Political Epistemologies of Central and Eastern Europe (PECEE)

The research initiative Political Epistemologies of Central and Eastern Europe (PECEE) – formerly known as (East) European Epistemologies – investigates modes of (self-)reflexivity in the history of the sciences and the humanities. Eastern, Central, and South-Eastern Europe have served as a starting point to gain a perspective on the interconnectedness of historical theories, practices and figures of knowledge production – “epistemologies” – within their political environments. The initiative is based on the assumption that due to the dynamic social, economic, intellectual etc. development of these areas the politics of such epistemologies can be studied at manifold examples. Thus, we aim to strengthen research in Historical Epistemology with a special focus on political implications, in order to radically situate historical theories of knowledge. This – as we believe – can help to better understand contemporary developments that hardly ever miss to connect the spheres of politics and research one way or another.

Since 2017, we have convened numerous international researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds to study theories, practices and figures of scholarship under the auspices of Political Epistemology. In 2022, Aleksei Lokhmatov and Katrin Steffen joined the steering committee of the group Friedrich Cain, Dietlind Hüchtker, Bernhard Kleeberg, Karin Reichenbach, and Jan Surman.

A further concern of the initiative is to integrate research of the history of the sciences and the humanities in Eastern, Central, and South-Eastern Europe. Therefore, we initiated a series of Pre- and Postdoc Workshops, the first of which took place in Erfurt in 2019. In 2022, PECEE has become an official working group of the Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Wissenschaften, der Medizin und der Technik e. V. (GWMT).