Call for Papers: Fragile Knowledge: Dealing with precarious and contested knowledge in premodern times
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05. February 2026
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Call for papers
Fragile Knowledge. Dealing with precarious and contested knowledge in premodern times. (Fragiles Wissen. Zum Umgang mit prekärem und umstrittenem Wissen in der Vormoderne.)
15–17 October 2026, IBZ, Kiellinie 5, Kiel University (Christian Albrechts University of Kiel)
Submission Deadline: 31 March 2026
Organizers: ROOTS Cluster of Excellence, subcluster Knowledge: Andreas Schwab, Gerald Schwedler, Islème Sassi
Dealing with knowledge is an existential driving force of mankind. Knowledge – understood in a broad sense – is not always equally significant: How valuable and useful is fragile knowledge considered to be? Who determines its relevance? Is certain knowledge only recognized by parts of a community, while others question or doubt it? Where does it serve as a driving force for further knowledge production, and where is it accepted as fixed? What role does its fragility play in all these questions?
Following the conference “Knowledge Spaces. Constructions and dynamics of knowledge in antiquity,” held at Kiel University in autumn 2024, which initiated a productive exchange on the spaces of knowledge production and reception, on forms of knowledge, actors, and practices of knowledge transfer (see the report: www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-151403), the second Kiel conference “Fragile Knowledge” focuses on the uncertain and indeterminate aspects of knowledge. While the theoretical foundations and their application in contemporary social and scholarly debates have already been the subject of in-depth research, examining this multifaceted phenomenon in the premodern world remains a desideratum.
To submit a proposal, please send an abstract (max. 3,500 characters), a short biography (max. 800 characters), and your contact details by 31 March 2026 to Dr Wong Tsz (wong-tsz@email.uni-kiel.de).
Keynote: Prof. Dr Martin Mulsow—Professor of Knowledge Cultures of the European Early Modern Period and Director of the Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by mid-April. Accommodation costs can be covered; travel costs will most likely be covered after consultation.
Conference languages: German, English, French, Italian
Organisation
Prof. Dr Islème Sassi, Prof. Dr Andreas Schwab, Prof. Dr Gerald Schwedler (Kiel University)
Contact
Dr. Wong Tsz (wong-tsz@email.uni-kiel.de)
The complete Call for Papers in German and English can be found here as PDF-Download.
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