Culture Network

Chairs:

• Eveline Bouwers | Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz, Germany
• Heidi Kurvinen | University of Turku, Finland

Cultural encounters: Interpreting the world

The ESSHC-network ‘Culture’ is interested in how earlier generations viewed the world they lived in and the meanings they attached to it. It probes the norms and values of past ages, examines the encounters of different peoples, analyses knowledge, and queries the rituals and material culture on which people drew. It queries how expressions of culture impacted individuals and social groups, but also asks how culture – including the ways in which people conceptualised the world around them – evolved through human interaction. As a result, the network sees culture as the product of dynamic process of inclusion and exclusion in time and space.  The study of culture being an interdisciplinary field, it makes use of a wide variety of (historical) sources and draws on different theoretical considerations and methodological approaches, from the purely conceptual to the use of artistic methods for historical studies. This diversity is reflected in the various topics that find a home in the network ‘Culture’. These include but are not limited to:

• Arts (visual, literary, musical)
• Body, gender and emotions
• Identity, alterity and belonging
• Knowledge and intellectual history
• Material culture
• Memory and remembrance
• Mentalities
• Rituals and ceremonies
• Media and communication
• Life writing

As chairs, we encourage scholars to submit proposals for panels or individual papers on all culture-related topics and methods. We also welcome cooperations with other networks, including in the form of panels jointly submitted to the network ‘Culture’ and another network. Finally, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like to subscribe to the ESSHC-Network ‘Culture’ mailing list.