First ISA-RC08 Online Conference
October 16, 2024 – 11:00-17:00 CET
The International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee on the History of Sociology (RC08) proposes an ongoing series of online conferences with three main objectives in mind: (1) creating a new, institutional venue to stimulate new research and new researchers in the history of global sociologies; (2) keeping every member of RC08 up-to-date about the most recent developments in research; (3) maintaining and strengthening scientific and social ties between RC08 members, and creating the preconditions for shared research projects.
A maximum of five papers will be selected for each half-day conference to save time for exchanges and debate. No fee will be charged for the online conference. The first ISA-RC08 online conference will focus on methods. Explicit reflection on research methods is still at an embryonic stage in
the history of sociology, especially when the latter is practiced by sociologists, whose methodological training is focused on techniques for the collection and treatment of contemporary data. We thus invite our colleagues to submit proposals on the following topics:
1) Selecting our objects and avoiding (or embracing) a whiggish understanding of the discipline(s);
2) Selecting a unit of analysis (actors, ideas, institutions, instruments, contexts), model cases, or samples;
3) Working in the archive;
4) Utilizing various kinds of sources (fieldnotes, diaries, letters, unpublished papers, questionnaires, interviews, machines, data matrixes, etc.);
5) Using oral histories and interviews collected by others;
6) The use of unconventional (especially digital or visual) sources;
7) Re-furbishing and re-calculating quantitative data;
8) Preparing comparative work. In particular, we would like to discuss with our junior and senior
colleagues about their work, research design, and troubleshooting: the selections they made, the difficulties they found, the decisions they took when finding themselves collecting and analysing historical data.
Timeline:
July 31, 2024 – Deadline for submitting title and abstract (max 250 words).
August 31, 2024 – Selected papers announced.
October 16, 2024 – Online conference.
Titles and abstracts (max 250 words) must be submitted by the deadline of July 31, 2024 to both organizers:
Matteo Bortolini: matteo.bortolini@unipd.it
Giovanni Zampieri: giovanni.zampieri.3@phd.unipd.it
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