Archives and History: Making Historical Knowledge in Europe during the Long Nineteenth Century, Jun 26-28

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Lichtenberg Kolleg IAS, June 26-28, 2014

Under which institutional conditions were historians able to undertake historical studies in archives? And how did these conditions of historical-archival research impinge on the production of historical knowledge? In looking into these two inextricably interlinked matters, the symposium highlights an essential, and ultimately scientific, attribute of historical work, rising to prominence in Europe during the long nineteenth century. In order to advance our understanding of the history of the study of records and files, its performance and ramifications for the making of historical knowledge, the symposium draws on different strands of scholarship and gathers experts from different fields of research such as the history of historiography, the history of sciences, anthropology and the history of archives.

The symposium is generously funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the Universitätsbund Göttingen e.V.

3.30pm onwards     Registration

4.00pm                   Welcome

Martin van Gelderen (Lichtenberg Kolleg, IAS Göttingen), Welcome

4.10m                     Introduction

Philipp Müller (Universität Göttingen), Annotations. Archives and History

4.30-6.00pm                     Keynote I

Stefan Berger (Universität Bochum), National Archives and National Master Narratives in Nineteenth Century Europe

                              Discussion

Friday, 27 June 2014

8.30-10.30am                   Making Archives

Chair & Comment: Rebekka Habermas (University of Oxford)

Pablo A. Flores (EHESS Paris), La choix de la Nation: Selling, Forming and Selecting the Nationalized Archives

Henning Trüper (IAS Princeton), Making an Archival Scene: Littmann’s Autopsy of Aksumite Epigraphy

11.00-12.30pm                 Keynote II

Regina Bendix (Universität Göttingen), Archived and Archival Culture- Ethnographic Reflections on Archival Habits

2.15-4.15pm                               Archival Order

Chair & Comment: Alf Lüdtke (Universität Erfurt)

Bettina Joergens (Landesarchiv NRW Detmold), Theory and History: The Principles of Structuring Archival Holdings

Yann Potin (Archives Nationales Paris), L'esprit de l'histoire dans les travaux d'archive? Les formes contradictoires de la conversion historiographique des archives en France

4.30-6.30pm           Work in the Archive

Chair & Comment: Jörg Bölling (Universität Göttingen)

Pieter Hiustra (Universiteit Leuven), Copyists in the Archives: the Invisible Technicians of Nineteenth Century Historiography

Gerhard Fürmetz (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München),
Authentic Replica? Media and Modes of Archival Reproductions in the late 19^th and early 20^th century

Saturday, 28 June 2014

8.30-11.00am                   Archives and Historical Knowledge

Chair & Comment: Hubertus Büschel (Universität Gießen)

Mario Wimmer (University of Berkeley), Foundational Figures of Historical Knowledge

David Laven (University of Nottingham), Nineteenth Century Historians and the Venetian State Archive

Philipp Müller (Universität Göttingen), Historical Research and Politics of Secrecy in Central Europe, c.1799-c.1850

11.15-12.15am                 Final Discussion

Chair: Philipp Müller (Universität Göttingen)

Discussants: Regina Bendix (Universität Göttingen)
Stefan Berger (Universität Bochum)
Bettina Joergens (Landesarchiv NRW Detmold)

Email: philipp.mueller@phil.uni-goettingen.de