Research School for Economic and Social History

Author: René van Weeren

  • Boeklancering ‘Dochters van Lucy’

    Boeklancering ‘Dochters van Lucy’

    ~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~

    Op 27 september 2024 zal de lancering van het nieuwste boek van emeritus professor Jan Luiten van Zanden, Dochters van Lucy, plaatsvinden te Utrecht.

    Dit boek, dat hij schreef in nauwe samenwerking met Posthumus-bestuurslid Sarah Carmichael, vertelt het verhaal van de macht en de onmacht van vrouwen en mannen vanaf de eerste mens, Lucy, zo’n 3,2 miljoen jaar geleden, tot de emancipatie van de vrouw in de vorige eeuw. Centraal staan de vragen wanneer en waarom de ongelijkheid tussen vrouwen en mannen ontstond en in welke delen van Eurazië de genderongelijkheid het meest intens was. Het spoor gaat terug naar het ontstaan van steden en staten, meer dan vijfduizend jaar geleden. Daarna concentreert het verhaal zich op welke rol religie speelde. En hoe sterk waren Nederlandse vrouwen in de late Middeleeuwen en de Gouden Eeuw? Waarom werd de huiselijkheid zo dominant in de negentiende eeuw, waardoor de vrouw werd gemarginaliseerd op de arbeidsmarkt en in het maatschappelijk leven? Aan de hand van verhalen over vrouwen en mannen en voorbeelden uit kunst, misdaad, godsdienst en sport worden mythes over de vrouw-manverhoudingen doorgeprikt.

    Bijwonen van de boeklancering is op uitnodiging> Het boek is via de uitgever Prometheus en andere verkooppunten beschikbaar vanaf 11 september 2024.

    WEBSITE UITGEVER

  • Posthumus account on X definitely cancelled, follow us on Mastodon!

    Posthumus account on X definitely cancelled, follow us on Mastodon!

    Follow us on Mastodon

    Earlier this year, the N.W. Posthumus staff, supported by the General Board of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, has decided to stop using X, formerly known as Twitter, for new announcements.

    As we are not using X (formerly Twitter) account anymore and tweets still archived there are all outdated for quite some time, we have now definitely cancelled our account there.

    We invite you all to join and follow us on our Mastodon account!

  • Invitation to first National Sector Plan Conference ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’

    Invitation to first National Sector Plan Conference ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’

    The Organising Committee on behalf of the Assistant Professors involved in the Sector plan theme ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’ is cordially inviting participants to the very first National Sector Plan Conference ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’ organised by the Dutch faculties in Arts and Humanities and hosted by Erasmus University Rotterdam. The conference is intended for all staff involved in the sector plan theme.

    The conference (which will be held in English) will facilitate roundtable discussions on national cooperation in education, research, and dissemination. Additionally, there will be time for networking and exchange.

    To keep track of the number of potential participants, pre-registration (without final commitment) is possible via the button below.

    TO PRE-REGISTRATION FORM

  • Posthumus PhD Seminar I to be held in Maastricht, 12-13 December 2024

    Posthumus PhD Seminar I to be held in Maastricht, 12-13 December 2024

    The N.W. Posthumus Institute is happy to announce that Seminar I, ‘My research in a nutshell’, to be attended by the PhDs enlisted in cohort 2024 of the N.W. Posthumus PhD Training Programme, will be hosted by Maastricht University on 12 and 13 December 2024 under the guidance of Dr Joris Roosen, Assistant Professor of Regional History at FASoS and head of research and vice-director at the Centre for the Social History of Limburg (SHCL).

    Through this one- or two-days seminar, the new cohort PhD students get to know each other and their projects. The seminar provides a forum to present initial ideas and get feedback from both other starting researchers and two Posthumus fellows. Prior to the meeting every participant writes a short research note (in English) about the historiographical background and the substance of the project: ‘My project in a Nutshell’, in order to position the project in the academic debate. Participants will read and discuss each other’s notes.

    Those already enlisted will be informed by e-mail. Please note that signing up for the 2024 cohort is still possible until the deadline of 15 October 2024.

    We are looking forward to welcome our new PhDs to Maastricht in December!

    Image credits: Image created by CumulusNL from NL Wikimedia, published under Creative Commons license BY-SA 3.0

  • Danielle van den Heuvel appointed Full Professor in Social and Economic History at Utrecht University

    Danielle van den Heuvel appointed Full Professor in Social and Economic History at Utrecht University

    Danielle van den Heuvel, current board member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute on behalf of the University of Amsterdam, has been appointed as Full Professor in Social and Economic History at Utrecht University, starting 1 September 2024. Danielle did her PhD at IISH/VU University, on Female entrepreneurs in the Dutch Republic, for which she received the IEHA Best Dissertation Prize in 2009. She then worked for several years as a researcher and lecturer at Cambridge University. At the moment, she is Associated Professor at University of Amsterdam, where she leads the Vidi-project ‘Freedom of the Streets. Gender and Urban Space in Eurasia’.

    The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Danielle with this appointment! Danielle will also leave the board of our institute as representative of the University of Amsterdam; she will be succeeded by Dr Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz.

    MORE INFO

  • PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Ingrid Schepers (University of Antwerp)

    PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Ingrid Schepers (University of Antwerp)

    On 11 June 2024, Posthumus alumna Ingrid Schepers successfully defended the thesis ‘Mobilising labour: A spatial analysis of railway infrastructure, commuting flows and rural-urban relations in Belgium, 1846-1961’ at the University of Antwerp. Promotors were Professors Greet De Block and Ann Verhetsel (both University of Antwerp).

    The N.W. Posthumus staff congratulates Ingrid with the successful defence!

  • Workshop ‘A peek into the neighbour’s garden’ (University of Antwerp)

    Workshop ‘A peek into the neighbour’s garden’ (University of Antwerp)

    The Centre for Urban History (University of Antwerp) and the N.W. Posthumus network Economy and Society of the Pre-Industrial Low Countries in a Comparative Perspective jointly organise the workshop ‘A peek into the neighbours’ garden’ on Friday 15 November 2024.

    The intention of this workshop is to provide a forum for work in progress or recently finished work on the Low Countries and to approach these new research developments from a comparative angle.

    The deadline for abstracts passed on 15 August 2024. Participants just wanting to attend without presenting are admitted on a first come, first served basis, space permitting.

    FULL CALL (PDF)

  • PhD Course ‘The Versatile Interior’ (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 27-11 November 2024)

    PhD Course ‘The Versatile Interior’ (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 27-11 November 2024)

    The PhD School of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts is offering the PhD course ‘The Versatile Interior’ on 27-29 November 2024.

    This PhD course aims to explore interiors as versatile, ambiguous and complex phenomena. Through architectural history, social history, design, art, and anthropology, multifaceted and even sometimes paradoxical aspects of interiors will be unfolded. How such complex phenomena can be grasped and comprehended will be discussed through genuine and rigorous analytical discourse. Several examples will be presented forming the basis of the course and these will be studied through academic texts. In addition, there will be an excursion to a local museum where interiors are reconstructed to further inform the discussion. Participants are asked to submit a draft paper describing examples of versatile interiors that will be discussed in a group format. Two central questions will be addressed:

    • How can interiors be comprehended in all their complexity?
    • How can the ambiguity of interiors be framed through theoretical perspectives?

    The versatile interiors to be studied are: hoarder homes, homes with glossy surfaces and white walls, architects’ and artists’ homes as well as home workspaces. Furthermore, the course will focus on design principles in historical interiors, i.e., within the early modern period. Theses such as diffuse or limitless boundaries of space and cases where the exterior, urban space and landscape are drawn into the interior are to be disucssed.

    Participation in the course will be awarded with 3 EC. For participants form outside of Denmark, a participation fee may apply.

    Abstracts should be submitted by 15 September 2024; a full paper of maximum 2,000 words and an image should be submitted by 15 October 2024. Applicants must relate their papers to their PhD research and the theme of the course.

    FULL CALL (PDF)

  • Successful 2024 edition Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar

    Successful 2024 edition Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar

    On 12-18 May 2024, The Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar 2024 took place in Prato, Italy. This year’s edition focused on the theme of ‘Social and Geographic Mobility’ and hence was closely connected to the preceding study week ‘Social Mobility in Pre-industrial Societies: Tendencies, Causes, and Effects (13th-18th Centuracies’ of the Datini Insitute. At the Datini-ESTER seminar fifteen PhDs and early career postdocs from universities in Spain, Sweden, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium delivered high quality paper presentations and academic discussions, making the seminar to a successful event, to which the beautiful weather also contributed. The theme for the 2025 Datini-ESTER seminar will be on the issue of ‘finance’; the call for papers for that event is to be expected within the next few months.

  • NWO Summit Grant awarded to SOCION consortium

    NWO Summit Grant awarded to SOCION consortium

    The SOCION-consortium, a consortium of scientists in Social Studies and Humanities (among whom Posthumus-affiliates Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Selin Dilli, and Maanik Nath) researching social cohesion, has been granted a NWO Summit grant (30 mio euro) by the Dutch Research Council (FWO).

    Summit grants are intended for research consortia that already have proven its academic and societal value, as SOCION haas done via inter alia the SCOOP program (link). Through the SOCION-consortium psychologists, historians, demographers, philosophers, and sociologists join forces with societal organisations to gain insight in connections between individuals, groups, and institutions in order to develop new ways in building and strengthening social cohesion.

    The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Elise, Selin, Maanik and their consortium partners with this award!

    MORE INFO