The Seminar Global Intellectual History is a platform for researchers from different universities in the Netherlands who are working in the field of intellectual history and related disciplines. These include, among others, the history of historical, legal and political thought, conceptual history, the social and cultural history of ideas, as well as research at the intersection between intellectual history, institutions, politics, and practices.
Worldwide, intellectual history is moving into new, exciting directions. Tapping into new source materials, covering longer stretches of time, dealing with broader geographical spaces, making comparisons and drawing connections on a global scale, as well as combining established and new (digital) methods, both young and up-coming as well as established experts are in search for new answers – and perhaps more importantly – new questions. The Seminar Global Intellectual History contributes to this development by providing a venue for presenting and discussing frontline research.
We understand global intellectual history (1) in the basic sense that we do not exclude or privilege any geographical region or historical period; (2) to imply a self-reflexive and critical orientation to the historical rootedness of conceptual categories and intellectual traditions; and we believe (3) that global intellectual history should be concerned not only with connections, exchange, comparison, integration, interdependence and transfer, but also with conflict, disintegration, separation, resistance, boundaries and locality.
The seminar is organized in rotation by: Lucia Admiraal (Middle Eastern Studies, Groningen), Richard Calis (Cultural History, Utrecht), Camille Creyghton (Political History, Utrecht), Annelien De Dijn (Political History, Utrecht), Arnab Dutta (History, Groningen), Lisa Kattenberg (History, Amsterdam), René Koekkoek (Political History, Utrecht), Dmitri Levitin (Cultural History, Utrecht), and Matthijs Lok (European Studies, Amsterdam).
In 2023-2024 Arnab Dutta, Camille Creyghton and Lisa Kattenberg are the convenors and contact persons.
You can reach us by emailing to: info [at] globalintellectualhistory.org, or the addresses you will find on our personal pages.
The Seminar is kindly funded by the Amsterdam School for Regional, Transnational and European Studies (ARTES), the Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences of the UvA, and the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities of Utrecht University.
https://www.uu.nl/en/descartes-centre
Credits illustration: Mappemonde philosophique et politique, où sont tracés les voyages de Cook et de La Pérouse, Paris, 1800, collection: University Library Utrecht, cat. nr. Ackersdijck 11 (Dk26-1).