The Future of the Past Lab

The lenses of Western modernity surreptitiously cause us to study non-modern cultures in ways that disregard their own claims about their world in favor of our own. The product of this problem is a colonialist narrative that presents premodern cultures as flawed or inconsistent (because they fail to meet modern criteria) and modern (usually Western) cultures as the resolution of these inconsistencies. Exploring the Assumptions of Cultural History is a three-year series (beginning in the 24-25 academic year) of visiting fellowships sponsored by the Future of the Past Lab and the Center for Premodern Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities that seeks to interrogate the lingering influence of Western assumptions in the study of cultural history and to imagine ways forward. The series will feature ten, week-long visiting fellowships grouped around three main themes related to the study of non-modern Cultural History: the transmission of evidence, the role of comparative work, and the influence of uniquely modern ontological premises. In the Spring last year of the series (2027), fellows will come together in Minneapolis for a conference to share their findings, which will then be published in an open access edited volume.