Dietlind Hüchtker (Univ. of Vienna), Friedrich Cain (Univ. of Vienna) and Pavla Šimkóvá (Collegium Carolinum)
Proposals by: 15.11.2026
Today’s rural environments mirror long historical processes. Especially since the industrial revolution, they can be conceived as the outcome of social, administrative-technological, political, and scientific interventions in a taken-for-granted nature. In our publication project we aim to reconsider these interventions as epistemic complexes that defined rurality along several hierarchical divides that also carved out European modernity: civilization/nature; science/belief, the individual/community; urban/rural; system/habit; measurement/experience; rationality/emotion etc.
Focusing on examples from the area of rurality, we want to search for encounters between bodies of knowledge that have historically been perceived as incommensurable and look at the practices, subjects and objects of knowledge production. We envision analyses of incommensurability narratives to open perspectives on developments since the early 20th century, but also on the most recent global climate debates and their often very local pinpoints as well as on recent political attempts to re-naturalize complex histories as national cultures.
We want to bring together case studies from different contexts of rurality that offer a new perspective on rural knowledge. At the centre of our attention is on the “how” of knowledge production in all its contradictions, perceived incommensurabilities and inherent power relations. We are focusing mainly on the 20th century, with some sojourns into the 21st century, and on Europe situated within its imperial, colonial, and global context, and the neo-national backlash of re-naturalizing complex histories as national cultures. The significance of science is a central, but not the only aspect.
We are seeking to publish the contributions as a special issue of an international peer-reviewed journal such as Knowledge or Science in Context. Topics can include but are not limited to:
– researching rurality from different disciplinary perspectives
– relations between the researchers and the researched
– historicity of wilderness, nature, and rural spaces
– knowledge production and gender Read more … (Web)
Source: Rural History Newsletter 97/2026-109/2026

Abteilung für Regionalgeschichte mit Schwerpunkt Schleswig-Holstein, Christian-Albrechts-Univ. zu Kiel
Drittes Forum Geschlechtergeschichte für Dissertant:innen und Forscher:innen in Österreich und angrenzenden Regionen; Siglinde Clementi (Brixen), Muriel González Athenas (Innsbruck) und Falko Schnicke (Linz)
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW); Initiative „Gender & Data“; Frederike Neuber, Lou Klappenbach und Michael Rölcke
Frauen*Netzwerks in der Alten Geschichte – Ἀμαζόνες ἀντιάνειραι; Bettina Reese, Victoria Macura und Lea Fürst (Univ. Potsdam – Professur Geschichte des Altertums); Nicole Diersen (Univ. Osnabrück – Historisches Seminar, Abteilung für Alte Geschichte)
International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH)
20. Workshop des Forschungsschwerpunktes/Research Cluster Frauen*- und Geschlechtergeschichte der Univ. Wien; Cäcilia Wosnitzka, Nike Kirnbauer, Johanna Gehmacher, Dietlind Hüchtker, Michaela Neuwirth, Milica Main und Sophia Konopka