The research group "History and theory of the Humanities" focuses on empirical studies of the global development and the scholarly practices of the humanities. Drawing inspiration from recent studies in the fields of the history of sciences (other than the humanities ...) and Science and Technology Studies, the research group pays particular attention to:

- how the techniques and practices of research in the humanities  such as archival work, textual analysis, source criticism and fieldwork have changed and developed;

- how research in  the humanities and institutions devoted to the humanites have been and continue to be instrumental in consolidating as well as changing and undermining various forms of identity and selfunderstanding of social groups and whole societies and civilisations;

- how canonical and classical works in the humanities have been able to consolidate schools and traditions reaching beyond national boundaries and achieving global significance.

Sharing a common interest in these larger issues the members of the group at present are working more specifically with the history of medieval learned institutions and networks (Mia Münster-Swendsen), the philosophy of nature in the middle ages and the renaissance and their reception in the 19th and 20th century (Aksel Haaning), the reformation and early modern histories of literacy, books and schools (Charlotte Appel), European scholarship and learning of the 18th and 19th centuries (Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen), European and non-European traditions of learned travel and expeditions from the 16th to the 19th century (Michael Harbsmeier), the history of Jewishness, anti-Semitism and Zionism from the 18th to the 20th century (Jakob Egholm Feldt) and the history of philosophy from the 19th to the 20th century (Esther Oluffa Pedersen).

The research group and its members are at present involved in a number of externally funded research projects such as: The History of Danish Public Schools (Charlotte Appel. Funded by Carlsberg); Humanomics. Mapping the dynamics of the Humanities (Esther Oluffa Pedersen. Funded by Velux); Identifying Jews and Jewishness, 1783-1939 (Jakob Egholm Feldt and Michael Harbsmeier. Funded by the National Research Council for the Humanities).