N’est-il d’histoire que d’historiens ? Pratiques et institutionnalisations de la recherche sur le passé menée par des non-historiens

When are we ‘historians’? When are we doing history? Do we need to be the first, in order to do the second? Under the chairmanship of an historian, around fifteen representatives of the Humanities and Social Sciences practiced at the University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne freely discussed their scientific usages, how they define themselves institutionally, and the place of history and the relationship with the past in their respective fields, as well as their curricula and their careers. In jointly developing these issues, they aimed at moving the lines—at escaping the various configurations of the present ‘conflict of the faculties’ and of disciplinary hierar- chies (history vs. auxiliary sciences). Far from any essentialist epistemology, the intent of this conversation was to reflect on the methods, but also on the conditions, possibilities, and limits of the current dialogue between disciplines.