How to Make Sense of Long-Term Developments in the History of Modern Science\, Philosophy\, and Culture? A Cross-Disciplinary Conference
\n\nMay 25&ndash\;26\, 2027\, KU Leuven / Université\; libre de Bruxelles
\n\nRecent decades have seen a remarkable expansion of research on modern thought across science\, philosophy\, and culture. On the one hand\, scholars have developed increasingly fine‑grained forms of contextual and textual analysis. On the other hand\, they have expanded the field beyond the traditional canon by questioning Eurocentric narratives\, foregrounding marginalized writers and movements\, and tracing alternative lineages. Despite its great merits\, however\, this expansion has reinforced the tendency to focus on individual authors\, local contexts\, and the immediate reception of one author by another. As a result\, contemporary research rarely asks how developments that unfold across long temporal arcs&mdash\;sometimes spanning several generations\, sometimes crossing disciplinary boundaries&mdash\;can be understood.
\nThis tendency has its roots in the rejection by twentieth-century scholarship of grand teleological narratives\, especially those associated with Hegelian historiography. In response\, many authors have sought to conceptualize long‑term developments in science\, philosophy\, and culture in non-teleological terms. Historians of ideas and philosophy turned\, for instance\, to the structural analysis of systems (Martial Gueroult)\, to histories of concepts (Reinhart Koselleck)\, and contextualist approaches to intellectual history (Quentin Skinner). Other twentieth-century perspectives include the longue duré\;e approach of the É\;cole des Annales in France (Marc Bloch\, Fernand Braudel)\, analyses of civilizational processes (Norbert Elias)\, historical epistemologies of the sciences (Hé\;lè\;ne Metzger\, Thomas Kuhn)\, and genealogical reconstructions (Michel Foucault).
\n\;Reassessing these approaches as well as exploring new directions\, this cross-disciplinary conference addresses the question of how long‑term developments in modern science\, philosophy\, and culture can be conceptualized. Which tools\, methods\, and models allow us to make sense of the ways in which conceptual\, scientific\, and cultural textual productions emerged\, persisted\, interacted\, transformed\, and dissolved across time? Which twentieth-century perspectives on long-term intellectual developments across the modern world can be transferred from one disciplinary context to another? By bringing together researchers from a range of disciplines&mdash\;e.g.\, history of science\, history of philosophy\, history\, history of ideas\, sociology\, anthropology\, and cultural studies&mdash\;the conference aims to stimulate dialogues on these and similar questions. Proposals from historians\, anthropologists\, sociologists\, and related fields are especially welcome.
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\n\nConfirmed speakers
\n\nKarin de Boer &mdash\; KU Leuven
\nDina Emundts &mdash\; Freie Universitä\;t Berlin
\nCatherine Kö\;nig-Pralong &mdash\; É\;cole des hautes é\;tudes en sciences sociales\, Paris
\nMartin Mulsow &mdash\; Universitä\;t Erfurt
\nDimitry Nikulin &mdash\; New School for Social Research
\nElí\;as José\; Palti &mdash\; University of Buenos Aires
\nArnaud Pelletier &mdash\; Université\; libre de Bruxelles
\n\nFormat: hybrid
\nVenue: KU Leuven
\n\nAbstracts of no more than 500 words \;should be submitted through the electronic form available at the website. The abstracts\, including the title\, should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identification details.
\n\nPresentation time will be 40 minutes + 20 minutes for discussion. We offer limited travel grants to early career researchers without research funding of their own.
\n\nSubmission deadline: January 11\, 2027
\n\nNotification of acceptance by February 19\, 2026.
\n\nWebsite: https://hiw.kuleuven.be/cmprpc/events/longtermdevelopmentsleuven2027/home
\n\nContact: marie.lauwers@ulb.be
\n\n\nOrganizers
\n\nKarin de Boer (KU Leuven)\, Marie Lauwers (Université\; libre de Bruxelles)\, Arnaud Pelletier (Université\; libre de Bruxelles)\, Shahab Vesali (KU Leuven)
\n\nThe conference is organized in the context of the EOS research project Responses to Newton&rsquo\;s Mathematical-Experimental Paradigm in 18th-Century Philosophy (RENEW18) funded by FWO and F.R.S.-FNRS. See https://www.renew18.be/
ORGANIZER;CN=Karin de Boer;CN=Arnaud Pelletier;CN=Shahab Vesali;CN=Marie Lauwers: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR