The École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne), abbreviated EPHE, is a constituent college of PSL (Paris Sciences & Letters Research University). It is counted among the most prestigious research and higher education institutions in France. 

HISTARA, 7347 (Histoire de l’Art, des Representations, de l’État et du Pouvoir dans l’Europe Modern et Contemporaine), directed by Prof Sabine Frommel, belongs to the section of EPHE dedicated to historical and philological sciences and aims to develop a strong dialogue between the history of art and the history of administration. HISTARA has a significant international research profile and hosts three well known publication series (Hautes Etudes/Histoire de l’Art; Itinéraires/percorsi; European Identities and Art History: Transnational discourse). A significant strand of HISTARA’s research is concerned with processes of migration in Europe and beyond, focusing on the cross fertilisation of languages, patterns, methods and techniques, with a particular interest in the mechanisms and tools of exchange (travels, description, drawings and models). 

The research centre has a strong orientation towards the history of architecture (especially that of the modern and contemporary period, embracing military architecture and strategy), focussing also on the interaction of architecture with painting, sculpture and the ephemeral arts. Its research project Temple, synagogue, church, mosque: connections, interactions and the politics of conversation has been distinguished as projet lauréal (PSL) 2018 in collaboration with Columbia university in New York. 

In collaboration with the centre CNRS/MAP in Marseille and the department of engineering at the university of Bologna, it develops new techniques of digitalisation and analysis for architectural drawings of the Renaissance, founded on a new kind of dialogue between historians of architecture and specialists in innovative technologies. HISTARA also conducts research about the history of architectural models, in collaboration with the Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris and the universities of Munich and Bologna, dealing with the evolution of models over a wide chronological and thematic range, including the use of models in urban planning. 

Name of Institutional representative in network: 

Professor Dr. Sabine Frommel

Institution location: 

Paris, France