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The Past, the Present, and the Future of History – The Centennial Conference (Leipzig, 26-30 August 2026) Website is online!
The website for the Centenary Congress of the CISH is now online!
You can explore the content of 64 panels and discover the work of more than 400 participants taking part in four days of discussions in Leipzig, from 26 to 30 August 2026.
Registration will start in February. Discover the website here.
The CISH-Board is very pleased to inform that Prof. Anthony Grafton (Princeton University) is the laureate of the International Prize for History 2026.
Grafton’s exceptional productivity has made him one of the most prominent historians of our time. He is the author or editor of forty-three books and over 200 articles and book chapters. Just as impressive, his topics vary widely, from early modern intellectual history to the history of science and magic to Jewish history to history of the book.
He is teaching history as a discipline that encourages dialogue and a shared mission to find historical truth, among contemporaries and later generations.
The award will be delivered in Rome, Italy on 15 October 2026.
In May 1926, the Comité International des Sciences Historiques (CISH) was founded as a non-governmental organization intended to bring together historians from all over the world. The 100th anniversary of this event is approaching.
Among other projects (see here), CISH prepares an edition of sources (digital and print) with relevant sources that will document its rich history and its importance to international historiography. This edition will be published in 2026 for the Centennial Conference in Leipzig.
The CISH board asks its members to send historical documents of their cooperation with CISH to edition@cish.org as soon as possible, but until September 30, 2025 the latest. For questions, please contact office@cish.org.
We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Internal Commission for Computational Technologies and History (ICCTH), which was deliberated on 25 October 2024 by the General Assembly of the Comité International des Sciences Historiques (CISH) / International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) in collaboration with the international research initiative Engineering Historical Memory (EHM).
ICCTH founding steering committee
The ICCTH is dedicated to exploring, unfolding, and sharing how established and emerging computational technologies can empower the methodologies and transform epistemologies in historical sciences.
The call for membership is open to enhance the ICCTH founding steering committee’s impact to inspire, promote, and facilitate effective and responsible use of computational technologies in historical sciences.
Please register here for more updates.
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 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.
