CFP: Long-Term Developments in the History of Modern Science, Philosophy, and Culture

How to Make Sense of Long-Term Developments in the History of Modern Science, Philosophy, and Culture? A Cross-Disciplinary Conference

May 25–26, 2027, KU Leuven / Université libre de Bruxelles

Recent 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—sometimes spanning several generations, sometimes crossing disciplinary boundaries—can be understood.

This 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 durée approach of the École des Annales in France (Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel), analyses of civilizational processes (Norbert Elias), historical epistemologies of the sciences (Hélène Metzger, Thomas Kuhn), and genealogical reconstructions (Michel Foucault).

 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—e.g., history of science, history of philosophy, history, history of ideas, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies—the conference aims to stimulate dialogues on these and similar questions. Proposals from historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and related fields are especially welcome.

Confirmed speakers

Karin de Boer — KU Leuven

Dina Emundts — Freie Universität Berlin

Catherine König-Pralong — École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

Martin Mulsow — Universität Erfurt

Dimitry Nikulin — New School for Social Research

Elías José Palti — University of Buenos Aires

Arnaud Pelletier — Université libre de Bruxelles

Format: hybrid

Venue: KU Leuven

Abstracts 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.

Presentation time will be 40 minutes + 20 minutes for discussion. We offer limited travel grants to early career researchers without research funding of their own.

Submission deadline: January 11, 2027

Notification of acceptance by February 19, 2026.

Website: https://hiw.kuleuven.be/cmprpc/events/longtermdevelopmentsleuven2027/home

Contact: [email protected]

Organizers

Karin de Boer (KU Leuven), Marie Lauwers (Université libre de Bruxelles), Arnaud Pelletier (Université libre de Bruxelles), Shahab Vesali (KU Leuven)

The conference is organized in the context of the EOS research project Responses to Newton’s Mathematical-Experimental Paradigm in 18th-Century Philosophy (RENEW18) funded by FWO and F.R.S.-FNRS. See https://www.renew18.be/