The 11thannual conference of the Finnish Network for 19thCentury Studies
Time: 24–25 January 2019
Venue: University of Oulu, Finland
The theme of the 11thannual conference of the Finnish Network for 19th-Century Studies is the circulation of knowledge. “Knowledge” here refers not only to scientific or scholarly knowledge but also to oral, tacit, lay and folk knowledge, practical know-how, capacities and skills. The network and the conference are interdisciplinary: they bring together scholars from the historical disciplines, art, music and literary studies, linguistics and ethnography. We invite scholars from these and related fields to investigate the many forms, roles and functions of knowledge and knowledge transmission between the French revolution and the First World War. The questions that the papers address might include, for instance:
- how knowledge was produced in this particular historical context and how it, in turn, shaped individuals, communities and societies;
- how knowledge was transferred from one place, group and individual to another and how it changed in the process;
- what was the relationship between theoretical knowledge and practical skills;
- what was the role of education and apprenticeship in the transmission of knowledge and (e.g. technical, artisanal, musical, artistic) skills;
- who were the key mediators and what was their role in this process;
- how knowledge was conceptualised and how it was incorporated in the material world (e.g. objects and buildings);
- how knowledge was traded and marketed, and how its movement was restricted and regulated; how knowledge was kept secret;
- who – in terms of gender, class and race – were in the position to create knowledge, circulate it and claim proprietary rights over it;
- what was the relationship between power and knowledge;
- what can different approches (e.g. digital humanities, the biographical approach, gender studies) contribute to the study of circulation of knowledge?
Both empirical and methodological papers are welcome. The conference languages are English, Swedish and Finnish.
The keynote speakers are Professor (emerita) Carolyn Steedman (University of Warwick, UK), Professor Brita Brenna (University of Oslo) and Senior Lecturer Markku Hokkanen (University of Oulu). Professor Steedman is a prominent historian of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. Her books explore, among other things, childhood, domestic service, everyday working-class life, everyday legal knowledge and practices, life writing and the legacy of 19th-century historiography. Professor Brenna’s primary field of expertise is the interrelationship between production of knowledge, techniques of representation and exhibition practices. She also teaches museology and museum studies. Dr Hokkanen’s work research deals with modern colonial and imperial history, African history and the history of medicine.
Please email a 250-300 word proposal, together with your affiliation and contact information, by September 15 2018 to Tiina Kinnunen (tiina.s.kinnunen@oulu.fi) or Heini Hakosalo (heini.hakosalo@oulu.fi). Session proposals should contain a short desciption of the central theme of the session, the names and affiliations of the presenters (and possibly a discussant and the chair) and the titles of the papers. The proposals will be reviewed and the participants notified by October 15 2018. The programme will be published in November 2018 at the home page of the Finnish Network for 19th-Century Studies, at https://www.finlit.fi/en/research/research-networks/19th-century-studies-network#.WuAW1oVOJPY, where the registration also takes place.
The conference is organised by the University of Oulu (Faculty of Humanities) in collaboration with the Finnish Network of Nineteenth Century Studies and the Finnish Literature Society.
