Author: René van Weeren

Posthumus Fellow and member of our Education Committee Selin Dilli is one of the invited speakers at the annual Betweterfestival. The Betweterfestival is an annual event, organised by Utrecht University in close cooperation with numerous partner organisations and is open to anyone who wants to know how the world works, who is nog easily scared by new experiences and who likes to be surprised. Researchers, artists and visitrors mingle in a relaxed festival setting, while thinking about tomorrow’s world and the big questions of today.

Sociologist and historian Dr Selin Dilli’s talk is entitled: ‘Let’s talk about female entrepeneurship’. Selin studies the evolution of female entrepreneurship from 1900 to present. One out of three businesses in the Netherlands are female-owned. What challenges and obstacles do women entrepreneurs still face? What can we learn from the past 100 years to further close the gender gap?

Tickets are available via the Betweterfestival website.

ABOUT THE LECTURE
 
FESTIVAL WEBSITE

The Young Demographers, in cooperation with the Association for Young Historical Demographers (AYHD), the Geographical Institute and the Department of Demography and Geodemography of the Faculty of Science, Charles University, invite you to the 15th Conference of Young Demographers. The conference is scheduled for 7–9 February 2024, and will take place at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Albertov 6, Prague 2. Although the conference is mainly focused on (historical) demography, all young (in mind) researchers from various fields of population studies (sociology, epidemiology or maybe even economy) are welcome. The working language of the conference is English.

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~ because of scope in Dutch only ~

Op 5 oktober 2023 vindt bij SPUI25 in samenwerking met de Werkgroep de Moderne Tijd en de Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen van de Universiteit van Amsterdam de 13e Jacob van Lenneplezing plaats. Spreker Rick Honings zal dan spreken over het onderwerp ‘De ontdekking van Insulinde: op reis in Nederlands-Indië in de negentiende eeuw’.

In de vroege negentiende eeuw, na de ondergang van de VOC, werd Indië voor het eerst een echte kolonie van Nederland. Vanaf dat moment gingen allerlei soorten reizigers op pad om de binnenlanden van Java, Sumatra en de ‘buitengewesten’ te verkennen: natuuronderzoekers, predikanten, zendelingen, taalgeleerden, ambtenaren, militairen en gelukszoekers, en later ook vrouwen en toeristen. Zij schreven volop reisverhalen om het ‘moederland’ te informeren over het koloniale project. Hoe reisden ze in die periode in Indië?

In deze lezing volgt Rick Honings drie negentiende-eeuwers op hun reis door de kolonie. De natuuronderzoeker Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt was een van de eersten die na het Engels Tussenbestuur in 1816 de Indonesische archipel verkende. De Oostenrijkse wereldreiziger Ida Pfeiffer begaf zich met gevaar voor eigen leven tussen de ‘koppensnellers’ op Borneo. En de sigarenfabrikant en schrijver Justus van Maurik bezocht Java als een vroege toerist. Welke woorden gebruikten ze om uiting te geven aan hun ervaring van de tropen? Hoe presenteerden ze zichzelf in hun werk? En wat zeggen de publicaties van deze negentiende-eeuwers over hun manier van denken?

De lezing is vrij toegankelijk, maar aanmelding vooraf via de website van SPUI25 is gewenst. De Jacob van Lennep-lezing keert jaarlijks op de eerste donderdag van oktober terug en beoogt de Nederlandse literatuur en cultuur van de negentiende eeuw onder de publieke aandacht te brengen.

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The organisers of the workshop ‘Future Thinking and Practices in Premodern Economy, Society, and Culture’, to be held at the University of Antwerp on 23 and 24 November 2023, call for additional papers, exclusively for (max. 6) participants of Dutch National Research Schools (in addition to other participants already invited).

This November, The ‘Back to the Future’ research team organises a two-day international workshop that welcomes PhD students who deal with past futures from social, cultural and socioeconomic perspectives to apply. Focus is the pre-modern world. The organisation aims to unite diverse perspectives on the history of the time to come. To create a collaborative platform where various ideas converge, researchers from European universities outside of the Benelux will participate as well.

This workshop forms part of the research project ‘Back to the Future. Future Expectations and Actions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, c.1400-c.1830’ at the Centre for Urban History of the University of Antwerp. The event is also made possible by contributins from the Huizinga Institute and the N.W. Posthumus Institute.

Theme and content

Conducting research on historical future thinking and practice sheds light on how people in the past conceptualised and coped with what lay ahead. Exploring this facet offers insights into how individual and societal perspectives, aspirations, and concerns were projected onto the future.

In recent decades, the theme of time, temporality and the future has gained significant popularity within various academic disciplines. Understanding how different cultures and eras perceive and manipulate time enhances our comprehension of historical context. It enables us to grasp how people structured their narratives of development, anticipated change and grappled with uncertainty.

Programme

The event offers a platform for PhD students to showcase their work through 25 to 30-minute presentations, followed by engaging group discussions. Each PhD participant will give a presentation and participate in the round table discussions. 1.5 hours are reserved for every two attendees, ensuring a thoughtful and engaging experience. The tentative programme can be found below:

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The Italian Society of Historical Demography (Società Italiana di Demografia Storica; SIDeS) organises an online summer school on ‘Exploring Open Large-Scale Historical Demographic Databases’. The sessions are scheduled for 8 September, 15 September, 22 September, 29 September, 6 October 2023. All sessions will be held online from 3 pm until 5 pm (UTC+2).

About the summer school

This online summer school is aimed at scholars (junior and senior), doctoral students and anyone with research interests in the field of historical demography. This year’s edition will focus on sources that have been (or are in the process of being) made into large-scale databases that are or will be publicly available for research. At the end of the course, participants will understand the challenges of creating large-scale databases using diverse types of sources that are suitable for research, understand their potential for allowing new research topics to be studied and will have acquired some preliminary information on how to work with them. The course will feature experts (among whom several Posthumus fellows) discussing several projects that illuminate different contexts, needs, challenges and opportunities using European sources, and a final session focusing on the Italian case.

How to participate

To enroll, participants must be a member of the Italian Society of Historical Demography. Those not yet member of SIDeS can simultaneously apply to join our society and attend the summer course. Registration requests must be received by 5 September 2023. For more information, contact the SIDeS secretary, Gabriele Ruiu.

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WEBSITE SIDES

VUB research group HOST (Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes) in collaboration with the N.W. Posthumus Institute is hosting the masterclass ‘Actors and institutions in the pre-Modern Economy’ with Professor Thomas Safley on 2 October 2023.

About the speaker

Thomas Max Safley is Professor of Early Modern European History (Emeritus) at the University of Pennsylvania. He specialises in the economic and social history of early modern Europe between 1450 and 1750, on which he has published extensively. His publications include Matheus Miller’s Memoirs: A Merchant’s Life in the Seventeenth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000) and Family Firms and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe: The Business, Bankruptcy and Resilience of the Hoechstetters of Augsburg (Taylor & Francis, 2019).

About the Masterclass

The masterclass ‘Actors and Institutions in the Pre-Modern Economy’ offers PhD candidates and early career researchers the opportunity to present and discuss their work with an expert in the field. It focusses on the actors (specifically merchants and families) and institutions (the state/authorities and households) that shaped the pre-modern economy of the Low Countries. During the masterclass a maximum of 6 participants will offer 10-minute presentations based on a pre-submitted project outline such as a paper/chapter abstract. Afterwards, Professor Safley and the participants will be able to provide detailed feedback on the presentation/proposal and discuss the topic. The goal is to help the researcher as well as the other participants in shaping/developing an argument or theory.

How to participate

Researchers working on Actors and Institutions in the Pre-Modern Economy are invited to send an abstract (c. 300 words) with a brief biographical note to both HOST and organiser Yannis Skalli Housseini by 1 September 2023. All candidates will be notified of the outcome by 7 September.

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