CFP: Nations, knowledge, ideologies from the 18th century to today

International conference

“Nations, knowledge, ideologies from the 18th century to today”

Université de Lorraine – IDEA

Nancy, 14th-16th October 2026

Keynote speakers

Guy Beiner (Boston College), Stefan Berger (Ruhr Universität, Bochum), Richard Bourke (King’s College, Cambridge), Aileen Moreton-Robinson (University of Queensland)

Conference theme and rationale

At a time when the concept of the nation is increasingly under fire and the notion of axiological neutrality is being put to the test, this interdisciplinary event aims to assess conceptions and practices of knowledge through the lens of the national paradigm, from the eighteenth century to the present day. In the same way as disciplines seek to organise and institutionalise knowledge, the nation implies a process of cultural, historical and geographical homogenisation and the permanence of institutions. Yet both disciplinary and geographical boundaries result from multiple factors, ranging from strategies of legitimisation and unification to symbolic or geopolitical conflicts; from discourses and dynamics of inclusion or exclusion to the spelling out or imposition of universal rules or laws; and from local, regional and territorial specificities to the circulation of people and ideas. Far from being fixed entities, disciplines and nation-states alike are located and shaped at the intersection of social, political, economic and cultural transformations.

To account for the interactions between knowledge and the nation, two lines of inquiry will be proposed. On the one hand, the ways in which knowledge is mobilised to promote or, conversely, to challenge notions or narratives of national identity as well as nationalist ideology: how do the social sciences, the humanities, and the exact sciences contribute to shaping, redefining or contesting the idea of the nation?

Secondly, the processes underlying the emergence of epistemological and methodological traditions within national frameworks will be explored as well as exchanges with foreign approaches. Of special interest will be the cultural, political, economic and intellectual contexts of scientific and academic controversies, paradigm shifts, and interdisciplinarity. In what ways does the nation constitute an obstacle or a driving force for knowledge? To what extent can the producer of knowledge claim universality whilst being situated within the space and time defined by the nation, whether real or imagined?

We particularly welcome proposals from the fields of intellectual, cultural or political history; the history of science and knowledge; political sociology; the history of political and/or economic ideas; as well as proposals with an interdisciplinary perspective. Papers may be presented in English or French. A publication is planned.

Please send a 150-word abstract in French and English and a 100-word bio-bibliographical note in French and English to: idea-nations2026-contact@univ-lorraine.fr by 15 May 2026. Replies will be sent out in late May or early June.

Possible areas of study and themes

• The national specificities of methodologies, disciplines and teaching
• Researcher ethics tested by nationalism and cosmopolitanism
• The circulation of knowledge and its role in the construction of national narratives or identities
• Spaces for training and the dissemination of knowledge as venues for propaganda or instruments of soft power.
• Racialising discourses and the production of scientific knowledge
• The emergence of new disciplines as a challenge to or legitimisation of a national ideology
• Epistemic justice and the emancipation of minorities
• National approaches to the ecological crisis
• Historiography as a means to construe or define the nation
• The nation at the crossroads of belief and science
• Methodological nationalism and its opponents
• Disciplines: allies or enemies of empires
• The nation as a category of analysis
• Knowledge in the service of the national interest or the common good
• The politics and geopolitics of heritage

Indicative bibliography

• Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, Verso, 1983
• Homi K. Bhabha (ed.), Nation and Narration, Routledge, 1990
• Tony Becher, Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Culture of Disciplines, Open University Press, 1989
• Stefan Berger, History and Identity, CUP, 2022
• Richard Bourke, Quentin Skinner (eds.), History in the Humanities and Social Sciences, CUP, 2023
• Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincialising Europe, Princeton UP, 2007
• Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, Free Press, 2006
• Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity, Harvard UP, 1992
• Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger (ed.), The Invention of Tradition, CUP, 1983
• Istvan Hont, Jealousy of Trade: International Competition and the Nation-State in Historical Perspective, Harvard UP, 2005
• Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2003
• Sheila Jasanoff, States of Knowledge. The Co-Production of Science and the Social Order, Routledge, 2004
• Anna Milioni “What is Wrong with Methodological Nationalism? An Argument About Discrimination”, Moral Philosophy and Politics, 12: 2, 2025, pp. 429-456
• Aileen Moreton-Robinson, The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty, University of Minnesota Press, 2015
• Bill Readings, The University in Ruins, Harvard UP, 1997
• Ethan D. Schrum, The Instrumental University: Education in Service of the National Agenda after World War II, Cornell University Press, 2019.
• Anthony D. Smith, National Identity, Penguin, 1991
• George Steinmetz (ed.), Sociology and Empire: The Imperial Entanglements of a Discipline, Duke University Press, 2013
• Samuel Weber, Institution and Interpretation, Stanford UP, 2002
• Raymond Williams, The Politics of Modernism. Against the New Conformists, Verso, 1989

Organising committee

The conference will be hosted by IDEA (RNSR 199713889P) and organised by the members of its “Interdisciplinarité” research group (Vanessa Boullet, Marilyne Brun, Pauline Collombier, François Doppler-Speranza, Stéphane Guy, André Kaenel, Manon Kuffer, Julie Mommeja, Peterson Nnajiofor, Ecem Okan, Eleanor Parkin-Coates, Richard Somerset, Karina Wendling) and Colin Tyler (Hull University, UK)

Scientific committee

Jorge Arias (Universidad Leon, Spain), Marine Bellego (Université Paris Cité), Glenn Burgess (Hull University, UK), Laurence Dubois (Université Paris Nanterre), Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq (Université Paris Nanterre), Chris Fear (Hull University, UK), Janusz Grygieńć (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun – Poland), John-Erik Hansson (Université Paris Cité), Ruth Kinna (Loughborough University, UK) and members of the organising committee.

Envisaged or confirmed partnerships and collaborations

CRECIB, IDEA, University of Hull, PHARE, Université Paris Nanterre