The Transformative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences Reading Group will be holding its first meeting covering speculative historical methods. This two-hour session will let participants engage with Saidiya Hartman’s approach to writing history through an open discussion format. 

Participants are requested to read the following texts ahead of time. They are available on Box. 

Selected Readings: 

Hartman, Saidiya. 2008. “Venus in Two Acts.” Small Axe 12 (2): 1–14. 

Hartman, Saidiya. 2019. “A Note on Method” and “The Terrible Beauty of the Slums” In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. W. W. Norton & Company. xiii-10. 

About this Session’s Readings 

Speculative history is a historical method that examines and critiques archival gaps through an acknowledgement that archival holdings are dependent on established structures, ideas, and assumptions. Speculative history attempts to narrate the lives of those who existed but are not fully represented in primary records, while acknowledging archival gaps and understanding that the existing record was shaped by those in power. 

About the Transformative Methods Reading Group 

The Transformative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences Reading Group is a bi-monthly conversation exploring new and emerging methodologies that address epistemic gaps in qualitative and quantitative research. 

The goal of this group is to introduce these methodologies to scholars from across the university. These approaches illustrate a different vantage point that can help reveal unseen problems in a variety of fields. The reading group will offer participants an onramp to these methods, enabling conversations across disciplines that can strengthen research into the social determinants of health, as well as research into the experiences of health and wellness.  

The Transformative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences Reading Group is co-sponsored by the Emancipatory Sciences Lab, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, and run as part of the Archives and Special Collections’ Digital Health Humanities program. 

UCSF welcomes everyone, including people with disabilities to our events and exhibits. To request a reasonable accommodation for this event, please contact Sean Purcell by emailing sean.purcell@ucsf.edu as soon as possible.