In May 1926, the Comité International des Sciences Historiques (CISH) was founded in Lausanne as a non-governmental organization intended to bring together historians from all over the world. The 100th anniversary of this event is approaching. Therefore, the CISH Board would like to announce 2026 as the year of CISH and invite not only its members (both national committees and affiliated commissions) but also representatives of the entire ‘ecumene’ of historians to celebrate the anniversary together. We especially wish to celebrate and embrace the values that have guided CISH from the beginning, namely defense of freedom of thought and expression in the field of historical research and teaching, and opposition to the misuse of history. CISH was also created to use every means at its disposal to ensure the ethical professional conduct of its members. These are core values that we still put central stage in our work today.
The central event of the celebrations will be the Centennial Conference in Leipzig on 26–30 August 2026 under the theme The Past, the Present, and the Future of History. The Conference is to serve as a platform for historians to reflect on the evolution of historiography over the past century, while looking ahead to future challenges.
As decided by the General Assembly in Tokyo, the Board will focus on the main conference in Leipzig, but we also wish to support other ‘grassroots’ initiatives. For example, various types of national or regional conferences are very much welcome, as well as occasional exhibitions devoted to the history and achievements of CISH (we intend to encourage important libraries and archival institutions to organize such exhibitions).
Conferences and exhibitions should be supplemented with various publications, such as collections of sources or anthologies of texts (memoirs, publications on CISH and its congresses). The first initiative of this kind has already been taken by our treasurer Sacha Zala, who will publish a collection of documents dealing with CISH (more information forthcoming). Biographical publications, for example, on the subsequent CISH presidents, would also be interesting. Moreover, we would like to encourage our members (national committees and affiliated commissions) to write their own histories.
Last but not least, we should make sure that in 2026 the anniversary publications appear in leading historical journals and newspapers in different countries. We hope to interest other media, especially social media.
The entire celebration will be coordinated by a Centennial Committee, appointed by the Board, composed of five members: President Catherine Horel, Vice-President Krzysztof A. Makowski (organizer of the last CISH congress in Poznań 2022), Matthias Middell (organizer of the Centennial Conference in Leipzig 2026), Secretary General Edoardo Tortarolo, Treasurer Sacha Zala.
Please send your proposals for planned anniversary events to: office@cish.org. Proposals that receive the Board’s approval will be entered into the official anniversary calendar. Their authors will have the right to use the CISH logo and – to the extent of our possibilities – count on our substantive support.
