Deadline: 15 September, 2026

The Society for the History of the Humanities (SHOH) is opening a call for bids for the 13th Making of the Humanities conference in 2028.

To submit a bid, please provide a brief and informal description of the city where the conference will take place. This should include a description of the available facilities (the proposed conference venue, including lecture halls, hotel accommodation options, etc.). Also provide the expected budget with preliminary estimations of conference fees and expenses. Please keep in mind that it is important to keep the registration fees as low as possible.
The Board of the SHOH will select the winning bid by October 1, 2026. The winning bid will be announced at the business meeting of the Making of the Humanities conference in Torun (7-9 October) this year.
Please send your bid proposal to historyofhumanities@uva.nl by September 15, 2026, with “MOH conference 2028 bid” in the subject line.

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CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING PROPOSALS

The Board will use the following criteria in evaluating proposals:
Conference organizers
Have they been active and contributing members of the SHOH?
Does the bidding team have experience with conference organizing?
Is there a local academic institution providing support for the conference?
City
Is the proposed city attractive and accessible for SHOH members?
How convenient and affordable is travel for both domestic and international participants?
Facilities
Are the meeting facilities appropriate and convenient?
Is inexpensive housing available for delegates with limited budgets?
Are there appealing sites or opportunities for special events (e.g. the conference dinner)?
Finances
Does the proposed rough budget seem realistic?
Do the organizers have a tentative plan for raising additional local resources and funding, if necessary?

CONTACT
For questions or additional information, please contact SHOH at historyofhumanities@uva.nl

Thanks in advance for your interest in hosting the MOH biennial conference!

Registration is now open for the next Making of the Humanities conference to be hosted by the Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU), from 7th till 9th of October, 2026. Deadline for registrations is April 19.

More information about the conference and submission process can be found at: https://mohxii.umk.pl/pages/Conference/

Please note that you need to become a member of the Society for the History of the Humanities ($30 for students and $60 for regular members, annual rate). If you are not yet a member, click here to go to the membership page.

The issue brings together an exceptionally rich collection of papers.

Hilary Gatti examines the divisions of knowledge in the European Renaissance and the earliest distinction between “the sciences” and “the humanities.”

Teddy Delwiche sheds light on the largely untold yet deeply compelling Indigenous history of classical learning in early America.

Ayaz Asadov highlights key aspects of late seventeenth-century Ottoman debates on what it meant to be a scholar, drawing on four major educational texts from the period.

Katherine Arens examines two central figures in the formation of formalist art history as a modern discipline, Riegl and Wölfflin.

Edgar Lejeune investigates how the datafication of historical sources has reshaped the historian’s craft, offering a case study in the history of digital history.

And Gregory Jones-Katz analyzes the concept of “theory” in Diacritics and Critical Inquiry, journals that played a pivotal role in shaping what came to be known as “Continental philosophy.”

The issue concludes with reviews of books by Ada Palmer, Andrew Hui, Valeria López Fadul and Felix Schlichter.

For the full issue: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/hoh/2025/10/2. Enjoy!

On December 5th 2025, the Society for the History of the Humanities is hosting a digital symposium and round table discussion on the global state of the history of the humanities. For the digital event, we have invited speakers from all over the world to give their view on the history (and current state) of the study of literary, historical, cultural, philosophical or linguistic forms of knowledge.

Time: Dec 5 at 3:00-5:45 pm (CET)

Place: online
Join Zoom Meeting
https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/69845211292

Updated schedule:

3pm Introduction Rens & Isak

3.10 Fenrong Liu (Tsinghua University): Chinese perspective

3.20 Zehra Tonbul (Özyeğin University): Ottoman perspective

Q&A Session 1 (10-15 minutes)

3.45 Naomi Nkealah (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg): African perspective

3.55 Ignacio Sánchez Prado (Washington University in St. Louis): North American perspective from Mexico

4:05 Q&A Session 2 (10-15 minutes)

(Short break)

4.25 Adam Kola (Nicolaus Copernicus University): Central European perspective

4:35 Irina Podgorny (U. La Plata): South American perspective

4.45 Kamelia Spassova (Sofia University): East European perspective

Q&A Session 3 (20-30 minutes)

5.10 Concluding remarks

Our hope with this digital event is to expand the reach of the history of the humanities as a research field and engage new scholars to questions we believe are globally relevant.

The digital event will be open to all and free to attend. After a round of overviews from prominent scholars, we will moderate a joint discussion and also invite the audience to ask questions.