History of Humanities celebrates a decade of publishing

History of Humanities (HOH) is publishing its tenth volume in 2025, marking a milestone for the publication as well as the relatively young field of study that has grown up alongside it. Founded in 2015 by editors Rens Bod, Julia Kursell, Jaap Maat, and Thijs Weststeijn, the journal was launched as a new forum for research on the history of humanistic knowledge—the first publication of its kind, and one that sought to establish the study of the history of the humanities as its own robust field to stand proudly alongside longstanding disciplines such as the history of science. HOH is published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Society for the History of the Humanities.

In its decade of existence, HOH has published articles spanning across time periods and regions. This scholarship has explored a vast array of topics, including the emergence of comparative musicology, the history of libraries, the history of the “inhumanities,” and the problem of scholarly forgetting. The journal’s contributors hail from six continents and span a wide range of disciplines, from art history to archaeology.

In their introduction to the anniversary issue, the editors of HOH reflect on the disciplinary growth that they have witnessed over the last decade. Research on the history of humanistic inquiry has blossomed from a niche field into an increasingly formalized discipline with dedicated courses and faculty at universities across the world. While the field may still be relatively small, HOH has been instrumental in its expansion. The editors write: “We are proud to have built a community of more than 1,000 researchers who have contributed to our journal or presented at our conferences. Each scholar who has engaged with us—whether through presenting research, publishing in the journal, or reviewing work—has played a role in shaping the field.”

Looking forward to the journal’s next chapter, the editors of HOH point to the urgency of the history of the humanities in our present moment, suggesting that humanistic values can serve to unite and inspire in times of uncertainty: “We firmly believe that the humanities play an indispensable role in addressing humanity’s challenges, from expanding artificial intelligence and climate migration to autocratic intellectual clampdown. Understanding their past will prepare us better for our future.”