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.
Date: Dec 5. Time: 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.