Posthumus Conference 2025
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Posthumus Conference 2025 in Nijmegen, 27-28 May 2025'The People vs Structures' - Updated Programme! |
The programme of the Posthumus Conference 2025 (27 and 28 May 2025, Radboud University Nijmegen) is taking shape more and more. Next to the keynote by Professor Tamar Herzog, the programme now contains info on the various sessions and presentations, 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, there are still some places left!
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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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NWO Vici-Grant awarded to Posthumus board member Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk |
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, member of the General Board of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, a VICI Grant for her research project ‘Care and Coercion. Patriarchy, (Forced) Labour and Caregiving in the Household in the Dutch Empire, c. 1750-Present’. Around the world, domestic and caregiving work are highly gendered as well as racialised. This research project aims to study the historical roots of these entangled inequalities, by looking at how forms of care and coercion interacted at the intimate level of the household. The project concentrates on four interrelated regions in the (former) Dutch empire, in which various forms of forced labour ranging from slavery to more informal forms of coercion existed. It compares regions on four different continents and over time, thus connecting metropole and colonies as well as colonial and postcolonial developments.
The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Elise with this awarded grant! |
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Wieke Metzlar winner of Volkskrant-IISG History Thesis Award |
Wieke Metzlar, member of the 2024 PhD cohort of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, has won the Volkskrant-IISG History Thesis Award. The Volkskrant-IISG Thesis Award is annually awarded to the best history-related Master’s thesis in the Netherlands. In the Master’s thesis, Wieke researched causes for excessive mortality rates in girls compared to boys in 19th-century Maastricht. Strikingly, the conclusion was that girls were more at risk than boys. Wieke’s research showed that girls often resided indoors, exposing them to worse hygienic conditions and illness due to having to care for sick family members, leading to an elevated risk of mortality. The judges praised Wieke’s thesis for its careful approach and its societal relevance, showinghow historical research can help to better understand gender-related health disparities. The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Wieke with this award!
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New Seminar series: Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches
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Linked to the combined research team of slavery projects at the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam) and Radboud University (Nijmegen), researcher of both institutions jointly organise a hybrid seminar series ‘Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches’. This seminar aims to further critical reflections of sources and approaches for the study micro-global histories of slavery. The organisers invite scholars to share insights, questions and ideas that are grounded in research practice and experiences with colonial and other or vernacular sources. Contact the organisers in case you would like to be present at a seminar, or present in it. A list of confirmed lectures is available via the button below
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Valedictory lecture and preceding workshop Professor Herman de Jong (University of Groningen, 17 April 2025) – register before 1 April 2025 |
| The University of Groningen will be hosting a special event on 17 April 2025 to celebrate the career of Professor Herman de Jong ahead of his planned retirement at the end of the current academic year. The event will involve two parts: the first will be a workshop between 11:00 and 15:00 hours with short academic presentations related to Herman’s work. The second will be a valedictory lecture by Herman himself between 15:30 and 17:00 hours. The title of his lecture (to be delivered in Dutch) is ‘Hoe is het leven? Een brede blik op welvaart’. If you are interested in attending this special event, please RSVP before April 1, by registering via de button below. |
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IV Doctoral School in Economic History of the Middle Ages ‘The Economy of Daily Life: Analysing Living Standards in Medieval Europe’ (University of Valencia 30 June-2 July 2025) – deadline abstracts 30 April 2025 |
| The research group Cultures i Societats de l’Edat Mitjana (CiSEM) at the University of Valencia is organising the IV Doctoral School in Economic History of the Middle Ages, to be held from 30 June to 2 July 2025, which will be dedicated to ‘The Economy of Daily Life: Analysing Living Standards in Medieval Europe’. Invited speakers (confirmed) are Robert Allen (New York University Abu Dhabi & University of Oxford), Posthumus fellow Alexandra de Pleijt (Wageningen University & Research), and Lluís To (University of Girona). In addition, senior professors and researchers from various Spanish universities involved in the School’s activities will also participate. The organisers encourage doctoral students and early-career researchers interested in the topic to submit their proposals. Submissions should be sent by 30 April 2025. |
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Online Seminar ‘Designing Deserts? Een eeuw aan Kempense landschapsverandering, 1750-1850’ |
~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~ Het Interfacultair Centrum Agrarische Geschiedenis (ICAG) aan de KU Leuven organiseert op 24 maart 2025 het online seminar ‘Designing desert? Een eeuw aan Kempense landschapsverandering, 1750-1850’. Sprekers zijn PhD-kandidaten Seb Verlinden, verbonden aan het ICAG en Pieter-Jan Reynaert, verbonden aan het Centrum voor Landschapsarcheologie, beiden werkzaam aan de KU Leuven. Hoe is het Kempens landschap veranderd, en waarom? Wie zat achter de — soms succesvolle, soms faliekant mislukte — ontginningspogingen tussen 1750 en 1850? Het Designing Deserts-project probeert deze vragen in de komende jaren te beantwoorden door de lens van de historische en landschapsarcheologische disciplines. In deze lezing wordt aan de hand van historische kaarten en bronnen een eeuw aan Kempense landschapsverandering letterlijk in kaart gebracht. Deelname is online en gratis. De deelnemerslink wordt toegezonden na registratie.
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Symposium ‘Archeologie en de stad’ – registreer uiterlijk 28 maart 2025 |
~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~ Op vrijdag 4 april 2025 organiseert de werkgroep Stedengeschiedenis een bijeenkomst bij de Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE, Smallepad 5, Amersfoort) onder de titel ‘Archeologie en de stad’. De studiedag is gratis voor een ieder toegankelijk, aanmelden via mail is noodzakelijk en kan tot uiterlijk 28 maart 2025.
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Call for Papers – Conference ‘How did we lift the burden? Infectious Disease Mortality in the Western and Non-Western World (1800-now)’ – deadline 31 March 2025 |
On 28 and 29 August 2025, the 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’. The conference serves as a closing event of the NWO-funded research project ‘Lifting the burden of disease. The modernisation of health in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, 1854-1926’. The organisers would like to encourage paper authors to contribute to the debate in this international conference. Welcome are all sorts of contributions, theoretical, empirical and methodological. Papers from areas and regions of Europe and the world that not belong to the so-called frontrunners in mortality decline in the north-western part of Europe are particularly welcome. Abstracts should be submitted ultimately 31 March 2025.
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Call for abstract and panel proposals - 10th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise (Rotterdam, 3-5 Nov. and Utrecht, 5-7 Nov. 2025) - deadline 6 April 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. Abstract and panel proposals should be submitted ultimately 6 April 2025.
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Conference ‘Becoming Local? Forgotten Lineages of Displaced Communities across the Indian Ocean World, 1650-1850’ (Leiden, 11-12 December 2025 – deadline abstracts 30 March 2025)
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On 10 and 11 December 2025, the Forgotten Lineages research project, featuring Posthumus fellow Dries Lyna and Posthumus PhD students Pouwel van Schooten and Sanayi Marcelline, will organise the two-day conference ‘Becoming Local? Forgotten Lineages of Displaced Communities across the Indian Ocean World, 1650-1850’ in Leiden. Confirmed keynote speakers are Jennifer L. Gaynor (University at Buffalo SUNY) and Sue Peabody (Washington State University), with Michael Laffan (Princeton University) as one of the discussants. The conference will advocate the urgency of uncovering the genealogy of racialised social categories, what purposes they served at given times, and how displaced descent permeated the making and shaping of racialised groups. Abstracts should be sent by e-mail to the organisers before 31 March 2025.
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Conference ‘The Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade’ (Antwerp, 5-7 November 2025 – deadline abstracts 31 March 2025)
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On 5-7 November 2025, the conference ‘The Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade’ is jointly organised by the Museum Plantin-Moretus, University of Antwerp, KU Leuven, Utrecht University, and Northumbria University; the conference is also co-hosted by The Rubens House Museum in Antwerp. Keynote speakers at this conference are Professor Susan Broomhall (Australian Catholic University) and Professor Alicia Montoya (Radboud University). The organisers call for papers and invite participants to consider the supposed binary between home and work for women in the early modern book trade worldwide. Through this approach, the organisers hope to share knowledge of women’s rich and varied lives and works in the period before the rapid industrialisation of book production which changed the face of home labour for early modern women. Abstracts should be submitted ultimately 31 March 2025. Specifications on how to submit are to be found in the full call via the button below.
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EAUH 2026 Conference 'City Networks in Europe and Beyond' (Barcelona, 2-5 September 2026) - deadline sessions proposals 15 April 2025
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| The Seventeenth Conference of the European Association for Urban History (EAUH) will be held in Barcelona from Wednesday 2 September to Saturday 5 September 2026. EAUH 2026 is hosted by the Facultat de Geografia i Història, University of Barcelona (UB), the Vallès School of Architecture (ESTAV) and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). The organisers welcome proposals for sessions for this conference edition; the central theme of the EAUH2026 Conference is ‘City Networks in Europe and Beyond’. Session proposals need to be based on the concept of an open call instead of on the basis of a preconceived list of paper presenters. Proposals should be submitted ultimately 15 April 2025; visit the EAUH2026 webpage via the button below for specifications and submission form. |
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Excursion and knowledge exchange Food and Agricultural History Network and Nederlands Openluchtmuseum (Arnhem, 23 April 2025)
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| On 23 April 2025, the Food and Agricultural History Network of the Netherlands is organising an excursion and knowledge exchange with the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem. The museum is looking for ‘stories’ for farms that are at the museum, and academics have the knowledge to share - this event therefore promises to be a nice outing as well as a fruitful exchange! If you want to join this excursion or have questions (even if you are not a part of the network, but are interested in the heritage and history of agriculture, food, farms and rural life in the Netherlands), feel free to e-mail Amber Striekwold at Utrecht University. |
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UUCEMS Lecture 2025 by Professor Jake Soll – ‘Richard Price’s Prudence and the Unintentional Invention of Modern Capitalist Values’ (Utrecht, 15 May 2025)
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| On 15 May 2025, the Utrecht University Centre for Early Modern Studies (UUCEMS), in cooperation with Utrecht University’s Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities organises its annual lecture. This year’s lecture will be delivered by Professor Jake Soll (University of Southern California) and is titled ‘Richard Price’s Prudence and the Unintentional Invention of Modern Capitalist Values (1758-1790)’. The lecture will be in English and is aimed at a broad audience. Attendance is free of charge, but prior registration is required; visit the lecture webpage via the button below for more info and the registration form. |
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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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PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Tessa de Boer (Leiden University, 7 May 2025) |
On 7 May 2025 Posthumus alumna Tessa de Boer will defend her PhD thesis ‘A Truth Universally Acknowledged. Dutch Investment in French Colonial Resources in the Eighteenth Century’ at Leiden University. Promotors are Professor Cátia Antunes (Leiden University) and Dr Elisabeth Heijmans (University of Antwerp). Tessa’s dissertation focuses on Dutch investments in the French colonial empire in the eighteenth century. Dutch-supplied credit played an important role in the financial circuits of the French empire. The dissertation analyses the commercial, political and social strategies that effectuated these investments. On a broader scale, these prominent investments in the ‘empire of another’ (in this case France) prove that the Dutch involvement in the colonial past goes beyond the Dutch colonies alone. The N.W. Posthumus Institute staff wishes Tessa a successful defence!
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Other future PhD defences of Posthumus alumni |
| 2 June 2025 - Heleen Blommers (Radboud University) 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). |
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| 23 June 2025 - 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). |
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Congratulations to our PhD alumni recently promoted! |
Dr Jeroen van Veldhoven (Utrecht University) on the thesis ‘Partijpolitiek en de verschuiving naar flexwerk in Nederland’ [‘Party politics and the shift towards flexible work in the Netherlands’]'. Supervisors: Professor Lex Heerma van Voss (Utrecht University) and Dr Jeroen Touwen (Leiden University) (7 March).
Dr Dennis De Vries (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) on the thesis ‘Selling New Ways of Selling. Legitimising Regulation and Deregulation in the Brussels Meat Market (1770-1860)’. Supervisor: Professor Wouter Rykboschat (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (10 March).
Dr Ramona Negrón (Leiden University) on the thesis ‘Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas, 1580-1700’. Supervisors: Professor Cátia Antunes (Leiden University) and Dr Susana Münch Miranda (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) (19 March). |
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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!
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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. - Portrait photo Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk: (c) Ed van Rijswijk |
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