CFP: Geographical Knowledge in Local Context and Global Entanglement. Budapest 03.09.2026 - 04.09.2026, Deadline 15.06.2026
The idea that knowledge has a place is one of the central insights of the history of science. Scholarship in Science and Technology Studies and historical epistemology has demonstrated that knowledge production is embedded in local, institutional and cultural contexts – and that this embeddedness shapes not only the circulation of knowledge but also its very content. For a discipline that has made the analysis of space its defining concern, this insight demands particular reflexivity: Under what spatial and institutional conditions has geographical knowledge been produced, and what has that meant for its substance?
In recent years, the history of geography has established itself as a research field that pursues these questions systematically – moving beyond a disciplinary history confined to intellectual biographies and the chronicle of canonical works. The focus has shifted to the practices, sites and constellations in which geographical knowledge was produced, negotiated and transmitted, as well as to the categories – such as space, region or landscape – that not only described but actively shaped what came to be regarded as worth knowing, and which bodies of knowledge were rendered invisible in the process. Budapest as the conference venue reflects a deliberate positioning: Central Europe represents scientific-historical constellations that have the potential to productively unsettle established periodisations and centre–periphery models in the history of geography.
The Working Group on the History of Geography invites scholars from Geography, History, History of Science, History of Knowledge and adjacent disciplines to the annual conference on 3 and 4 September 2026 at the Eötvös József Collegium of ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. We welcome contributions across a range of scales – from the biography of individual actors to the analysis of transnational circulations, from the micro-history of an institution to the entangled history of geographical concepts across linguistic boundaries. We particularly welcome contributions that bring hitherto underrepresented regions, languages or knowledge traditions into the history of geography. Thematic foci include, but are not limited to:
- Scientific traditions in centres and peripheries; the role of borderlands and other sites of knowledge production
- Actors beyond established institutions in the global core of knowledge production
- Colonial and postcolonial knowledge regimes
- Material cultures of geographical knowledge
- Transfers and translations between national geographical traditions
- The relationship between disciplinary history of geography and general historiography
There is no participation fee for the conference. On 5 September, an optional historical and geographical excursion will take place, with costs to be covered by the participants.
Submission of abstracts
Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words by 15 June 2026 to Ferenc Gyuris (ferenc.gyuris@ttk.elte.hu) and Norman Henniges (norman.henniges@geo.hu-berlin.de). Notification of acceptance will be provided by 30 June 2026.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Ferenc Gyuris, Tobit Nauheim, Norman Henniges
Kontakt
ferenc.gyuris@ttk.elte.hu
norman.henniges@geo.hu-berlin.de