Posthumus Conference 2025
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Posthumus Conference 2025 in Nijmegen, 27-28 May 2025'The People vs Structures' - just a few days away... |
The Posthumus Conference 2025 (27 and 28 May 2025, Radboud University Nijmegen) is just a few days away ... it promises to be a well-visited and interesting event with a wide range of sessions, organised by the respective Research Networks of the N.W. Posthumus Institute in close cooperation with our PhD representatives! Have a look at the website for the updated programme. Not registered yet? Please do so asap (although the dinner is already fully booked...)!
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N.W. Posthumus Summer School 'Crises and History' (Utrecht, 30 June - 4 July 2025) - Sign up for the final places! - deadline 1 June 2025 |
From 30 June until 4 July 2025, the N.W. Posthumus Institute will organise the Summer School 'Crises and History', delivered and organised by Dr Jessica Dijkman. This one-week summer school familiarises the participants with recent research into some important historical crisis types with present-day parallels, such as epidemics and economic crises. They gain insight in the central academic debates related to the social, economic, political and cultural causes and consequences of these crises and in the factors determining the vulnerability and resilience of the societies that were confronted with them. Students discover the main methods and source types employed for an analysis of crises and acquire the skills to use them in their research. In short, the summer school stimulates students to develop their own research ideas on the topic of crises in history. For the final places in this 2-3 EC course, make sure to apply ultimately by 1 June 2025 via the Posthumus website.
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Call for abstracts ESTER RDC 2025 (Seville, 3-5 November 2025) open now - deadline 1 July 2025 |
The N.W. Posthumus Institute, as secretariat of the European graduate School for Training in Economic and social historical Research (ESTER), is happy to announce the 2025 ESTER Research Design Course will be held on 3-5 November 2025 in Sevilla (Spain) uner the guidance of Dr Germán Jiménez Montes (photo) of the University of Seville. The call for abstracts is open now: participants are asked to write a paper in which the design of their research will be discussed. The aim of this methodological reflection is to investigate the scientific procedures that historians use to reach scientific explanations and to combine all analytical elements into a synthetic and coherent historical account. In this paper, the participant will also prepare a detailed work plan for the dissertation. Abstracts (400-800 words) should be submitted ultimately 1 July 2025 via the Posthumus website.
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Posthumus board member Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk selected as new Academy Member Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) |
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has selected Professor Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, also Board member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, as new Academy member. KNAW Academy members are selected from a large number of nominations by expert juries in each scientific and scholarly field based on their excellent research combined with their importance in society as scientists. The KNAW states that Elise has been selected, because ‘Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk highlights the value of women’s work. Her research on topics including industry, sex work, and work in the home shows how crucial women have always been to the way society functions. Her focus is explicitly not limited to the Netherlands; she also positions her analyses in an international or colonial context. Van Nederveen Meerkerk works closely with researchers in other disciplines and ties in her historical research findings with contemporary social issues.’ The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Elise with this appointment!
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Farewell event Professor Angelique Janssens |
On the occasion of her retirement, the Radboud Group for Historical Demography and Family History is hosting a farewell event and reception for Professor Angelique Janssens, endowed Professor of Historical Demography at Radboud University and former Scientific Director of the N.W. Posthumus Institute. Her chair, located at Maastricht University, was devoted to topics relating to gender and labour. She is specialised in the history of mortality, medical history and causes of death. Professor Janssens was the principal investigator in three major project over the past years: the SHiP Project, the NWO project ‘Lifting the burden of disease’, and the Citizen Science project for the History of Health. The N.W. Posthumus Institute thanks Professor Janssens for the efforts made by her for the N.W. Posthumus Institute! Please note: this event will be preceded by the two-day symposium ‘How did we lift the burden? Infectious Disease Mortality in the Western and Non-Western World (1800-now)’.
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Gerda Henkel Foundation awards grant to project carried out by Posthumus board members Dries Lyna and Wouter Ryckbosch |
The Gerda Henkel Foundation has awarded a grant of 253k euro to 'Economies of Trust? A New Digital Infrastructure on the Urban Poor in the Cape Colony'. In this project, administered by Radboud University, Posthumus General Board members Dr Dries Lyna (Radboud Institute for Culture and History) and Dr Wouter Ryckbosch (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) are both involved in this project, together with Dr Eva Marie Lehner (Bonn Centre for Slavery and Dependency Studies). The research project aims to construct and expand a digital infrastructure to facilitate future social and economic research regarding the eighteenth-century Cape Colony. Next to historical research, the project also comprises a large outreach-component, aiming at art projects in cooperation with local museums and galleries. The project will have its formal start in 2026. The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Dries and Wouter their colleagues with this grant.
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Publicatie 'Dievenland: overleven in de middeleeuwen' van Posthumus netwerkcoördinator Janna Cooman |
| ~ because of scope in Dutch only ~ Onlangs is bij Uitgeverij De Bezige Bij het boek 'Dievenland: overleven in de middeleeuwen' van de hand van Janna Coomans, Posthumus fellow en coördinator van ons onderzoeksnetwerk ‘Economy and Society of the Pre-industrial Low Countries in Comparative Perspective’ verschenen. Op basis van tot nu toe onontdekte dievenbekentenissen verkent Janna Coomans de dagelijkse handel en wandel van de late middeleeuwen, waarmee dit boek een inkijk geeft in het leven van gewone mensen die geconfronteerd werden met instabiliteit en onzekerheid in de laatmiddeleeuwse Lage Landen. Het N.W. Posthumus Instituut feliciteert Janna met deze publicatie! |
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Call for Practitioners' Labs - 10th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise (Rotterdam, 3-5 Nov. and Utrecht, 5-7 Nov. 2025) - deadline 17 June 2025
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The EMES International Research Network, in partnership with the Rotterdam School of Management of Erasmus University and Utrecht University announces the 10th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise on the theme 'Scaling Through Communities: The Role of Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises in Boosting Societal Transitions' to be held in two different cities: Rotterdam (3-5 November 2025) and Utrecht (5-7 November 2025). The conference seeks to explore the strategies, innovations, partnerships and contexts that enable Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises to drive systemic change while scaling its impact across diverse contexts, rooted in the historical resilience seen in institutions for collective action, spanning a millennium and highlighting the potential of community self-governance as both a scalable and sustainable model. An essential part of this conference are Practitioners' Labs, where practitioners can share their stories (in 5–10 minute presentations), and have an open discussion with other participants on issues they are facing. Abstracts and panel proposals for Practitioners' Labs should be submitted ultimately 17 June 2025.
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Conference 'How did we lift the burden? Infectious Disease Mortality in the Western and Non-Western World (1800-now)' - (Nijmegen, 28-29 August 2025) |
On 28 and 29 August 2025, the researchers involved in COST-Action network GREATLEAP, in collaboration with the Radboud University Nijmegen, the HiDo network, and the IUSSP Panel ‘Epidemics and Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past’, organise the conference 'How did we lift the burden? Infectious Disease Mortality in the Western and Non-Western World (1800-now)' . Keynote speaker at this conference is Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie (University of Oxford). The conference is not only a closing event of the NWO-funded research project 'Lifting the burden of disease. The modernisation of health in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, 1854-1926', but it also marks the end of the academic career of Professor Angélique Janssens, who directed the aforementioned project. The conference will therefore be concluded by a farewell reception. Registration for the conference and/or the keynote is required.
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Talk and Film Screening on 'Legacy and transitions: Rotterdam’s port in a global sustainability context' (Utrecht, 2 June 2025) - prior registration required
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| On 2 June 2025, the Deep Transitions Lab organises an event on the theme ‘Legacy and transitions: Rotterdam’s port in a global sustainability context’, addressing both its history and the challenges it faces in transitioning to a sustainable port. The organisers seek to explore what this means for the Netherlands and, more broadly, how the impacts of local history on a global scale can be understood. The event consists of a talk by Professor Johan Schot, an interdisciplinary panel discussion and a screening of the documentary 'Een kano naar zee' (Dutch spoken, but subtitled in English). Participation is free of charge, but prior registration is required. |
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Summer School 'Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the New World' (Turin, 10-12 September 2025) - deadline abstracts 15 June 2025
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The Turin Humanities Programme and Fondazione 1563 invite doctoral students and early career researchers to submit their applications to the Summer School 'Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period', to be held 10-12 September 2025 in Turin, Italy. The Summer School aims to explore the modern debates surrounding slavery and serfdom in Europe and the Americas within the timeframe of the Early Modern period, defined here broadly as stretching from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth. Abstracts should be submitted ultimately by 15 June 2025.
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Middeleeuwen Symposium 2025: ‘Oorlog en Vrede in de Middeleeuwen – Realiteit, Herinnering en Mythe’ (Zutphen, 20 juni 2025)
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~ because of scope in Dutch only ~ Op 20 juni 2025 vindt in Zutphen het Middeleeuwen Symposium 2025 plaats. Dit symposium wordt gezamenlijk georganiseerd door de Historische Vereniging Zutphen, Erfgoedcentrum Zutphen en Musea Zutphen, in nauwe samenwerking met de Radboud Universiteit en de Stichting Walburgiskerk. Het thema dit jaar is ‘Oorlog en Vrede in de Middeleeuwen – Realiteit, Herinnering en Mythe’, dagvoorzitter is prof. dr. Johan Oosterman, hoogleraar Oudere Nederlandse letterkunde aan de Radboud Universiteit. Het symposium besteedt aandacht aan recent onderzoek en richt zich op geschiedenisliefhebbers, professionals en studenten. De sprekers zijn werkzaam aan Nederlandse, Vlaamse en Britse universiteiten. Voor deelname aan het Middeleeuwen Symposium 2025 geldt een bijdrage, voor studenten geldt een gereduceerd tarief.
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Professior Carl Nightingale delivers lecture 2025 Raymond van Uytven Chair 2025 (Antwerp, 2 July 2025) - register by 30 June 2025 |
The Centre for Urban History and the Urban Studies Institute of the University of Antwerp invite you to the public lecture of the 2025 Raymond van Uytven Chair for Urban History by Carl Nightingale, Professor Emeritus of Urban History and World History at the University at Buffalo and Co-Coordinator of the Global Urban History Project (GUHP). Professor Nightingales lecture is titled 'Urban History and Earth Time: Five Big Stories About Cities and Their Planet' and offers five large stories about global urban history in Earth Time and aims to explore what urban historians can offer to Our Time. Those wanting to attend this lecture, should register ultimately by 30 June 2025.
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Symposium Water Pasts and Futures (VU Amsterdam, 30 September 2025) – Call for presentations |
| On 30 September 2025, the organisers behind the VU Amsterdam projects Coping with Drought and PerfectSTORM, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute and the Drought in the Anthropocene network. This half-day symposium explores both historical and future droughts, the risks of cascading drought-to-flood events, and the social, political, and technological responses shaping (drinking) water security today. The symposium will be opened by introductions from research project leaders Petra van Dam and Anne van Loon, and host a range of voices bridging academic disciplines and practical perspectives. The organisers welcome presentations by researchers and practitioners on the theme ‘Different Waters for Different Purposes’. |
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PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Heleen Blommers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2 June 2025) |
| On 2 June 2025, Posthumus alumna Heleen Blommers will defend the PhD thesis ‘Deconstructing the War on Poverty: why a failure narrative became entrenched in American political discourse, 1964–1974’ at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Supervisors are Professor Karel Davids (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Dr Dienke Hondius (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and Professor Damian Pargas (Leiden University). Heleen’s dissertation focuses on the War on Poverty, a large-scale domestic anti-poverty program in the United States in the 1960s. Soon after the program was launched in 1964, it was criticized from both left and right and by the mid-1980s, the general narrative had become that the War on Poverty failed. Today, historians and economists argue that the anti-poverty program was actually quite effective in various ways. The dissertation answers the question why and how the failure narrative of the War on Poverty came into being in the United States. The N.W. Posthumus Institute wishes Heleen a successful defence! |
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PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Robin Rose Southard (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 23 June 2025) |
| On 23 June 2025, Posthumus alumna Robin Rose Southard (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) will defend the PhD thesis 'Biting the hand that feeds: contesting the food guilds in 18th-century Brussels’. Supervisor is Professor Wouter Ryckbosch (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). The N.W. Posthumus Institute wishes Robin Rose a successful defence! |
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Other future PhD defences Posthumus alumni |
| Lena Walschap (KU Leuven) on the PhD thesis ‘All is fish that comes to the net. Peasant fishing on the English South Coast in the turbulent late Middle Ages’. Supervisors: Professors Maïka De Keyzer (KU Leuven) and Tim Soens (University of Antwerp) (26 August). |
Congratulations to our PhD alumni recently promoted! |
Dr Tessa de Boer (Leiden University) on the PhD thesis ‘A Truth Universally Acknowledged. Dutch Investment in French Colonial Resources in the Eighteenth Century’. Supervisors: Professor Cátia Antunes (Leiden University) and Dr Elisabeth Heijmans (University of Antwerp) (7 February).
Dr Bart Spliet (University of Antwerp) on the PhD thesis ‘The Demand of the Invisible Hand. The Consumer Revolution and Social Inequality in the (Pre)Modern Metropolis’. Supervisors: Professor Bruno Blondé (University of Antwerp) and Professor Wouter Ryckbosch (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (14 May). |
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As of 1 March 2024, the N.W. Posthumus Institute has started using Mastodon as social medium, following the decision to stop using X, formerly known as Twitter, actively for new announcements, as a result of the current developments surrounding the X platform. Do sign up with Mastodon and follow our account to keep updated frequently with new items and developments. Join us on Mastodon!
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Image credits: - Gezicht op Nijmegen vanuit het noorden [View on Nijmegen from the North], picture by Jan Ruyter (I), created 1738. Collection Rijksmuseum object RP-P-AO-4-28-1. Public Domain.
- Emblem of the plague. Book illustration (etching) by Jan Luyken for Christoph Weigel, Ethica Naturalis seu Documenta Moralia … (Neurenberg: Christoph Weigel, 1700). Collectie Rijksmuseum object RP-P-OB-44.867. Public Domain. - De haven van Rotterdam (22 April 1964). Photo by Eric Koch/Anefo. Collection Nationaal Archief, file number 916-3349. Public Domain.
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