STATEMENT OF INTERESTS

I began, at the University of Saskatchewan, with an intense interest in the history of my country of birth, Canada. In graduate school (at Toronto and later at Columbia), I focused on early modern European history, gravitating to the history of ideas (I had discovered that it was ideas themselves that interested me). An interlude at the Australian National University gave me time and support to pursue an interest in modern, and also in what was then called "poststructuralist," theory. Meanwhile, a decade and a half spent at the University of Iowa gave me a teaching assignment that required me to study the history of [Western] historiography (which we now understand quite differently than we did back then: a great advance). Driven by a slowly growing perception of the insight, but also of the partiality, blindness, and omissions of past historical writing, I turned gradually to "theory and philosophy of history" (as it is generally known these days). In the twenty-first century, that area of study has become my major focus of academic interest. Travel to and conversation with scholars and students in and from various countries, including, among others, Brazil, Poland, Russia, and especially China, gave me encouragement and stimulus to pursue this interest. I am grateful to the scholars from those and other countries with whom I have interacted, sometimes on their home turf, but also in Charlottesville, during the times they spent at the University of Virginia as visiting scholars.

Currently, my main specific interest is focused on the different ways that we humans (in various places and from various political, social, and cultural standpoints) attempt to engage with the residues from the past that remain available (if we look and see) in our present times and places. Those residues can offer enouragement, inspiration, potential models for action, and salutary warnings if we approach them in an understanding and attentive way (by trying as best we can to enter into ways of thinking other than our own). They can also lead us into trouble if they are overlooked or misappropriated.

My CV in its most up-to-date form can usually be found at my academia.edu site:  https://virginia.academia.edu/AllanMegill  (I may sometimes allow the CV on my UVa site to get a bit out of date). It is a comprehensive CV that includes almost every academic publication, and almost every academic activity I have engaged in. Below, I offer a shorter list of publications and activities.

Publications

Books

Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, February 2007. ISBNs: cloth: 0-226-51829-9 (cloth), [UPC] 978-0-226-51829-9. Paper: 0-226-51830-2, [UPC] 978-0-226-51830-5.  304 pp. Russian version: trans. Marina Kukartseva, V. S. Timonin, and V. E. Kashaev, with an introduction by Marina Kukartseva, Историческая Эпистемология [Istoricheskaya epistemologia] [Historical Epistemology] (Moscow: Kanon+, 2007).

Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason (Why Marx Rejected Politics and the Market). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, pp. xxv + 367. Russian version: trans.Marina Kukartseva, Карл Маркс: Бремя Разума, (Moscow: Kanon+,  2011, ISBN: 978-5-88373-254-2). (Note: this is a condensed and slightly updated version of the original 180,000-word English-language book [condensation by am].)

Prophets of Extremity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985, pp. xxiii + 399 (paperback edition, May 1987). Turkish version: trans. Tuncay Birkan, Aşirliğ—in Peygamberleri: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida (Ankara: Bilim ve Sanat, 1998 [ISBN 975-7298-32-8]). New edition Ankara: Ayraç, 2009 [9789944732147]. Another new edition: Istanbul: Idefix, 2012 [9786050201697]. Fourth Turkish edition: Istanbul: Metis, July 2021.

Allan Megill, ed., Rethinking Objectivity (Durham., N.C.: Duke University Press, June 1994 [hardcover and paperback eds.]), pp. ix + 342.

John S. Nelson, Allan Megill, and Donald N. McCloskey, eds., The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences: Language and Argument in Scholarship and Public Affairs. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, pp. viii + 445 (paperback edition, January 1991).Korean version: Seoul: Korea University Press, 2003, x + 600 (ISBN 89-7641-495-01/89-7641-428-4).

Some articles and other shorter pieces from ca. 2008 onward.

“Does Populism Challenge the Expertise of Academic Historians?,” 7400 wds., chapter 15, pp. 288–305, in Claiming the People’s Past: Populist Historicities and the Challenges to Historical Thinking, ed. Berber Bevernage, Eline Mestdagh, Walderez Ramalho, and Marie-Gabrielle Verbergt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, became available online in May 2024; print publication on Sept. 30, 2024. Available electronically via UVA Library home page | UVA Library (virginia.edu) or, when the stars align, through a Cambridge University Press link, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/claiming-the-peoples-past/69B0898B5A1EE94711EDD7F61B91E163.

"The Affective Dimension: What Theory of History Can Learn from Popular History,” chapter 6 in Philosophy of History: Twenty-First-Century Perspectives, ed. Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen (London: Bloomsbury Academic, Nov. 12, 2020), pp. 101–125, 241–244 [cited works data at 257–284], https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-history-9781350111844/.

“History’s Unresolving Tensions: Reality and Implications,” Rethinking History: A Journal of Theory and Practice 23.3 (June 2019): 279–303, https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2019.1625544.

"Theological Presuppositions of the Evolutionary Epic: From Robert Chambers to E. O. Wilson,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Volume 58, Pages 1-122 (August 2016), Special Issue: Replaying the Tape of Life: Evolution and Historical Explanation, ed. Peter Harrison and Ian Hesketh, at pp. 24-32. Crossref DOI link for article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.12.005. URL for entire issue: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13698486/58/supp/C.

“On the Dual Character of Historical Thinking: Challenges for Teaching and Learning,” chapter 10 in Christine Counsell, Katharine Burn, and Arthur Chapman, eds., MasterClass in History Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming March 24, 2016, ISBN 9781472534873), 159-165.

“‘Big History’ Old and New: Presuppositions, Limits, Alternatives,” Journal of the Philosophy of History 9.2 (2015): 306–326 [in a Special Issue on “The Aesthetics of Scale,” ed. Ian Hesketh and Knox Peden].

Contribution to Marcin Moskalewicz, “The Old Nietzschean Question Raised Again: How much Past do we need for having a Healthy Life?” [with contributions by Frank Ankersmit, Sande Cohen, Jan van der Dussen, Allan Megill, and Jörn Rüsen], Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice, published online 24 March 2014, DOI: 10.1080/13642529.2014.893666; to link to this article, use this URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2014.893666; print publication forthcoming in Rethinking History 18: 4 (2014), fall 2014 (my contribution amounts to about 1,300 words).

“What Role Should Theory Play in Historical Research and Writing,” published in Russian as “Роль Теории в историческом исследовании и историописании,” trans. О. V. Vorobyeva, in L. P. Repina, ed., Историческая наука сегодня: Теории, Методы, Перспективы (The Science of History Today: Theories, Methods, Perspectives) (Москва: Издательство ЛКИ, 2011), 24-40. Translated into Chinese by Xupeng Zhang as “理论在历史实践中的作用 [The Role of Theory in Historical Practice; Lǐlùn zài lìshǐ shíjiàn zhōng de zuòyòng],” Historiography Bimonthly [Beijing: Dept. of World History, CASS], 2021, no 6 (December), 4-11.

Phillip Honenberger and Allan Megill, with contributions by Jesse Dukes, Justin Reich, “John Norman,” Steven M. Shepard, and Hillary J. Bracken, “Inferência abdutiva e historiografia: uma conversa para historiadores e filósofos,” trans. Viviane Venancio Moreira, Intelligere, Revista de História Intelectual, vol. 1, nº1 (dez. 2015): 58-81, downloadable at http://revistas.usp.br/revistaintelligere. (instructional/scholarly hybrid).

“Introdução: Teoria da História ca.1870-1940: Objetividade e Antinomias da História em um Tempo de Crise Existencial [Introduction: Theory of History ca. 1870-1940: Objectivity and the Antinomies of History in a Time of Existential Crisis],” trans. Sérgio Campos Gonçalvos, in Jurandir Malerba, ed., Lições de história: Da história cientifica à razão metódica no limiar do século XX (Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, and Porto Alegre: EdiPUCRS, 2013), 11-37.

Allan Megill and Xupeng Zhang, “Questions on the History of Ideas and Its Neighbours,” Rethinking History 17: 3 (Sept. 2013). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642529.2013.774720. Chinese version: Allan Megill and Xupeng Zhang, “What is the History of Ideas? A Conversation with Professor Allan Megill”; Chinese title and publication data: “什么是观念史？——对话弗吉尼亚大学历史系阿兰·梅吉尔教授,”Historiography Quarterly (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing) [journal title in Chinese: 史学理论研究, in Pinyin: Shixue Lilun Yanjiu], Issue 2, 2012, pp. 108-119. Excerpt from this article published in Chinese Social Science Digest, Issue 9, 2012, pp. 71-72.

Review article, “History, Theoreticism, and the Limits of 'the Postsecular’” (on Dominick LaCapra, History and Its Limits), History and Theory 52 (Feb. 2013): 110-29. Chinese translation: 阿兰·梅吉尔：《历史、理论主义与“后世俗”的限度》，张文涛译、张旭鹏校，《新史学》第十三辑，2014年，第98—117页; in pinyin:  Allan Megill, "Lishi, lilun zhuyi yu 'hou shisu' de xiandu", trans. by Wentao Zhang, revised by Xupeng Zhang, New History, Vol. 13, 2014, pp. 98-117.

“Epilogue” to Oxford History of Historical Writing, vol. 5 (5 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 5: 678-88.

“Five Questions on Intellectual History,” Rethinking History 15: 4 (December 2011): 489-510. A shorter variant is forthcoming in in Stjenfelt, F., M. H. Jeppesen, and M. Thorup, eds., Intellectual History: 5 Questions. Automatic Press/VIP, Copenhagen (http://www.vince-inc.com/contact.html) in  December 2011. A Russian translation of the long version will be appearing, as "Пять вопросов об интеллектуальной истории," in the intellectual history journal Диалог со временем: Альманах интеллектуальной истории, no. 38 (March 2012). A Chinese translation of the long version is in preparation.

“Границы у Национальное Государство: Предварительые Заметки [Borders and the Nation-State: A Preliminary Communication],” Диалог со временем: альманах интеллектуальной истории [Dialogue with Time: Intellectual History Review] (Moscow), no. 30 (2010): 43-58. A slightly longer Chinese variant of this paper, trans. Xupeng Zhang, has appeared in Shandong Social Sciences Journal (ISSN 1003-4145/CN37 – 1053/C), 2009, no. 12 (general no. 172):  19-26.

“What Role Should Theory Play in Historical Research and Writing,” published in Russian as “Роль Теории в историческом исследовании и историописании,” trans. О. V. Vorobyeva, in L. P. Repina, ed., Историческая наука сегодня: Теории, Методы, Перспективы (The Science of History Today: Theories, Methods, Perspectives) (Москва: Издательство ЛКИ, 2011), 24-40.

“Is There Moral Progress in History? An Old Kantian Question Raised Yet Again,” in Don Yerxa, ed., British Abolitionism and the Question of Moral Progress (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2012). A Russian variant has appeared as“Старый вопрос,   поставленный  вновь: существует ли моральный  прогресс в истории? [An Old Question Raised Anew: Is there Moral Progress in History],” trans. N. Motroshilova  and M. Kukartseva, in Международная конференция, посвященная 200-летию выхода в свет Феноменологии духа Г .В Ф. Гегеля: Сборник докладов и материалов под ред Н. Мотрошиловой [International Conference marking  the 200th Anniversary of the Publication of G. W. F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, ed. N Motroshilova]  (Moscow: Kanon+, for Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2010), 645-68.

“The Needed Centrality of Regional History,” Ideas in History 4, 2 (2009) [Oslo: Nordic Society for the History of Ideas): 11-37]. A Chinese variant has appeared as “Regional History and the Future of Historical Writing” [in Chinese], Academic Research [Xueshu Yanjiu (ISSN1000-7326/CN44-1070)], 2009, no. 8: 89-100.

“The Rhetorical Dialectic of Hayden White,” in Frank Ankersmit, Ewa Domanska, and Hans Kellner, eds., Re-Figuring Hayden White (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009), 190-215.

“Некоторые размышления о проблеме истинностной оценки репрезентации прошлого; translation by Marina Kukartseva], Эпистемология & философия науки [Журнал Института философии Российской Академии наук] (Epistemology and Philosophy of Science [Journal of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences]), Vol. 15, no. 1 (2008): 53-61. (part of a “Panel Discussion” with responses by A. L. Nikiforov, H. M. Smirnova, A. C. Shchabelov, S. P. Shchabelov, and M. A. Kukartseva); Science [Journal of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences]), Vol. 15, no. 1 (2008): 53-61, reprinted in  М. Кукартсева, ред., Способы постижения проплого: Методология и теория исторической науки (Moscow: Канон+, 2011), 117-28.

Some other, older, articles

“Historical Representation, Identity, Allegiance,” in Stefan Berger and Linas Eriksonas, eds., Narrating the Nation: The Representation of National Narratives in Different Genres (Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2007), 28-41.

“What is Distinctive about Modern Historiography?,” in The Many Faces of Clio: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Historiography. Essays in Honor of Georg G. Iggers, ed. Q. Edward Wang and Franz L. Fillafer (New York: Berghahn, 2007), 28-41.

“Globalization and the History of Ideas,” Journal of the History of Ideas 66 (2005): 179-87. Russian version, trans. Lorina Repina, “Глобализация и история идей, Диалог со временем: альманах интеллектуальной истории (Dialogue with Time: Intellectual History Review) 14 (2005): 11-20.

“Intellectual History and History” (critical discussion of Dominick LaCapra, “Tropisms of Intellectual History”), Rethinking History 8 (2004): 549-57.

“Imagining the History of Ideas” (critical discussion of Mark Bevir, The Logic of the History of Ideas [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999]), Rethinking History 4, 3 (2000): 333-340.

“History, Memory, Identity,” History of the Human Sciences 11: 3 (1998): 37-62.

See "Statement of Interests," above.

Current Research

See "Statement of Interests," above.

Varia

Member of the Bureau [governing committee] of the International Committee for the History and Theory of Historiography (part of the International Congress of Historical Sciences [CISH]), from September 2022--.

President, Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc., 2005--2014.

Directeur d'études invité at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, May 1997.

University of Virginia Sesquicentennial Associateship, Spring Semester 1994, Spring Semester 2000, Spring Semester 2005, fall semester 2010., fall semester 2016, spring and fall semesters 2024.

University of Iowa Faculty Scholarship, 1985-88.

Research Fellow, Australian National University, 1977-79.

University of Virginia Sesquicentennial Associateship, Spring Semester 1994, Spring Semester 2000, Spring Semester 2005, fall semester 2010., fall semester 2016, spring and fall semesters 2024

Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor of History, University of Iowa, 1974-90.

University of Iowa Faculty Scholarship, 1985-88.

Research Fellow, Australian National University, 1977-79.

Letters of reference: To save breath, I indicate here what I ask former students to give me if I agree to write a letter of reference for them: I would possibly be open to writing a letter of reference for you if that is needed. I require the following from people for whom I write: information concerning what is required by the internship, job, fellowship, and so on that you are applying for; a copy of your unofficial transcript; a statement as to which professors and  classes have had the most impact on you; an informal CV (which may include personal information that you would not put on a work-related CV or resume, if such information might be helpful to a reference-letter writer); and a statement concerning your central interests and talents as well as concerning your plans for the next few years. Students should send reminders, with deadlines clearly indicated in the e-mail subject line, as deadlines approach. 

rev. of March 1, 2025