Påmeldingsfrist 5. januar. Meld deg på her.

Om kurset:

The course examines the history of the social sciences in their relationship to science and technology and to the humanities. Focus is on the institutional history of social science, both in academia and in relation to the power apparatus of the nation state and corporations, that is to changing forms of governmentality and population control linked to statistics, archival technology or ethnographic techniques.

At the heart of social science stands a set of disciplines that formed in the 19th and early 20th century, notably sociology, political science, economics and anthropology. These core disciplines interact with history and philosophy, disciplines that became modern in the 19th or 20th century, but retain a deep connection to intellectual roots that are much older. History has a double scientific identity, as a humanistic study of text and culture, and as a social science studying change and stability.

In the twentieth century new social scientific disciplines like media studies emerged, along with a cluster of cross disciplinary approaches to the study of themes like gender, migration, ethnicity, decolonization and science and technology. The study of the social sciences and their history is a research field in its own right.

Notably, social theory has emerged as a field apart, offering a language of translation between disciplines and between empirical studies.

The participants are expected to read key texts in preparation for each meeting and will present a research paper (15-20 pages) of their own design at the end of the course that covers one essential element of the history of social sciences.

Course dates: 2 – 5 February 2026