History of Intellectual Culture (HIC) is a new international and interdisciplinary open access yearbook for peer-reviewed papers, published by De Gruyter. It is the succession of the journal of the same name, founded in 1999 by Paul Stortz and E. Lisa Panayotidis at the University of Calgary, Canada. A pioneering part of open access digital publishing among history journals, it was one of the first publications to focus on the cultural dimension in the history of knowledge and ideas.
Building on this heritage, the yearbook continues to emphasize cultural dimensions of the history of knowledge and underscores that knowledge must be regarded as a fundamental category in society. In doing so, ideas, concepts, ideologies, theories, and cognitive practices are located within their social and material contexts. To understand the theory, production, practices, and circulation of knowledge, we relate intellectual traditions, discourses, lived experiences, and identities to resources, social conditions, and power structures as well as to organisations, infrastructures, and media systems. In short, we conceptualize knowledge as politically, socially, culturally, and economically formed.
Understanding knowledge as a historical phenomenon, HIC focuses on the modern period (from the long 19th century onward). In addition, to strike a balance between the geographical parameters of global region(alism)s and the fluid nature of cultural and epistemic construction, the yearbook takes on a decidedly transatlantic and/or continental view of Europe and ‘America’ (including Canada, the U.S., and Latin America). Thus, we connect various historiographical and scholarly traditions, including German-speaking Wissensgeschichte and a more international "history of knowledge".
In combining the terms ‘intellectual’ and ‘culture’ we consciously engage with and aim to dissolve what has long been perceived as a tension between an often elite-focused history of ideas and a more broadly-based cultural and social history. This combination holds great potential to also open the yearbook up towards other related approaches at the intersection of knowledge and society, such as the history of mentalities and milieus, the history of memory and media, the materiality of knowledge formation, and the genealogies of ideologies. We understand knowledge as circulating beyond academia and as potentially changing, evolving or even disappearing. We invite contributors and readers to consider the way knowledge and culture are both at once sedimentary and yet constantly fluid. This is a confluence that is far from coincidental but, in fact, reminds us that knowledge and culture are closely and dynamically entwined and need to be studied in conjunction.
In HIC we welcome contributions that engage with the history of knowledge from a cultural perspective that include but are not limited to the following themes:
- institutions, systems, and infrastructures
- circulation (e.g. geographical, biographical, temporal)
- media and materiality
- practices, performances, formations, and formats
- structures, agency, and power relations
- resources and socials conditions
- identity, memory, and community
Guided by these conceptual and methodological considerations, HIC provides a forum for publication of original research and the promotion of rigorous and critical discussion. We particularly invite new voices and early career researchers. Grounded in history we distinctly encourage interdisciplinary approaches with the aim of stimulating productive exchanges, expanding conventional notions, and enriching public discourse.
Editors-in-Chief (2021– ):
Charlotte A. Lerg, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
Johan Östling, Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK), Lund University
Jana Weiß, The University of Texas at Austin
Founding Editors-in-Chief (1999–2020):
E. Lisa Panayotidis († 2016), University of Calgary
Paul Stortz, University of Calgary
Advisory Board (2021– ):
Peter Burke, University of Cambridge
Heather Ellis, University of Sheffield
Tiffany N. Florvil, University of New Mexico
Adam Kola, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland
Suzanne Marchand, Louisiana State University
Pierre-Héli Monot, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
Herman Paul, Leiden University
João Ohara, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Swen Steinberg, Queen’s University, Kingston, and German Historical Institute, Washington, DC
Emily Steinhauer, Royal Holloway, University of London
Eugenia Roldán Vera, Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Mexico
Christa Wirth, University of Agder
Testimonials
“Thank you again for your help preparing the article, it's been a real pleasure working with everyone from HIC and I look forward to the next stage.” (Emily Steinhauer, German Historical Institute London)
“As a PhD student submitting to your edited volume, it was really a great experience, and I learned a lot from the support and feedback your editorial team and the reviewers provided me.” (Chelsea Rodriguez, University of Groningen)
“I do appreciate the time and effort you and your co-editor have invested in helping me improve the article, especially given this is my first single-authored paper! I am thankful for your patience.” (anonymized)
“Thanks for all your feedback and guidance.” (Sakina Shakil Gröppmaier, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
“[...] may I warmly thank you for your effective and quick feedback. It was such a great pleasure to read and work with it, and it gave me tons of pleasure and, positively speaking, fun, to debate with it.” (Anastassiya Schacht, Universität Wien)
