CfA: When History meets Theory…
The 1st Lake Starnberg Summer Academy invites applications from advanced Master students (in the process of writing their master thesis), PhD students and Postdocs to discuss how historians make use of theory in their emerging work.
When History meets Theory…
Much has been said about the cultural turns and how they have changed how we think and write about the past. Yet, empirical historical monographs all too often lack a concise theoretical framework that organizes an analytical perspective on their research topics and themes, guides their work with the sources, structures their historical reflexions, and informs their writing process. Thus, there frequently is a disconnect between the theoretical claims of a historical monograph and how it actually pursues its research.
The 1st Lake Starnberg Summer Academy takes this discrepancy as analytical point of departure to discuss how historians make use of theory in their emerging work.
The 1st Lake Starnberg Summer Academy invites applications from advanced Master students (in the process of writing their master thesis), PhD students and Postdocs whose writing is informed and guided by (e.g.) Stephen Greenblatt’s New Historicism, Mary Louise Pratt’s Contact Zone, Homi Bhabha’s Third Space, Hayden White’s critique of historical master narratives, Michel Foucault’s Discourse Analysis, or the pictorial, spatial, reflexive, postcolonial or performative turns. Which theories do you use for your work, how do you use them, and how do you translate them into a methodology guiding your research and writing? How have you framed your research topic against the background of critical theory, cultural and social studies concepts, theories and methods, how do they inform your choice of sources, source criticism, your empirical analysis, your narrative, your results – and may be also new concepts and theories coming out of your historical research?
The Summer Academy provides the selected candidates with an opportunity to present and discuss how they link theory and empirical research, to engage in discussions with internationally renowned tutors and fellow participants. The Lake Starnberg Summer Academy will also feature keynote speakers who will address this year’s theme.
Selection committee:
Prof. Dr. Volker Depkat (American Studies, Regensburg)
Prof. Dr. Susanne Lachenicht (Early Modern History, Universität Bayreuth)
Prof. Dr. Achim Landwehr (Early Modern History, Düsseldorf)
Prof. Dr. Gesa Mackenthun (American Studies, Rostock)
Please send a CV and a short abstract of your research topic by 30 May 2022 to susanne.lachenicht@uni-bayreuth.de.
When History meets Theory…. In: H-Soz-Kult, 20.04.2022, <www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-117359>.