Call for articles: Traveling Intellectuals, Transforming Ideas: Histories of Knowledge Transfer in the Twentieth Century

 Call for articles: Traveling Intellectuals, Transforming Ideas: Histories of Knowledge Transfer in the Twentieth Century

The Hungarian Historical Review invites submissions for its first issue in 2026, the theme of which will be

Traveling Intellectuals, Transforming Ideas:

Histories of Knowledge Transfer in the Twentieth Century

The deadline for the submission of abstracts: February 14, 2025.

The deadline for the accepted papers: September 1, 2025.

This Special Issue aims to explore the relationships between the transnational mobility of intellectuals and the transformation of ideas by focusing on the various mechanisms of knowledge transfers in the past century. Thanks to increasing access to transborder and transcontinental travel, the movement of intellectuals and ideas from global centers to peripheries, from peripheries to centers, and between peripheries resulted in multiple creative adaptations as knowledge was transplanted from one institutional and epistemic context to another. The special issue explores how these processes were facilitated and highlighted through the opportunities offered by various INGOs affiliated with UNESCO and other organizations with a global reach, such as the World Bank, ILO, FAO, WHO, etc. It also considers how such transfers were influenced by geopolitics, with intellectuals often contributing to—and occasionally challenging—the prevailing hegemonic projects of global powers, especially those of the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945. Drawing in part on the renewed interest in the spatiality of knowledge production and in the importance of biographical focus, the special issue seeks to highlight the histories of such travels and transformations and asks how concepts, methods, systems of thought, intellectual roles, and cultural products were reinterpreted and repurposed in new environments.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

knowledge transfer from East to West, West to East, South to North, North to South

the transnational mobility of scientists, experts, artists, writers, journalists, etc.

the roles of cultural and scholarly mediators and brokers in knowledge transfers

the roles of professional networks and epistemic communities in knowledge transfers

the roles of states, UNESCO, INGOs, and philanthropic organizations in knowledge transfers

relations between secret police or intelligence agencies and transnational travels

how center-periphery and inter-periphery relations impacted transfers

methodological reflections on the analyses of transfers and their various sources

We welcome submissions from scholars in various disciplines, including history, the history of science, the history of education, art history, literary history, and cultural studies. We especially encourage submissions that offer interdisciplinary perspectives and engage with current historiographical debates.

Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short biographical note with a selected list of the author’s three most important publications (we do not accept full CVs) no later than February 14, 2025.

Proposals should be submitted to the special editor of the issue by email:

laszlo.szabolcs@abtk.hu

The editors will ask the authors of selected papers to submit their final articles (max. 10,000 words) no later than September 1, 2025.

The articles will be published open access after a double-blind peer-review process. We provide proofreading for contributors who are not native speakers of English.

All articles must conform to our submission guidelines.

The Hungarian Historical Review is a peer-reviewed international quarterly of the social sciences and humanities, the geographical focus of which is Hungary and East-Central Europe. For additional information, please visit the journal’s website: www.hunghist.org