CfP: Political Culture & History of Knowledge, Washington DC, June 6-8, 2019
Conveners:
German Historical Institute Washington DC: Kerstin von der Krone, Simone Lässig
Center “History of Knowledge” at the University Zurich and the ETH Zurich:
Kijan Espahangizi, Nils Güttler, Monika Wulz
Institute of the Formation of Knowledge at the University of Chicago: Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer
Knowledge is omnipresent yet its value is increasingly being called into question. Amid the flood of information disseminated by social media, amid talk of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” expertise is subject to challenges from many directions. These developments make the history of
knowledge especially relevant today. They also make politics and
political culture an ideal test case for assessing the potential and
limits of the history of knowledge. Knowledge plays an important role in
political activities from voter mobilization to governmental
decision-making. As recent historical research on the role of expert
knowledge has shown, the political realm functions as a knowledge space –
a space where knowledge is gathered, produced, disseminated,
manipulated, and regulated. By investigating the role of knowledge in
politics, the proposed conference will seek to foster a transatlantic
debate on the merits of using knowledge as a category of historical
analysis; in particular, it aims to initiate a productive conversation
between scholars working in the “history of knowledge” paradigm and
scholars in other fields – such as political history, cultural history,
and intellectual history – who are open to and curious about using
knowledge as a category of analysis.
The
conference will explore the role of knowledge in different sectors,
institutions, and agents of political life, including the state, the
economy, the legal system, the public and the media, political parties,
social movements, universities and think tanks. Possible subjects to be
investigated from a knowledge perspective include: classic topics of
political history (including ethno-nationalism, populism, elections and
the electorate); the role of political culture and cultural policy;
political symbols and languages; public opinion and the media;
biopolitics, medicine, and environmental policy; migration and mobility.
However, themes and topics are by no means restricted to these
examples.
To
foster a broad dialogue on the merits of knowledge as an analytical
category we would like to invite scholars from political history,
intellectual history, cultural history, media studies, anthropology, the
history of science and technology, political science, sociology, or
related fields to submit proposals. We aim for an empirically informed
dialogue and prefer historical case studies that speak to knowledge as a
category of historical analysis. Focused theoretical contributions
discussing or comparing the approach, however, are also welcome
especially if they are grounded in empirical work. While the conference
seeks to bring into conversation the different historiographical
approaches prevalent in Europe and North America, the thematic scope of
the conference is not limited to these regions and will range from early
modern to contemporary history. In order to leave plenty of time for
comment and discussion, we are asking participants to prepare papers not
exceeding twenty minutes.
Please
send your one-page abstract of no more than 400 words and a short CV of
no more than 2 pages in one combined PDF-file to the GHI’s event
coordinator Susanne Fabricius (fabricius@ghi-dc.org) by June 30th, 2018. For questions regarding possible contributions, please contact Dr. Kerstin von der Krone (krone@ghi-dc.org). We
will notify applicants by the end of October 2018 and expect to be able
to cover the transportation and accommodation costs of the conference
participants.