The HNR community is pleased to share the call for Chapter for the edited  collection Historical Network Analysis: Applications and New Directions. The deadline is on March, 13th 2026.

Historical Network Analysis: Applications and New Directions

Under contract with Bloomsbury Academic

   In his canonical book, Linked, Albert-Laìszloì Barabaìsi explored the history and prevalence of networks in the world, predicting that “network thinking is poised to invade all domains of human activity and most fields of human inquiry… aimed at approaching our interlocked universe.” Often influenced by methodologies from the social sciences, this ‘network thinking’ and an interest in the use of digital and computational tools within the humanities continues to flourish. More recently, this has fostered a growing demand to expand on how such interdisciplinary approaches can provide fresh insights into historical narratives.

   This edited collection will explore the methods and applications of social network analysis (SNA) within historical contexts, offering compelling demonstrations – both quantitative and qualitative – of historical SNA in practice. Following an introductory chapter that provides an overview into core concepts and methodologies of SNA, individual chapters will apply these methods to real-world case studies and demonstrate the ways SNA offers new angles into historical questions.

    We invite abstracts of 300-500 words for chapters up to 7,500 words. Chapters should focus on applying social network analysis to historical research, applying quantitative and qualitative methods and/or approaches. These may include but are not limited to: 

–        working with network data; 

–        network centrality; 

–        community detection; 

–        network evolution; 

–        network data visualisation; 

–        modelling/simulating networks; 

–        and combining network analysis with other methodologies (such as GIS or linguistics).

While all historical contexts will be considered, given existing accepted contributions to the collection as a result of a conference, a preference will be made for chapters focusing on regions outside of Europe and North America.

Abstracts should include details of the methods applied, the historical period studied, and the source or data type used. Submissions should also include a working title and a brief author biography (max. 150 words). We welcome abstracts from researchers of all career levels and pathways. Please direct submission materials or any queries to Dr. Grace Di Méo and Dr. Caitlin Burge at interlocked.universe@gmail.com. 

Deadline for abstract submissions: Friday 13th March, 2026.

Since this collection is under contract, priority will be given to early submissions. There will also be a quick turnaround from chapter acceptance to submission; we anticipate production to begin in mid-2026.