About the Journal

The InterDisciplines is an interdisciplinary journal at the interface between history and the social sciences. The final issue of the journal was released in 2019 (more information).

The journal’s aim is to discuss their relationship and to identify differences as well as interconnections between the two disciplines, with a focus on areas where they can complement each other with respect to specific research problems.

InterDisciplines addresses historians and sociologists first and foremost but also aims at a wider audience of interested scholars and students who are committed to interdisciplinary debate and exchange.

InterDisciplines is interested in case studies that employ methods from the social sciences to answer questions of continuity, dynamics and change and combine theoretical discussion with empirical analysis.

The journal also welcomes programmatic texts on basic questions of the interdisciplinary cooperation between history and sociology. InterDisciplines invites suggestions for themed issues that cover a relevant topic and invites scholars to act as guest editors.

InterDisciplines is an e-journal and provides open access. Its articles are published in English. This provides its authors with a wide, international readership and makes the journal an ideal forum for up-to-date discussions.

The articles of the InterDisciplines are published with Digital Peer Publishing Licence (DPPL).

Aims & Scope 

InterDisciplines is dedicated to work at the interface between history and the social sciences and to research that discusses their relationship. The journal’s aim is to identify differences as well as the relation and interconnections between the two disciplines, with a focus on areas where they can complement each other with respect to specific research problems.

InterDisciplines addresses first and foremost historians and sociologists but also aims to appeal to a wider audience of interested scientists and students who are committed to interdisciplinary debate and exchange.

InterDisciplines publishes

  • historical case studies that discuss theoretical issues from the humanities,
    and the social and cultural sciences;
  • survey articles on the whole range of historical and sociological research;
  • programmatic texts on basic questions on the interdisciplinary cooperation between
    history and sociology.

InterDisciplines appears generally twice a year, with at least one thematic issue that covers a specific topic in-depth.

InterDisciplines addresses an international audience and is published in English.

InterDisciplines is available on the Internet free of charge in order both to offer easy access to its readers and to open to its authors a wider readership. As an e-journal, Inter Disciplines is an ideal place for critical discussions of research problems and the debate of topical scholarly issues.

InterDisciplines consists of three sections: The first is devoted to theoretical and methodological issues, containing articles that reflect questions concerning the relation between sociology and history. The second is reserved for empirical studies at the interface between history and sociology, and presents research projects of current relevance. The third part provides space for miscellaneous texts such as omnibus reviews, reports on projects, workshops and conferences as well as short essays, notes, glosses and blogs. In short, this section is a forum for alternative forms of scholarly publication.

InterDisciplines is edited by the directors of the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology, Thomas Welskopp and Ursula Mense-Petermann, as well as its former director Jörg Bergmann; furthermore by Peter Jelavich, Professor in the Department of History, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and Kathleen Thelen, Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge as well as by the managing editor Melanie Eulitz, Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology, Bielefeld University. All submissions are blind refereed, generally by two peers.