CALL FOR PAPERS

(from the INTH website)

The International Network for Theory of History (INTH) is pleased to announce that its sixth network conference will take place from 19 to 22 May 2026 at the School of Humanities in Tallinn University (Estonia). The conference aims to bring together historians, philosophers, and researchers from related fields worldwide to explore questions in the theory of history and historiography, exchange perspectives, and foster new collaborations.

Recent debates in historical theory and adjacent disciplines suggest that we are witnessing the emergence of new ways of linking pasts to futures, particularly in response to ecological crises, socio-technical developments, geopolitical shifts, and other transformative forces. These shifts challenge traditional historical narratives by introducing, for example, deep time perspectives – as seen in the Anthropocene's reconfiguration of human history within planetary scales – or by reshaping temporal frameworks through predictive algorithms that use past data to model future outcomes.

These and other examples beg the question: How do individuals and societies experience, perceive and represent time? In what ways do past, present, and future interact to shape our understandings of historical continuity and change? Are traditional paradigms of development, progress, and revolution still shaping our temporal relations and imaginations? Or are we seeing a break with these assumptions as alternative forms of relating to the past come to the fore? How do such potential changed temporal assumptions and relations manifest themselves concretely in historical research and public discourse?

To address these and related questions, this year’s INTH conference centres on the concept of historicity – the ways in which temporal relations are constructed, experienced, and narrated. Under this broad thematic umbrella, we invite participants to reflect on the role of historicity in contemporary historical theory and consider how it may be mobilised to reimagine historiographical approaches today.

Rather than seeking a single, unified model of historical transformation, the conference invites reflection on how multiple modes of historicity coexist, interact, and at times compete. How might different conceptual frameworks, historical traditions, and socio-cultural practices engage with challenges such as planetary-scale environmental crises, digital technologies, and geopolitical upheavals? Could we speak of a new historical condition shaping our present moment, and if so, how? Similar questions can also be raised in connection to earlier periods in history, as past societies have likewise confronted shifting historical conditions and competing modes of historicity.

Possible themes and questions

We particularly invite submissions that grapple with the following themes and questions:

• The nature of historicities: How do different temporal frameworks – such as progress, presentism, planetary timescales – coexist and shape societies? What are the epistemic, ethical or ontological consequences of acknowledging this multiplicity? How do historicities change? Can older modes of thinking about history, such as narratives of emancipation or national progress, persist alongside emerging conceptions of historicity?

• The emergence of new historicities in the 21st century: How do developments in AI, biotechnology, and transhumanism reshape historical narratives and conceptions of human agency over time? How do ecological or technological shifts create perceptions of the present that decouple future expectations from past experiences? Do post- and transhuman historicities build on older historicities, or do they introduce radical departures? How do digital mediation, datafication, and algorithmic processes alter historical epistemology, perception of time and public engagement with the past?

• The entanglement of historicities and politics: In what ways do emerging historicities inform political discourse and action, particularly with respect to ecological governance, digital innovation, or social activism? How do contested memories intersect with political and social change, particularly in post-conflict societies? How do Indigenous epistemologies and decolonial frameworks challenge dominant Western conceptions of historical change and relations with time?

• The implications of multiple historicities for the historical profession: Should or might the historical profession adapt to capture multiple historicities? Are established research methods and periodisations sufficient, or do they risk overlooking new forms of historicity? In what ways can the historical profession itself become in a transforming world a site of political intervention or a catalyst for social change?

Other relevant topics

As in previous INTH meetings, we also welcome proposals on any subject related to the theory of history and the history of historiography, including (but not limited to):

• Conceptual history

• Epistemology of history

• Historical experience/presence

• History and mourning/trauma

• History as science (causation, explanation, lawfulness…)

• Narrativism

• Politics of history and memory

• Public/popular history

• Substantive/speculative philosophy of history

• History of historiography

• Theory of history didactics

• Relations between history and other academic fields

• History outside academia

Submission guidelines

Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of 300–500 words in .docx or .pdf format to INTH2026@gmail.com by 1 September 2025. Please name your file as follows: Surname_Title of the abstract.

We welcome proposals for both individual papers and panel sessions. Panel proposals should include a panel abstract, the names of a commentator and a chair, and abstracts for each paper (each within the 300–500 word limit). Accepted papers will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation, followed by a 10-minute discussion.

In addition to panels and plenaries, the conference will include practical workshops and master classes aimed primarily at PhD students and early career researchers.