Introduction

Abstract

The term “history of knowledge” has gained traction in recent years. This forum section seeks to explore a prominent concept in this new field—circulation—as well as to demonstrate the value of studying knowledge circulation for the history of humanities. While the study of the transmission of knowledge has been pursued in adjacent fields, such as the history of science or media studies, it is argued that circulation of knowledge has the capacity not only to build on existing scholarship but also to combine and galvanize previous and future efforts. Specifically, we believe that the interaction between the humanities and other forms of knowledge—in particular, natural science—can be fruitfully explored with a focus on how knowledge circulates. Detailed historical studies of how knowledge circulates across the divide between “the two cultures” could also be instrumental in fusing the history of humanities and the history of science. Discussing both possibilities and challenges of studying knowledge circulation, this introduction points to a set of valuable questions that probe how the knowledge of humanists has been mobilized, negotiated, contested, downplayed, and forgotten in its historical settings.