Book Presentation „Towards a History of Assyriology: What’s Next”

We are pleased to invite you to a book presentation “Towards a History of Assyriology: What’s Next” to be held on December 12, at 16:00, Lossi 3-328.

This talk offers a synthetic assessment of current scholarship on the history of Assyriology and delineates priorities for future research. It advances a three-stage framework for approaching the discipline’s historiography: (1) biographical studies of Assyriologists; (2) institutional histories of Assyriology within universities and learned societies; and (3) national histories that situate the discipline within broader intellectual, political, and cultural contexts. Taken together, these stages are intended to scaffold a comprehensive global history of Assyriology. The viability of this model will be demonstrated through case studies drawn from Austrian Assyriology.

By foregrounding the history of Assyriology, the talk underscores the importance of historiographical inquiry for understanding how knowledge has been produced, legitimized, and transmitted in the field. Such analysis illuminates the discipline’s entanglements with colonial and imperial projects, the evolution of scholarly methods and standards, and the dynamics of translation, publication, and archival practice.

The book presentation will be held by the following authors:

Sebastian Fink (Institute of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of Innsbruck), Peeter Espak (Centre for Oriental Studies, University of Tartu) and Vladimir Sazonov (Centre for Oriental Studies, University of Tartu)