History and Sociology of the Social Sciences and the Humanities: Boundaries, Persona and Knowledge Circulation

Welcome to the combined Master’s and PhD course ”History and Sociology of the Social Sciences and the Humanities: Boundaries, Persona and Knowledge Circulation” (7.5 Credits)! The course starts with a Course Introduction on Monday 15 January 2024, 13:15–15:00, in the Rausing room (room 6-3025Links to an external site.) in the Department of History of Science and Ideas.

Below you will find general information about the course: its aim and scope, its structure, the examination, the expected learning outcomes and the literature. Additional information can be found by using the menu bar to the left. Under “Modules” you will find more detailed instructions to each session, including the course introduction, the lectures, the seminars and the final seminar.

Aim and scope

The course provides an overview and advanced introduction to recent research on the history and sociology of the social sciences and humanities (SSH), in Sweden and internationally, from the early 20th century to the present day. Particular conceptual focus is placed on the circulation of knowledge, SSH as a field, the changing roles and personae of SSH researchers, different forms of knowledge boundaries as well as the transnational aspects of the SSH field. 

By examining the historical developments of the social sciences and the humanities in social context, and by introducing a set of conceptual tools, the aim of the course is to encourage a contextual and reflexive understanding of the varying roles and uses of social scientific and humanities knowledge and what it means to be a researcher in these disciplines.

Structure of the course

The course is structured around four thematic and chronologically ordered modules, each of which combines an overview lecture with an in-depth seminar based on a number of selected key texts and case studies.

• Course Introduction (Week 3)
• Theme I (Weeks 4-5): The Social Sciences and Humanities as a Field in the Early 20th Century
• Theme II (Weeks 6-7): The Welfare State Humanities and the Postwar Formation of Personae
• Theme III (Weeks 8-9): Cold War Social Science and Its Boundaries
• Theme IV (Week 10): The Transnationalizing Field of the Social Sciences and Humanities
• Final Whole Day Seminar (Week 12)

An overview schedule can be found here Download here. For access to the TimeEdit schedule, please click the Schedule in the menu bar to the left. 

Examination

The examination consists of two parts. All seminars are compulsory and all participants are expected to contribute actively to the discussions. In case you will be unable to attend any of the seminars, please make sure to inform the responsible teacher in beforehand (since it affects the division of texts within the group). 

The second part of the examination consists of a written individual essay to be orally presented and discussed at the final whole day seminar. The requirements of the final essays will be adjusted to whether the course is taken as a Master’s or PhD course. In order to be awarded a Pass grade for the course as a whole, you need to pass both parts of the examination.

Learning outcomes

Upon completing the course, the student will be able to:

• demonstrate a broad understanding of the history of the social sciences and the humanities and their developments in social contexts in the 20th century
• describe and discuss the main features of recent studies on the history of the humanities and social sciences
• demonstrate an ability to analyze and compare a selection of examples from the humanities and social sciences by using the concepts of boundaries, persona and knowledge circulation
• critically reflect upon the roles and uses of social scientific and humanities knowledge and what it means to be a researcher in these disciplines today.

Literature

General reference literature to be used – all available online – include:

• Ekström, Anders & Östh Gustafsson, Hampus (eds) The Humanities and the Modern Politics of Knowledge: The Impact and Organization of the Humanities in Sweden, 1850-2020 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022).
• Fleck, Christian, Duller, Matthias & Karády, Victor (eds) Shaping Human Science Disciplines: Institutional Developments in Europe and Beyond (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
• Heilbron, Johan, Sorá, Gustavo & Boncourt, Thibaud (eds.) The Social and Human Sciences in Global Power Relations (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2018).
• McCallum, David (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences (Basingstoke: Springer Nature Singapore, 2022).
• Niskanen, Kirsti & Barany, Michael J. (eds) Gender, Embodiment, and the History of the Scholarly Persona: Incarnations and Contestations (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
• Porter, Theodore M. & Ross, Dorothy (eds.) The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 7. The Modern Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Solovey, Mark & Dayé, Christian (eds) Cold War Social Science: Transnational Entanglements (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
• Östling, Johan, Sandmo, Erling, Larsson Heidenblad, David, Nilsson Hammar, Anna & Nordberg, Kari (eds) Circulation of Knowledge: Explorations in the History of Knowledge (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2018).

More detailed information about which chapters and additional texts to be read in relation to the lectures and seminars will be announced in the instructions to each session. 

Questions?
For questions regarding registration and administrative, please contact our Course Administrator Andrea Limmerstedt: info@idehist.uu.se.
For general questions regarding the course or Theme III, please contact the course coordinator Per Wisselgren: per.wisselgren@idehist.uu.se
For more specific questions regarding the other three themes, please contact:
Tobias Dalberg (Theme I): tobias.dalberg@edu.uu.se 
Hampus Östh Gustafsson (Theme II): hampus.osthgustafsson@idehist.uu.se 
Johan Heilbron (Theme IV): johan.heilbron@planet.nl 

Once again, warmly welcome to the course ”History and Sociology of the Social Sciences and the Humanities”!

Per, Tobias, Hampus and Johan