On 8–10 October, 2025, the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK) will be hosting the History of Knowledge Conference at Lund University.

The History of Knowledge Conference

In November 2023, the first ever international History of Knowledge Conference was organized in Porto, bringing together experts from a wide range of historical research fields. Following this successful event, the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK) is proud to host the second international History of Knowledge Conference on 8–10 October, 2025.

In recent years, the history of knowledge has been established as a vibrant field within historical scholarship. The History of Knowledge Conference aims to gather scholars from different backgrounds to continue to develop the field of history of knowledge and inspire international collaboration. We welcome papers and panels on any period, region and topic, as long as they are clearly related and relevant to the history of knowledge. For this year’s conference, we particularly have encouraged papers and panels that tie in with one or several of the six research focus areas at LUCK:

• history of the humanities
• everyday knowledge
• early modern knowledge societies
• postwar knowledge societies
• knowledge and education
• digitisation, historical scholarship and circulation of knowledge

and/or papers and panels that

• contribute to further developing (empirically, methodologically, theoretically or otherwise) the analytical concepts that have been crucial in shaping the history of knowledge as a field (these include, for example, the circulation of knowledge, knowledge actors, knowledge institutions, forms of knowledge, infrastructures of knowledge, formats of knowledge, knowledge societies, orders of knowledge and hierarchies of knowledge).

Keynote speakers

Robert Darnton (Harvard University): Title TBA

Susanne Schmidt (University of Basel): Title TBA

A plenary panel on publication practices and opportunities in the history of knowledge.

Program

A program will be available here once it has been finalised.

Panels and individual papers

If you have submitted a panel proposal, please keep in mind that panels get a total of 90 minutes regardless of number of papers. It is up to you to distribute the time among paper presentations, commentary and discussion. We advise you to leave sufficient time for general discussion.

Each individual paper will be given 20 minutes, including discussion.

Conference fee

The registration fee is €350 (incl. VAT). The fee includes access to all sessions, the welcoming reception (Wednesday 8th), lunches and tea/coffee during the breaks. There is also an optional conference dinner on Thursday 9th which costs €70 (incl. VAT) extra.

Every participant (including chairs and commentators) has to register individually for the conference by 1 September.

Organization

Local organizing committee: Johan Östling (chair), Isak Hammar, Kajsa Weber, David Larsson Heidenblad, Anna Nilsson Hammar, Björn Lundberg and Evelina Kallträsk.

For questions about your participation, please contact Johan Östling (johan.ostling@hist.lu.se ).

Conference location, accommodation and travel

Lund University is based in the city of Lund in the south of Sweden. The main campus buildings of Lund University are located in the centre of Lund and are an approximate 15  minutes’ walk from Lund railway station.

Conference venue: LUX, Lund University. Venue address: Helgonavägen 3, Lund, Sweden.

Conference participants are asked to make their travel arrangements and pay for their own tickets. The closest international airport to Lund is Copenhagen Airport; the train journey from the airport to Lund takes approximately 35 minutes (over the Öresund Bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden). Lund lies on the main railway line from Malmö to several destinations, including Berlin, Oslo, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

You can find more information about travel and accommodation by following these links:

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/about-university/visit-lund-university

https://visitlund.se/en/

Funding

The History of Knowledge Conference is generously sponsored by Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Lund, Sven och Dagmar Saléns Stiftelse, Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, Lund Municipality and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.