Call for Papers Interdisciplinarity in History: An Old Method in a New World Context 5-6 March 2014 Qatar University College of Arts & Sciences Department of Humanities "This conference has been inspired by Ibn Khaldun’s (d. 1406) hypothesis that “the writing of history requires numerous sources and greatly varied knowledge. It also requires a good speculative mind and thoroughness. Possession of these two qualities leads the historian to the truth and keeps him from slips and errors. If he trusts historical information in its plain transmitted form and has no clear knowledge of the principles resulting from custom, the fundamental facts of politics, the nature of civilization, or the conditions governing human social organization, and if, furthermore, he does not evaluate remote or ancient material through comparison with near or contemporary material, he often cannot avoid stumbling and slipping and deviating from the highroad of truth”. This passage suggests that history and other disciplines have a mutually supportive relationship, and that the application of interdisciplinary methods will enable historians to reconstruct the past in a more objective, multifaceted, and wholesome fashion, which in turn will extenuate history’s importance. David Crabtree highlights this significance in his own words, saying that: “History is important because it helps us to understand the present. If we will listen to what history has to say, we can come to a sound understanding of the past that will tell us much about the problems we now face. If we refuse to listen to history, we will find ourselves fabricating a past that reinforces our understanding of current problems.” Themes: -The changing historiographical concepts and philosophies. -The status of history in modern and contemporary academia. -The relationship between history and other disciplines (humanities and the social and natural sciences). -The Western periodization of world history: pros and cons. -Modern Arab historiography: continuity and change. -Methods of teaching and learning history in Arab and Western universities. qu.edu.qa/artssciences/humanities/conference/index.php
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:14:01 +0000
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