COURSE DESCRIPTION

The aim of the course is to demonstrate the methodological specificity of historical knowledge in the context of research in the humanities. A further aim is to develop students’ familiarity with debates regarding theoretical and methodological problems in humanities scholarship (particularly history) in the interdisciplinary field of studies of the past. The course will explore the following issues: contemporary reflections on academic research as a particular form of organizing knowledge; relations between knowledge, science and common sense; the axiological engagement of the humanities/historical research; procedures of argumentation and interpretation; theories, models and methods of research; scientific paradigms and scientific revolutions; the geography of knowledge and the problem of Eurocentrism; methodological problems of time and transtemporality; indigenous epistemologies and methodologies; post-anthropocentrism as a challenge to humanities methodology; critical approaches to historicity and historical thinking; problems of constructivism, relativism and research methods. During the course students will acquire skills in defining concepts, creating their own analytical categories, and developing theories based on empirical research (grounded theory) conducted as part of developing their doctoral dissertations.
There will be seven sessions, each lasting three teaching units (2h 15 mins).

REQUIREMENTS

Participants are required to attend classes and participate actively in sessions, critically assess the recommended readings, and write a research paper on a subject chosen by the participant that is relevant to his/her doctoral dissertation (15 standard pages, minimum 4000 words). Deadline for submitting papers: 2 February 2021.

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

6 November 2020
1. Jerzy Topolski’s approach to methodology of history / relations between methodology, theory and philosophy of history

• Jerzy Topolski, Methodology of History, trans. Olgierd Wojtasiewicz. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1976: 11-56.

 

27 November 2020
2. Geography of Knowledge and the Problem of Eurocentrism

• Enrique Dussel, “Europe, Modernity, and Eurocentrism.” Nepantla: Views from South, vol.  1, no. 3, 2000: 465-478.
• Enrique Dussel, Philosophy of Liberation, trans. Aquilina Martinez and Christine Morkovsky. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1985 (chap. 1: “History,” and chapt.5: “From Science to Philosophy of Liberation”).
• Immanuel Wallerstein, Eurocentrism and its Avatars: The Dilemmas of Social Science. “New Left Review”, no. 226, November 1, 1997: 93-108.
• Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Preface to the 2007 Edition” and “Introduction: The Idea of Provincializing Europe,” in his, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000: ix-23.

Additional readings

• Walter D. Mignolo, Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and De-Colonial Freedom„Theory, Culture & Society,” vol. 26, no. 7-8, 2009: 159–181.
• Boaventura De Sousa Santos, Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide. Paradigm, 2014: 118-186.
• Enrique Dussel, “Introduction: World History of Ethical Systems,” in his, Ethics of Liberation, trans. Alejandro A. Vallega et al., Durham: Duke University Press, 2013: 1-52.
• Denny Gayton, Standing Rock, North America [17.35 ff]. The project “Fossil Futures” (2017)

 

4 December 2020
3. Methodological Problems of Time and Transtemporality
Special guest: Marek Tamm / intro: Hugo Merlo

• Walderez Ramalho, “Historical time between Chronos and Kairos: on the historicity of The ‘Kairos’ Document manifesto, South Africa, 1985.” Rethinking History, 2020 [online first]
• Grégory Quenet, “The Anthropocene and the Time of Historians.” Annales HSS (English Edition), vol. 72, no. 2, 2017: 165-197.
• Rethinking Historical Time, New Approaches to Presentism, edited by Marek Tamm and Laurent Olivier. London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2019 (“Introduction”: 1-20).
• Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Anthropocene Time”. History and Theory, vol. 57, no. 1, March 2018: 5-32.
• Michelle Bastian, “Inventing Nature: Re-writing Time and Agency in a More-than-Human World.” Australian Humanities Review, vol. 47, 2009: 99-116.

Additional Readings

• Mateus H. F. Pereira, Valdei Araujo, “Updatism: Gumbrecht’s broad present, Hartog’s Presentism and beyond.” Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea, 43, 3/2020:
• Reinhart Koselleck, Sediments of Time: On Possible Histories, trans. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, and Sean Franzel. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018 [“sediments of time”: 3-9].
• Zena R. Mello and Frank C. Worrell, “The Past, the Present, and the Future: A Conceptual Model of Time Perspective in Adolescence,” in: Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application: Essays in Honor of Philip G. Zimbardo, ed. M. Stolarski et al. Springer 2015: 115-129.
• David Armitage, “What's the Big Idea? Intellectual History and the Longue Durée”. History of European Ideas, vol. 38, no. 4, 2012: 493-507 [História intelectual e a longa duração: a Guerra Civil em perspetiva]
• Krzysztof Pomian, “On Time.” Transit 2013
• Andrew Grant, “Quantum Histories Get All Tangled Up.” Science News, vol. 189, no. 4, Feb. 2016: 10.

 

11 December 2020
4. Indigenous Epistemologies and Methodologies  
intro: Patricia Aranha

• Michael Anthony Hart, Indigenous Worldviews, Knowledge, and Research: The Development of an Indigenous Research Paradigm. “Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work”, vol. 1, no. 1, February 2010: 1-16.
• Forum: Decolonizing Histories in Theory and Practice. “History and Theory”, vol. 59, no. 3, September 2020: 369-375.
• AHR Exchange: Historians and Native American and Indigenous Studies. “American Historical Review”, April 2020: 517-551.

Additional Readings

• Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London; New York: Zed Books, University of Otago Press, 1999.
• Toon van Meijl, Doing Indigenous Epistemology: Internal Debates about Inside Knowledge in Māori Society. “Current Anthropology”, vol. 60, no. 2, April 2019: 155-173.
• Raymond Pierotti, Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. Routledge 2010.
• Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert, The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2013.
• Brian Burkhart, Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land: On the Nature of the Concept. Political Theology network, July 2, 2020.
• Davi Kopenawa, Bolsonaro is Killing My People & Destroying the Amazon. Democracy Now! December 4, 2019.
• A Message From Russell Means (Lakota), 1993

 

8 January 2020
5. Non- or Post-Anthropocentrism as a Challenge to the Methodology of Humanities
intro: Gabriela Jarzębowska and Taynna Marino

• Lissy Goralnik and Michael Paul Nelson, “Anthropocentrism,” in: Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, vol. 1, edited by Ruth Chadwick. San Diego: Academic Press, 2012: 145–155.
• Allen Thompson, “Anthropocentrism: Humanity as Peril and Promise,” in: The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics, edited by Stephen M. Gardiner and Allen Thompson. Oxford University Press, 2015: 1-19.
• Erica Fudge, "A Left-Handed Blow: Writing the History of Animals," in: Representing animals. Theories of Contemporary Culture, edited by Nigel Rothfels. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002: 3-18.
• Eric Katz and Lauren Oechsli, Moving beyond Anthropocentrism: Environmental Ethics, Development, and the Amazon. “Environmental Ethics,” vol. 15, no. 1, Spring 1993: 49-59.
• Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Decentering the Human? Or What Remains of Gaja,” in his, The Human Condition in the Anthropocene. The Tanner Lectures in Human Values delivered at Yale University, February 18-19, 2015: 165-188.
• Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman. Polity Press, 2013 (chapter 2: Post-Anthropocentrism: Life beyond the Species): 55-104.
• Giuseppina D'Oro, "In Defence of a Humanistically Oriented Histopriography. The Nature/Culture Distinction at the Time of Anthropocene," in: Philosophy of History. Twenty-First-Century, ed. Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen. London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2020: 216-236.

Additional Readings

• Jonathan Beever, “Anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene,” in: Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, edited by Dominick A. DellaSala and Michael I. Goldstein. Oxford, Waltham MA: Elsevier, 2018: 39-44.
• Val Plumwood, Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. London and New York: Routledge, 2002 (chapter 6: “Philosophy, Prudence and Anthropocentrism”).
• Rob Boddice, “The End of Anthropocentrism,” in: Anthropocentrism. Humans, Animals, Environments, edited by Rob Boddice. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2011: 1-18.
• Francesca Ferrando, Towards A Posthumanist Methodology. A Statement. “Frame Journal For Literary Studies,” vol. 25, no. 1, 2012: 9-18.
• Jasmine B. Ulmer, Posthumanism as research methodology: inquiry in the Anthropocene, “International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education,” vol. 30, no. 9, 2017: 832-848.

 

22 January 2021 [17:30-19:45]
6. Critical Approaches to Historicity and Historical Thinking
Special guest: Dipesh Chakrabarty
intro: Marcelo Durão Rodrigues da Cunha and Tomek Wiśniewski

• Dipesh Chakrabarty, "Minority Histories, Subaltern Pasts," in his, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000: 97-113.
• Henning Trüper, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Introduction: Teleology and History”, in Historical Teleologies in The Modern World, ed. Henning Trüper, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Sanjay Subrahmanyam. London: Bloomsbury 2015: 3-23.
• François Hartog, "Introduction: Orders of Time and Regimes of Historicity," in his, Regimes of Historicity. Presentism and Experiences of Time, trans. Saskia Brown. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015: 1-19.
• Javier Sanjinés C., Embers of the Past: Essays in Times of Decolonization. Durham and London: Duke University Press 2013 (part III: ‘‘Now Time’’: Subaltern Pasts and Contested Historicism).

 

28 January 2021 [13:00-15:15]
7. How to build a theory? [workshop]

Kathy Charmaz, Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Sage, 2006.