Ethics in history: introducing conceptual tools for research practices

The article argues that historical research is an inherently ethical endeavor: It intervenes in contemporary society by engendering new understandings of its past, thus affecting individual and collective imaginaries of society’s current situation and possible futures. This calls for ethical considerations at every step in the research process, from the identification of a topic to the production and dissemination of a historical narrative. While many historians have engaged with ethical questions, conceptual tools for analyzing ethical problems pertaining to research practices and knowledge interventions are lacking. Building on the work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, the article suggests two continua – visibility/invisibility and critical/enabling – that scholars might employ to map and reflect on the ethical implications of their research. The final part presents an example from current scholarship to illustrate how the tools can be used to think through the plethora of ethically fraught choices that historians encounter while formulating research questions, developing methodologies, selecting sources, coining analytical concepts and constructing arguments.