Geschichtstheorie am Werk

Court Cases as Epistemology: Reconstructing African History through Legal Archives Sauda Nabukenya - Can court records be more than legal sources – can they serve as epistemological workshops for reconstructing African history? This essay argues that they can, drawing on more than 1...

For more information, click here: gtw.hypotheses.org/31635

Therefore, they challenge the conceptual frameworks through which African legal history has often been written, which privilege colonial categories of law over African epistemologies and practices.

They show that law was a living practice constituted through social relationships and local knowledge rather than an abstract system.

As she demonstrates, these records preserve not only the outcomes of disputes, but also the processes through which truth, justice, peace and reputation were defined, debated and determined.

To do so, Nabukenya draws on case files that she discovered, organised and catalogued from Buganda's native courts and the High Court of Uganda.

It has been Tuesday, and Sauda Nabukenya of #blogstheblog arguing that African history can be reconstructed through court records.

Multimodal History – Convergence of Text, Image, Diagram and Virtual Space Christian Wachter - How can images reshape the way historians produce and share knowledge? What happens when we rethink the interplay between text and image, or even explore immersive formats like vir...

We're back from our summer break! More #theoryofhistory! And it's #blogtheblog Tuesday! We have a great post from Christian Wachter form the University of Bielefeld on "Multimodal History – Convergence of Text, Image, Diagram and Virtual Space"

Read the post here: 👇

gtw.hypotheses.org/31551

Did you know that you can also become a associated #member of the #ZThF?
To qualify for membership, you must demonstrate a clear research interest in #philosophyofhistory, #historicaltheory and/or #theoriesinhistoricalresearch, as well as a willingness to work with the #ZThF on a long-term basis.

We are taking a break for the summer! We wish you a relaxing and enjoyable summer and will be back on September 9 with a new piece: #theoryofhistory.

We are pleased to announce that the first part of our #BielefeldTheoryTalks series has been published. It is a micro-monograph entitled "Temporal Vectors and the Compass of History. Politics and Ethics at the End-time" by @ethankleinberg.bsky.social.

De l’utopie hier et aujourd’hui Michèle Riot-Sarcey - Pourquoi parler aujourd’hui d’utopie ? Le mot véhicule des idées si contradictoires qu’il semble avoir perdu son sens subversif : oscillant, entre totalitarisme et illusion mythi...

Plus d’informations ici : gtw.hypotheses.org/31408

Elle constate toutefois la renaissance des espoirs et des idées utopistes actuellement. S’appuyant sur cette renaissance, elle invite les chercheurs à se concentrer avant tout sur les événements qui ont été portés par l’espérance et qui semblaient possibles, mais qui n’ont pas fini par se produire.

D’une part, elle montre comment l’utopie entre dans l’histoire avec les révolutions modernes ouvrant l’horizon des possibles.
D’autre part, elle révèle comment au XXe siècle elle perd à la fois son charme et l’idéal communiste qui le portait.

Il est mardi et Michèle Riot-Sarcey de #blogstheblog s’interroge sur l’évolution de l’utopie depuis le XIXe siècle.

Vor der Sommerpause schon Vorfreude auf nach der Sommerpause, mit Freude an - neuen, anderen, fließenden, kreativen - Formen! Geschichte schreiben im 21. Jahrhundert mit @achland.bsky.social @susannequitmann.bsky.social @lisaregazzoni.bsky.social @modomodo.bsky.social @michaelwildt.bsky.social ua

Traces of Meanings in Catalogues and Collections. The Eighteenth-Century Mineral Cabinet. Daria Novgorodova - A museum item has no single meaning but layers of them. All these meanings, both historical and contemporary, interact and accumulate, are unseen but remain a crucial part of its m...

In today's blog post, Daria Novgorodova discusses traces in material objects within Russia's first public mineral collection. She asks how these polysemantic objects accumulate layers of meaning over time and leave traces.
Read more here 👇
gtw.hypotheses.org/31242

#theoryofhistory #blogtheblog

On July 10th, Stefan Haas will speak about "Nach der Narrativität. Warum für die Geschichtswissenschaft eine eigene Argumentationstheorie essentiell ist?"
Join us at Bielefeld Univ (Room X E0-002) or online!
| #theoryofhistory #Narrativity

Theory on the Edge #2: Dusty books versus digital access? Editorial Board - How do these collections change when shifting from the physical bookshelf to the digital space? Please share your thoughts in German, English, French or Italian here.

A new addition to Theory on the Edge is out now and we ask: What does the collection of books on theories of history look like in your academic/university library?
Please comment here 👇
gtw.hypotheses.org/31101

#theoryofhistory #blogtheblog

Beyond ‘Reading’ Materials: Trace (on Trace) and Value Agnes Piekacz - In the early 20th century, British colonial government representatives introduced a new tariff schedule in British-South Africa. At the docksides of British-South African ports, coloni...

It's #blogtheblog Tuesday! In her blogpost, Agnes Piekacz asks how historians link the messiness of the objects they encounter to the past they aim to access and reconstruct.
Read the post here: 👇
gtw.hypotheses.org?p=30994

DOMINO-TALK: We are happy to announce a #dominotalk between @lisaregazzoni.bsky.social and Shahzad Bashir, which will take place next Thursday, the fifth of June.
Join us at Bielefeld Univ (Room X E0-002) or online! #theoryofhistory | #Material-Oriented-Theory-of-History

Karl-Georg Faber 100. Die Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft wieder gelesen Dietmar Schenk - Am 21. Juli 1925, vor hundert Jahren, wurde Karl-Georg Faber geboren, dessen Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft (1971, 5. Aufl. 1982) einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Entfaltung der geschi...

On today's #blogtheblog Tuesday, Dietmar Schenk re-reads Karl-Georg Faber's 'Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft'. Read more here 👇
gtw.hypotheses.org/30877
#theoryofhistory

Karl-Georg Faber 100. Die Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft wieder gelesen Dietmar Schenk - Am 21. Juli 1925, vor hundert Jahren, wurde Karl-Georg Faber geboren, dessen Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft (1971, 5. Aufl. 1982) einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Entfaltung der geschi...

Am heutigen #blogtheblog Dienstag liest Dietmar Schenk erneut Karl-Georg Fabers "Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft". Lesen Sie hier mehr 👇
gtw.hypotheses.org/30877
#theoryofhistory

Our June 2025 issue is out now! 🎉

Read it here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14682303...

Das ‚Dazwischen‘ als ontologisches Problem in der Geschichtswissenschaft: Ein alternativer Vorschlag – out of the Box. Lisa Regazzoni - Ontologische, zumeist implizite Vorstellungen prägen die historische Arbeit in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Eine davon betrifft das historische Material, mit dem wir Historiker*innen arbeiten. Dieses Material wird aus forschungspragmatischer Perspektive als ein Ensemble separater, gegenwärtiger Entitäten behandelt, die selektiert, aus ihren bestehenden Sinnbezügen mehr oder weniger entfremdet und durch Argumentation bzw. Darstellung neu verknüpft werden. Bereits die Aufwertung von Schriftstücken oder Bildern zu ‚Quellen‘ geht mit deren Fiktionalisierung als vermeintlichem Rohmaterial der Geschichte einher.

Welche Rolle spielen Quellen in der geschichtswissenschaftlichen Forschung? In @hist-theory.bsky.social‬ schlägt Lisa Regazzoni vor, Quellen nicht als statische Dinge, sondern als Grenzflächen zu denken, die mit ihrer Umgebung kommunizieren ⬇

gtw.hypotheses.org/3...

#Geschichtstheorie

Such an understanding, she argues, requires forms of representation in which research practices and methods, researchers and the material surface are included in the investigation both as subjects and objects.

In order to overcome these assumptions and reconceptualise historical materials, she proposes a new way of thinking: an understanding of historical materials as interfaces that emerge as contaminations and material rearrangements in the thought process and communicates with their 'surroundings'.

She claims that implicit ontological notions of historical materials as separate, complete and autonomous entities continue to shape conventional historiographical practices.

Das ‚Dazwischen‘ als ontologisches Problem in der Geschichtswissenschaft: Ein alternativer Vorschlag – out of the Box. Lisa Regazzoni - Ontologische, zumeist implizite Vorstellungen prägen die historische Arbeit in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Eine davon betrifft das historische Material, mit dem wir Historiker*innen arbeiten...

It's Tuesday, and Lisa Regazzoni (@lisaregazzoni.bsky.social) #blogstheblog dealing with the existence of an ‘ontological in-between’.👇
gtw.hypotheses.org/30653
#theoryofhistory

We are happy to announce that Riley Linebaugh (@rileysline.bsky.social) has joined the editorial board of Theory of History at Work and are looking forward to our theoretical work together.
#theoryofhistory

Was haben Archive mit Geschichtstheorie zu tun? Dietmar Schenk - Im Anschluss an die Debatten, die in den zurückliegenden Jahren um das „Archiv“ geführt wurden, befasst sich dieser Beitrag in Form einer Reflexion der Praxis mit den historischen Arc...

Today's #blogtheblog Tuesday features a post by Dietmar Schenk! In his post “What do archives have to do with historical theory?”, he reflects on the practice of historical archives and builds a bridge between archival science and historical theory. gtw.hypotheses.org/30545