“THE MAKING OF THE HUMANITIES” (23-25 October 2008, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

The first International Conference on the History of the Humanities, organized under the auspices of the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

This conference aims at bringing together scholars and historians of the various humanities disciplines to draw the outlines for a comparative history of the humanities. Although there exist separate histories of single humanities disciplines, a comparative history would satisfy a long-felt need, and fill a conspicuous gap intellectual history.

Call for Abstracts:

We invite submissions that explore the connections between different disciplines in the history of the humanities. While the focus is on the early modern period when the humanities started to emerge (roughly 1400-1800), we also welcome proposals for papers exploring interesting links with earlier or later periods. Topics include all aspects of the history of philology, linguistics, logic, rhetoric, music theory, ‘ars historica’ and ‘ars poetica’, with an emphasis on their interrelations as well as their impact on the natural sciences, philosophy and theology, and on the broader cultural and political context. An edited book with a prominent publisher is planned, with the provisional title “Another History of Science: The Making of the Humanities”.

Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 July 2008
Notification of acceptance: 20 July 2008
Date of the conference: 23-25 October 2008

For more information, see http://www.illc.uva.nl/MakingHumanities/

[The following announcement is based on an e-mail sent to HOPOS-L by Rens Bod.]