On 8–10 October, the second History of Knowledge Conference was organized in Lund by LUCK. Over three intense days, around a hundred researchers from different universities and countries explored the history of knowledge from various perspectives.

The first day started with a wonderful keynote lecture by Robert Darnton (Harvard) and continued with sessions on everything from colonial knowledge and early modern food production to conceptual investigations and the internationalization of universities.

Day two of conference began with an erudite lecture by Peter Burke on connoisseurship in history and then moved on to others topics in the vast field of the history of knowledge: noble households, (k)information, Swedish research policy, early modern health economy, computers in the history of the humanities, UNESCO’s science diplomat and much more. A memorable event was Susanne Schmidt’s keynote speech, “Backlash: On Recycling and Reaction in the History of Knowledge”, astute and brilliantly delivered. The evening concluded with a grand dinner at the Skissernas Museum.

The third and final day also comprised many interesting sessions on a variety of topics. The conference ended with a plenary panel on “The History of Knowledge and its Publishing Landscape”, featuring Isak Hammar (chair), Sven Dupré, Charlotte Lerg and Natacha Klein Käfer.

At the closing session, Sven Dupré could announce some exciting news: the third History of Knowledge Conference will be held in Utrecht in 2027. We are already looking forward to it.

For us at LUCK, the conference was in many ways a culmination of several years of joint work exploring the history of knowledge. It was therefore very gratifying that so many wanted to come to Lund and continue to develop this still relatively new field together with us.