Epistemic Transfer in the History of the Humanities and Sciences

Epistemic Transfer in the History of the Humanities and Sciences brings together experts from the history of science, the humanities and the social sciences, investigating the mechanisms and conditions of epistemic transfer across disciplinary domains.

This book addresses the major challenge of understanding why disciplines borrow from one another and why some transfers spark innovation while others fail. Through rich case studies spanning the history of science, humanities and social sciences, it reveals the practices, infrastructures and institutional conditions that enable successful knowledge circulation. Contributors revisit the concept of discipline itself, demonstrating how knowledge transforms as it crosses intellectual boundaries and providing fresh perspectives on contemporary interdisciplinary debates.

An essential reference for historians of science, intellectual historians and scholars in science and technology studies, this book will also appeal to researchers across the humanities and social sciences interested in interdisciplinarity, knowledge production and the history of scholarly inquiry.

Rens Bod is Professor of History of the Humanities and Digital Humanities at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His research interest focuses on global knowledge histories, and his published books include A New History of the Humanities (2013) and World of Patterns (2022).

Isak Hammar is Associate Professor of History at Lund University, Sweden, and deputy director of the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK). His research focuses on the history of the humanities.

Jeroen van Dongen is Professor of History of Science at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and co- director of the Vossius Center for History of the Humanities and Sciences in Amsterdam. His research focuses on the history and philosophy of physics, and general issues in historiography of knowledge.