in
intellectual history, and, moreover, whether/how contemporary academics
have addressed recent criticisms. The range of potential subjects of
investigation is extremely broad, and may include, but is not limited to:
- the influence and manufacture of celebrity, and the construction of the canon;
- the place of “great thinkers” and “great books” in contemporary intellectual history practices;
- the value of intellectual history to society at large;
- the place of women as subjects of investigation in intellectual history;
- the importance of studying popular intellectual movements in history;
- whether the grand récit is essential or unacceptable within intellectual history at present;
- panels which investigate particular “great thinkers” with an emphasis on their intellectual and cultural contexts: e.g., Nicole Oresme and fourteenth-century astrological practices, Kant and seventeenth-century natural philosophy, Darwin and the nineteenth-century theology, etc.;
- the importance of lesser-known thinkers to the practice of intellectual history;
- the increasing impact of non-western traditions of thought upon intellectual history;
- the place of intellectual historians in the academy;
- the contribution and current place of women in contemporary intellectual history practices;
- the place of the fine arts in intellectual history;
- and popular perceptions of intellectual history.
The first and principal form of
contributions will be brief papers relating to the theme of Intellectual
Hinterlands at large. Papers can concentrate on any period, region,
tradition or discipline, including the arts, humanities, sciences, and various
forms of professional learning. As well as individual papers, we welcome
proposals for panels of up to three papers and a commentator. Individual papers
will be twenty minutes long, followed by ten minutes of discussion.
Please submit abstracts of no more than 350 words for
each paper. Proposals for panels featuring a maximum of three papers should not
exceed 1500 words. All proposals – for papers and panels – should be
accompanied by a brief biographical statement. All proposals are due by 10
January 2014. Please submit paper and panel proposals using the online
form.
For
more information, please see the conference website: http://isih.history.ox.ac.uk/?page_id=2057.
James
A.T. Lancaster (isih-info@history.ox.ac.uk).
James
A.T. Lancaster
H.B.A.
(Toronto), M.A. (Toronto), PhD Candidate (Warburg)
The
Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Studies
University
of London