Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Virtual History Chat

Jenny and I just finished our first experimental online history chat--I think it was reasonably successful, and could be used for certain kinds of discussion. Largely historians (not historians of science) participated--it seemed to be agreed that some of the deeper theory-based concerns were not very high on everyone's minds, but that there was plenty of need for new kinds of historiography that haven't yet cohered. Maybe we're in a period of theory hangover? Jenny will sum up in more detail soon.

2 comments:

Jenny Ferng said...

Theory is certainly suffering in other areas of study, not just history. I agree that it is not clear how we are supposed to deploy theory in the name of historical scholarship. It was a very fruitful discussion, and we hope to stage some other online debates in the near future. Stay tuned!

Anonymous said...

That stuff does make you dizzy.