Apologie pour le métier d'historien: Quoi de neuf? or Historical experience and its epistemological sublimation

Bloch is also one of the few historians to have left us systematic reflections on the practice of history. Thus, between historian's practice and researcher's reflexivity, the experience of history is inserted. Indeed, his life was marked by the two world wars, as a soldier, a member of the Resistance and as a simple individual living through troubled times. And Bloch is fully aware of this. From the trenches of the Great War, he detected the phenomenon of spreading false rumors and wrote a book about it. What a strange coincidence with today's post-truth world! During the dark years of 1939-1943 - when he was successively a defeated soldier, an academic excluded from teaching as a Jew, then reinstated as a professor in Montpellier, and finally a member of the Resistance movement's general board - he wrote his magnificent Apologie pour l'histoire, a posthumous work published in 1949 by his alter ego, Lucien Febvre, to whom he dedicated the manuscript. A few lines from this dedication suffice to evoke in us this in-between historical experience and its intellectual sublimation:

"For a long time we fought together, for a broader and more human history. The common task, as I write, faces many threats. Not through any fault of our own. We are the temporary vanquished of an unjust destiny. The time will come, I am sure, when our collaboration can truly resume, public as in the past and, as in the past, free."

Taking the example of Marc Bloch as its starting point, this study day is not intended as a tribute to the man he was, nor as an exegesis of his work. Rather, it's an invitation to a role-playing game, in which Marc Bloch's question is posed anew: are we in a position to propose new apologies for the historian's profession?

This study day is organized around a double problematic: the epistemology of history today, and the experience of the professional researcher in troubled times.

1. The epistemology of history today

As we have already emphasized, Apology for history or The historian's profession is a landmark. This work is part of a genealogy that runs from Langlois and Seignobos through Henri Irénée Marrou to Paul Veyne. Unfortunately, this genealogy does not include many names, as historians often entrust philosophers with the epistemological reflection on historical practice itself. We'd like to stimulate such reflection and await proposals addressing questions such as:

Are we witnessing "returns" such as that of the event, politics or positivism?

Is there anything new in the understanding of the notion of document or trace?

How do we explain in history today?

How do we think about cause and effect today?

What is the role of seriation?

What is the scope of case studies?

What is the place of detail in historical reasoning?

What is the critique of anachronism?

Does the researcher integrate the examination of his own subjectivity into his approach?

These questions are not exclusive, and any other proposal questioning the epistemology of history will be taken into account.

1. The professional historian in troubled times

At a time when armed conflicts are shattering our lives in the flesh or in the spirit, when the spectre of dictatorship is resurfacing in expected and unexpected places, how do researchers live the experience of troubled times?

What is their intellectual daily routine?

What are their projects as "professional people"?

Respond to the call:

Send an abstract of 250-300 words clearly describing the problem addressed for a 30-minute paper. Proposals may be in French or English. Deadline for submission: May 31, 2025. Response from the organizers: June 15, 2025. Mailing address: mihaela-madalina.vartejanu-joubert@inalco.fr , nicolas.pitsos@bulac.fr