Conveners: Ancuța Mortu (ICUB Humanities Alumna), Mihnea Dobre (ICUB Humanities)
In this seminar hosted by the ICUB-Humanities we will examine topics of interest in the humanities (broadly conceived) while foregrounding questions related to method that animate classic and new research programs. Looking at particular case studies, we will explore various methodological orientations asking questions such as:
- What does it mean that research into the arts is law-like or nomothetic and why it appears to be a conflicting approach in the humanities?
- How do emerging technologies inform practices of humanities scholarship?
- What is computational history and what bearing does it have on traditional historiographical practices?
- What alternative avenues are there for addressing historical and historiographical questions?
- What is translation?
- How are empirical methods used in the humanities?
The speakers will introduce and discuss a topic of their choosing that they connect to key readings – provided in advance to participants – which advance insightful and accessible methodological arguments, to dip into during the seminar. We recommend proposing small texts (5 to 10 pages) for discussion. Texts can range from classic works that are intended to introduce colleagues in other fields to a particular area of study, to work-in-progress papers that one is struggling to finish and wants to discuss with a larger audience in a friendly, informal environment.
English and Romanian will be the working languages of the seminar. No prerequisites for participation; undergraduates, graduate students and early career researchers undertaking a research project are welcome to discuss a variety of approaches in the humanities.
The seminar meets once every two weeks; the exact dates are to be worked out with the participants, after we resume the activity at the ICUB-Humanities.
Contact information: For getting hold of the materials in advance, please send an email to Ancuța Mortu – ancuta.mortu(at)yahoo.com
Venue
1st meeting: Ancuța Mortu (ICUB-Humanities, University of Bucharest), What Is Nomothetic Research on the Arts?
The first session centers around methods and procedures of contemporary art history and aesthetics, emphasizing the development of empirical approaches to art research.
Key readings:
- Dominic McIver Lopes, “A Layered, Bounded, Integrated Approach to Research on the Arts Across the Disciplines”, Leonardo, 2019, p. 1-8.
- Dominic McIver Lopes, “Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art”, in Herman Cappelen, Tamar Szabo Gendler, John Howthorne (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 657-670.
2nd meeting: Mihnea Dobre (ICUB-Humanities, University of Bucharest), What Is Computational History and How Does It Work? A Case from the Early Modern Studies.
The aim of this seminar is to discuss some of the recent approaches in the humanities, with a focus on the emerging “computational history.” I exemplify the discussion with a case study on early modern correspondence networks.
Key readings:
- Abraham Gibson, Manfred D. Laubichler, and Jane Maienschein, “Introduction. Focus: Computational History and Philosophy of Science,” Isis 110, no. 3 (August 30, 2019): 497–501, https://doi.org/10.1086/705542.
- Yves Gingras, “Mapping the Structure of the Intellectual Field Using Citation and Co-Citation Analysis of Correspondences,” History of European Ideas 36, no. 3 (September 1, 2010): 330–39, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2010.04.002.
3rd meeting: TBA