Successful Posthumus Conference 2025 in Nijmegen |
We are looking back at a successful Posthumus Conference 2025, hosted on 27 and 28 May 2025 by the Research Institute of Culture and History at Radboud University. Under the guidance of hosts Dries Lyna and Joris van der Tol, and assisted by student assistants from the Radboud University, over 130 participants enjoyed interesting presentations by both PhD students and fellows affiliated with the N.W. Posthumus Institute, poster presentations by PhDs of our 2024 cohort, the keynote by Professor Tamar Herzog (Harvard University). In addition, at the conference dinner the PhDs who completed the PhD Training Programme of the N.W. Posthumus Institute received their certificates (see photo). We thank all involved for their efforts and support!
|
|
Save the date!Posthumus Conference 2026 to be hosted by IISH in Amsterdam, 21-22 May 2026 |
After the successful Posthumus Conference 2025 (see item above), we are happy to announce that the Posthumus Conference 2026 will be hosted on 21 and 22 May 2026 at the International Institute of Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam by Professor Ulbe Bosma and his team. More info will follow in the course of the academic year 2025-2026, but do already save the date!
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
Posthumus Writing Retreat in Abdij van Berne (Berne Abbey) |
| From 16 until 21 June 2025, seven Posthumus PhD candidates gathered in Berne Abbey in Heeswijk-Dinther for the annual Writing Retreat of the N.W. Posthumus Institute. This five-day retreat offers students the opportunity to work on their dissertation or paper in progress with 8-10 of your colleagues in a quiet place, away from all the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In addition to reflection, focus and concentration, there was also time for relaxation and abbey beer from time to time. |
|
|
|
Seminar 'Sources, silence and the senses in the study of the history of global Chinese Labour'; opening lecture by Professor Evelyn Hu-DeHart (IISH, 18 August 2025) - deadline 3 July 2025 |
Jens Aurich (junior researcher at the IISH), Koen van der Lijn (Johan Huizinga Fellow at Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) and Fresco Sam-Sin (founder and creative lead of the Things That Talk Foundation), both connected to the Contract Labourers and Collective Action project at IISG, organise the seminar 'Sources, silence and the senses in the study of the history of global Chinese Labour', to be held at 18 August 2025 at the IISH in Amsterdam. The opening lecture will be delivered by Professor Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History and American Studies at Brown University, who will also act as key listener at this seminar. Participants are expected to prepare a presentation consisting of three case studies in total. Goal is to foster collective reflection and opportunities to advance one another’s research. Those interested to participate should send an e-mail with a few lines about their research interest in the study of the history of global Chinese Labour before 4 July 2025.
|
|
|
|
Change of coordinators Posthumus Research Network 'Roots and Routes in Colonial and Global History' |
At the end of this academic year, Professor Ulbe Bosma (IISH) will complete his task in the coordinating team of the Posthumus Research Network 'Roots and Routes in Colonial and Global History'. Ulbe was one of the founders and initiators of this network and has managed, in close cooperation with his fellow coordinators, to create a strong and extensive network of Dutch and Flemish scholars, whose aim it is to combine a global approach with a sensitivity for local and emic perspectives. The N.W. Posthumus Institute owes Ulbe many thanks for his efforts over the past years.
As of the start of the new academic year, Dr Margot Luyckfasseel (University of Antwerp) will join the current other coordinators Dr Dries Lyna (Radboud University) and Dr Elisabeth Heijmans (moving from the University of Antwerp to IISH this summer) as new member of the coordination team of the research network. Margot specialises in Congolese history from below (late 19th century to the present), with a thematic focus on urban-rural relations, language ideologies, and debates on “authenticity”. Additionally, she is developing an interest in socio-economic themes such as slavery, labor, and trade. The N.W. Posthumus Institute is glad to welcome her as new network coordinator. |
|
|
|
NWO XS Grants awarded to Posthumus fellows |
| We are proud to inform you that the Dutch Research Council (NWO) awarded NWO XS grants to several fellows of the N.W. Posthumus Institute. NWO XS grants (50k euros max) are awarded to ideas hold great promise and aim to enable proposals for curiosity-driven, innovative research in the research fields covered by the NWO Domain Social Sciences and Humanities. The laureates are Dr Corinne Boter, Dr Swantje Falcke, Dr Felix Meier zu Selhausen (all three Utrecht University), Dr Daniel Gallardo Albarrán (Wageningen University and Research), Dr Matthias Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, and Dr Coen van Galen (the latter two both affiliated with the Radboud Institute for Culture & History). The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates all laureates with their grants! |
FWO Postdoc Fellowships awarded to Posthumus fellows |
| We are proud to inform you that the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) has awarded Postdoctoral fellowhips to two fellows of the N.W. Posthumus Institute and congratulate both laureates! |
Dr Charris De Smet was awarded a FWO Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship, a fellowship granted to selected researchers who have recently obtained their doctorate and aim to pursue an independent research career, for Charris’ research on female political agency in the mainstream, non-militant Parisian women’s press.
|
|
|
|
| Dr Kristof Loockx, fellow of the N.W. Posthumus Institute and postdoctoral researcher a the University of Antwerp, was awarded a FWO Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship, a fellowship awarded to selected researchers who have completed their PhD a few years ago to further specialise in their research discipline, for Kristof's research on .how merchant seafaring households during the steam era adapted to the pressures and transformations driven by industrialization. |
|
|
|
Farewell event Professor Angelique Janssens (29 August 2025) |
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 on 29 August 2025. 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 on 28 and 29 August 2025 by the symposium ‘How did we lift the burden? Infectious Disease Mortality in the Western and Non-Western World (1800-now)’.
|
|
|
|
New issue TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History out now |
| Recently, Leuven University Press has issued a new edition of TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, the Dutch-Flemish academic journal on social and economic history. The latest edition contains a lot of interesting articles, some authored by Posthumus fellows, among which an article by Reinder Klinkhamer on the response of the Deventer city authorities in the 15th century on moving a Hanseatic trade post from Bruges to their city, as well as an article by Piet van Cruyningen on the effects of the Napoleontic occupation on the land-owning nobility in Guelders and Overijssel. In this edition, the main thematic dossier is about the recent publication of 'Oorlog en ongelijkheid, een inclusieve geschiedenis van de Gouden Eeuw' by Posthumus board member Marjolein ‘t Hart. The TSEG is available online as a peer-reviewed open access journal on TSEG’s website; hard copy examples can be ordered from Leuven University Press. |
|
|
|
Publicatie 'Koks & kelners 1750-1950' van Posthumus fellow Patricia Van den Eeckhout |
~ because of scope in Dutch only ~ Bij Uitgeverij Ertsberg is onlangs het boek 'Koks & Kelners 1750-1950' van emeritus professor Patricia Van den Eeckhout, fellow van het N.W. Posthumus Instituut, verschenen. Dit boek vertelt de geschiedenis van het alomtegenwoordige, maar ‘onzichtbare’ horecapersoneel. Koks waren letterlijk, maar ook het zaalpersoneel in zekere zin onzichtbaar. In de klassensamenleving van voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd van hen een dienstvaardige ondergeschiktheid gevraagd. Van 1750 tot aan de Tweede Wereldoorlog en met focus op Brussel, Amsterdam, Parijs, Londen, Berlijn en Wenen, vertelt Patricia Van den Eeckhout hoe het horecapersoneel leefde, werkte, at, sliep, ruziede en zijn brood verdiende.
|
|
|
|
Publication 'The rise of the modern state in Europe, 1450-1914' by Posthumus fellow Peer Vries |
| Posthumus Fellow emeritus Professor Peer Vries and Annelieke Vries-Baaijens recently published their book 'The rise of the modern state in Europe, 1450-1914'. Whereas the current world consists of states with their own, demarcated, usually contiguous territory, and recognised authority, in the Late Middle Ages legitimacy of government authority was not based on institutionalised participation by broad sections of the population and that population did not regard itself as a nation. In this book Peer and Annelieke Vries describe how, in Europe, the modern state came into being between the Late Middle Ages and the first decades of the twentieth century. The book is published as self-managed edition both as paperback and in Kindle format. |
|
|
|
Network for Environmental Humanities Symposium ‘Bracing for impact: Junior scholars on the Anthropocene’ (Utrecht, 27 June) |
On 27 June 2025, the Network for Environmental Humanities (NEH) celebrates the pioneering, socially engaged research being conducted by our junior scholars in the humanities with the Symposium ‘Bracing for impact: Junior scholars on the Anthropocene’. The NEH has invited Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Research Master’s students in a broad range of disciplines to reflect on their role as researchers and change makers. For three thematic panels, presenters have been challenged to develop a five-minute pitch, explaining their research and the impact they seek to have. These pitches will be followed by critical questions and supportive feedback from the expert panellists and a Q&A with the audience. The event is freely accessible to those interested.
|
|
|
|
Call for applications EHES Gino Luzatti Dissertation Prize 2025 - deadline 30 June 2025 |
| The European Historical Economics Society (EHES) will also this year organise the Gino Luzzatto Dissertation Competition for PhDs who successfully defend(ed) a PhD thesis between July 2023 and June 2025. The Luzzatto Prize Committee, consisting of Oscar Gelderblom (Antwerp), Safya Morshed (LSE, the latest prize winner), and Steven Nafziger (Williams College) will select three finalists who will present their work at the EHES 2025 conference (4 to 6 September 2025, University of Hohenheim). Applicants should submit a 3-page abstract, a short letter of motivation emphasising the work’s relevance, and the full dissertation via e-mail to the attention of the Gino Luzzatto Prize Committee, ultimately by 30 June 2025. |
|
|
|
Call for Practitioners' Labs - 10th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise (Rotterdam, 3-5 Nov. and Utrecht, 5-7 Nov. 2025) - EXTENDED deadline 20 August 2025
|
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. The Call for Practitioners' has now been extended until 20 August 2025.
|
|
|
|
CLARIAH Summer School (Amsterdam, 30 June-2 July 2025) – few places left |
From 30 June 30 to 2 July 2025, CLARIAH will host its annual Summer School at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. This event is designed for advanced MA students and researchers interested in digital heritage and humanities approaches that are broadly applicable in various fields. Participants will use historical datasets, cultural heritage collections, and archives available through the Dutch Arts & Humanities infrastructure. The program includes plenary lectures and hands-on sessions. By the end of the summer school, participants will be equipped to critically engage with digital tools and datasets in their research, enhancing their methodological approaches. Places are limited and will be distributed on a first come first served basis.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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’. |
|
|
|
Bijeenkomst 'Nieuw onderzoek naar Amsterdam: stedelijke ruimte, water en erfgoed' (Amersfoort, 10 oktober 2025) |
| ~ because of scope in Dutch only ~ Op 10 oktober 2025 organiseert de werkgroep Stedengeschiedenis een bijeenkomst bij de Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed onder de titel ‘Nieuw onderzoek naar Amsterdam: stedelijke ruimte, water en erfgoed’. Dagvoorzitter is dr. Roos van Oosten (universitair docent Universiteit Leiden). Bevestigde sprekers zijn dr. Clé Lesger (historicus, Universiteit van Amsterdam), dr. Rob Pierik (postdoc onderzoeker VU Amsterdam) en dr. Laura van Hasselt (docent en onderzoeker, Universiteit van Amsterdam). De studiedag is gratis toegankelijk, maar aanmelding vooraf is noodzakelijk. |
|
|
|
PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Lena Walschap (KU Leuven, 26 August 2025) |
| On 26 August 2025, Posthumus alumna Lena Walschap will defend the PhD thesis ‘All is fish that comes to the net. Peasant fishing on the English South Coast in the turbulent late Middle Ages’ at the KU Leuven. Supervisors are Professor Maïka De Keyzer (KU Leuven) and Professor Tim Soens (University of Antwerp). The N.W. Posthumus Institute wishes Lena a successful defence! |
|
|
|
PhD Defence Posthumus alumnus Dániel Moerman (VU Amsterdam, 11 September 2025) |
On 11 September 2025, Posthumus alumnus Dániel Moerman will defend the thesis ‘A hydrosocial history of drought and societal resilience in the cities of Deventer and Zutphen, 1500-1900’ at VU Amsterdam. Supervisors are Professor Petra van Dam (VU Amsterdam), Dr Milja van Tielhof (Huygens Institute), and Dr Bob Pierik (VU Amsterdam). The main aim of Dániel’s study was to find out to what extent premodern urban societies in the eastern Netherlands developed risk-mitigating strategies to alleviate the possible damaging effects of drought-induced water shortages, and whether this displays a certain level of resilience, using two cities in the eastern Netherlands: Deventer and Zutphen, between 1500 and 1900 as case studies. The N.W. Posthumus Institute wishes Dániel a successful defence!
|
|
|
|
Congratulations to our PhD alumni recently promoted! |
Dr Heleen Blommers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) on the PhD thesis ‘Deconstructing the War on Poverty: why a failure narrative became entrenched in American political discourse, 1964–1974’. Supervisors: Professor Karel Davids (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Dr Dienke Hondius (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and Professor Damian Pargas (Leiden University) (2 June).
Dr Robin Rose Southard (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) on the PhD thesis 'Biting the hand that feeds: contesting the food guilds in 18th-century Brussels’. Supervisor: Professor Wouter Ryckbosch (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). (23 June). |
|
During the Summer Holidays (July-August) the N.W. Posthumus Institute will be out of office. Our mail box will be checked on a regular basis, but we will only respond to urgent messages that cannot await reply.
Our next newsletter is scheduled for 25 September 2025. Feel free to submit your news items to posthumus@uu.nl.
The staff of the N.W. Posthumus Institute wishes you pleasant Summer Holidays! |
|
Already following us on Mastodon? |
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!
|
|
|
|
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.
- Family bathing in the sea near Scheveningen (1908). Collection The Hague City Archives. Public Domain. - Photos PhD Graduates and Writing Retreat by Rogier van Kooten. |
You will receive this newsletter because you are a student, fellow, or affiliate of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, or because you signed up for this newsletter. This newsletter is sent to you via the mailing system of Utrecht University. Not yet signed up yourself, because you received this via another way ? Sign up via this link! |
|
|
|
|
.jpg)
