The journal History of Humanities invites essays that contribute to a special issue devoted to The Structure of Humanistic Revolutions.
Inspired by a conference of the same name that took place earlier this year in Toruń (see the conference website), this special issue will critically explore the transformations that have shaped the history of the humanities. Departing and diverging from Thomas Kuhn’s seminal work “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” authors will engage in a reflective analysis of how “revolutions” within humanistic disciplines have been conceptualized, contested, and institutionalized over time.
The issue will include reflections on epochal movements — from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and from Romanticism to contemporary posthumanism. What are the “structures” that underpin these transformations? Can we even speak of unified revolutions in the history of the humanities, or are these shifts more nuanced, gradual, and contested than the revolutionary label suggests?
In many ways, revolutions in the humanities do not mirror the scientific model, where falsification and empirical shifts drive change. Instead, they often represent the reconfiguration of longstanding intellectual traditions shaped by cultural dialogues, crises, and the reinterpretation of past knowledge.
Papers should not exceed 10,000 words, including notes, but we also very much welcome shorter contributions of around 6,000 words. Please include the following statement on the first page of your manuscript: “Submitted for the Special Issue on The Structure of Humanistic Revolutions.”
All submissions must follow the History of Humanities author guidelines and be submitted through the journal’s Editorial Manager system. Further information on submission requirements can be found here.
The proposed timeline is as follows:
- 1 April 2027: Deadline for manuscript submissions
- End of July 2027: Return of peer-review reports
- 1 November 2027: Deadline for submission of revised manuscripts
- April 2028: Publication of the special issue in History of Humanities
The editors (Rens Bod, Rebecca Ruth Gould, Julia Kursell, Jaap Maat, Floris Solleveld, and Thijs Weststeijn) look forward to bringing together an engaging special issue.
