Research School for Economic and Social History

Author: René van Weeren

  • Jaarcongres ‘Oorlog op afstand. De Lage Landen tussen neutraliteit en betrokkenheid’ (aanmelden tot 30 november 2022)

    Jaarcongres ‘Oorlog op afstand. De Lage Landen tussen neutraliteit en betrokkenheid’ (aanmelden tot 30 november 2022)

    ~ because of scope, only in Dutch ~

    Op 9 december 2022 organiseert de werkgroep De Moderne Tijd haar jaarcongres. Het thema voor 2022 luidt ‘Oorlog op afstand. De Lage Landen tussen neutraliteit en betrokkenheid’.

    Dat de regeringen van Nederland en België in grote Europese conflicten geen partij kozen, betekende niet dat oorlogen op afstand de bevolking van beide landen onverschillig liet. Integendeel, dit congres laat zien hoe formele afzijdigheid gepaard kon gaan met een sterke publieke betrokkenheid. Op welke manieren werd door diverse groepen aan dit engagement vorm gegeven? Wat waren de beweegredenen van burgers om zich in te zetten voor humanitaire hulp? Hoe beïnvloedde ‘de oorlog van anderen’ het publiek debat en hoe werd het verbeeld in de populaire cultuur? Door op deze vragen een antwoord te geven beoogt het programma niet alleen de veelzijdigheid en veranderlijkheid van de publieke betrokkenheid bij ‘oorlogen op afstand’ in kaart te brengen, maar tevens inzicht te krijgen in de rekbaarheid van het neutraliteitsbegrip in de Lage Landen.

    Zie voor de toegangsprijs (inclusief lunch) onderstaande knop voor meer info, voor studenten en promovendi geldt een gereduceerd tarief. Aanmelden is mogelijk tot 30 november 2022 per e-mail via dr. Marjet Dolstra.

    Volledige info (pdf)

  • Phd Defence Esther Beeckaert (Ghent University)

    Phd Defence Esther Beeckaert (Ghent University)

    On 7 October 2022 at 16:00 sharp, Posthumus alumna Ester Beeckaert will defend her PhD thesis ‘Rural transformation in the Ardennes: The commons as landscapes of change, 1750-1850’ to obtain her PhD in History from Ghent University. Promotors are Professor Eric Vanhaute and Professor Wouter Ryckbosch. After the session, there will be a reception at the atrium of the Magnel-wing of the Faculty’s Library at the opposite side of the street.

    More info

  • Najaarsbijeenkomst SGVDO ‘Garnizoensstad Maastricht in de achttiende eeuw’

    Najaarsbijeenkomst SGVDO ‘Garnizoensstad Maastricht in de achttiende eeuw’

    ~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~

    Op 20 oktober 2022 organiseert de Stichting Geschiedenis van de Overheidsfinanciën (SGVDO) haar najaarsbijeenkomst in Maastricht. Het thema van de najaarsbijeenkomst is ‘Garnizoensstad Maastricht in de achttiende eeuw’. De stad viel onder de soevereiniteit van de Staten-Generaal, maar betaalde geen belasting aan de Unie. De stad draaide wel op voor de huisvesting van het garnizoen en het onderhoud van een deel van de fortificaties.

    Het programma bestaat uit ontvangst met koffie en thee, een aantal lezingen, en aansluitend een wandeling langs de stadsmuren en (op eigen kosten) diner. Opgeven voor de bijeenkomst kan per e-mail.

    Meer info

  • New publication on East Asian industrialisation by Prof. Peer Vries

    New publication on East Asian industrialisation by Prof. Peer Vries

    In August 2022, publishing house Brill has published a new book by Professsor Peer Vries, entitled An East Asian Route of Industrialization? The Case of Japan, 1868-1937. With this book Peer Vries is the first scholar to provide an extensive test of the claim that industrialization in East Asia, in particular in Japan between the Meiji Restoration and World War Two, would have been much more labor intensive than industrialization in the West. He does this by systematically comparing the role and importance of labour and capital in Japan and in a number of Western countries at a similar stage of their industrial development. He uses macro-economic data as well as specific observations by people at the time. It turns out that there is no reason to distinguish a specific labor-intensive Japanese route of industrialization. His comparative analysis provides us with a better understanding of the logic of industrialization in both West and East.

    About the author

    Prof. dr. Peer Vries has studied Economic and Social History at leiden University. Currently, he isHonorary Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He is member of the Academia Europaea co-founder of the Journal of Global History as well as of the Global Economic History Network.


    More info

  • Masterclass Professor Carl Nightingale at ESHCC (Rotterdam)

    Masterclass Professor Carl Nightingale at ESHCC (Rotterdam)

    The Erasmus Initiative ‘Vital Cities and Citizens’ invites graduate and doctoral students, post-docs, or young scholars working on urban inequality to participate in our master class with Professor Carl Nightingale, to be held at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication of Erasmus University Rotterdam on 23 August 2022.

    About the speaker

    Although Nightingale was trained as an historian, his work is also interesting for researchers from other fields in the social sciences. Carl has an interdisciplinary approach and tries to show how long term developments have impact on current societies. In his seminal book Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities (2012), Carl Nightingale argues that Western expansion depended on global production of inequality and segregated urban spaces. Inequality and segregation are, therefore, serious challenges since the origin of urban  settlements in world history. Nightingale shows that segregation should always be studied in their local and global context. Racial segregation can be traced to a certain point in global history as a product of transnational intellectual networks. The scale and intensity of segregation did not result in similar patterns globally. Local conditions mattered and each case needs to be assessed in its own context.

    About the Masterclass

    This masterclass invites PhDs and young scholars to reflect on how patterns of exclusion of all kinds – social, racial, religious, or economic – and of urban segregation do appear in their own work.

    How to apply

    The deadline for presenting participants has passed. There is however limited room for non-presenting participants. Those who want to use this opportunity, should send an e-mail expressing their interest to Burak Fici.

    Full info

  • Inaugural lecture Professor Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk

    Inaugural lecture Professor Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk

    On 8 September 2022, Professor Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk will deliver her inaugural lecture ‘Where did all the workers go? Women, industrialization, and the decline of hand spinning in Europe and Asia’ at Utrecht University. Professor Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk is Professor of Economic and Social History at Utrecht University since 1 February 2020 and works in the field of Gender and work in comparative historical perspective.

    Attending the inaugural lecture at Utrecht University Hall (Academiegebouw) is on invitation only; the lecture will also be streamed, URL link to the live-stream will be available in due time.

    More info

  • Applied History Conferentie 2022

    Applied History Conferentie 2022

    ~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~

    Dankzij de Toegepaste Geschiedenis kunnen we hedendaagse gebeurtenissen en ontwikkelingen beter begrijpen. Om dit vakgebied een podium te geven, organiseert het Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis van de Universiteit Utrecht op 24 september 2022 een conferentie over Applied History.

    Tijdens de dag kan men deelnemen aan verschillende panels, voorgezeten door prof. dr. Annelien de Dijn, prof. dr. Beatrice de Graaf, dr. Saskia Stevens, dr. Sanne Frequin, prof. dr. Joost Dankers, prof. dr. Leen Dorsman en dr. René Koekkoek.

    Deelname is kosteloos, maar vanwege het beperkte aantal plaatsen is reservering vooraf noodzakelijk.

    Volledige info en reserveren
     
    Programma (pdf)

  • Kate Frederick awarded Dissertation Award at WEHC2022

    Kate Frederick awarded Dissertation Award at WEHC2022

    Dr Katherine Frederick, one of both Research Directors of the Posthumus Research Network ‘Societies in Context: Interactions between humans and rural-urban environments’, has been awarded the IEHA Dissertation Award in the WEHC 2022 Dissertation Competition in the category ’20th-21st century’ at the WEHC2022 in Paris.

    Kate Frederick was one of the final three nominees and was selected for her PhD thesis Deindustrialization in East Africa: Textile production in an era of globalization and colonization, c. 1830-1940, which she succesfully defended at Wageningen University in 2018.

    The N.W. Posthumus Institute staff congratulates Kate very much with winning this award.

  • Boek ‘De grootste slavenhandelaren van Amsterdam’ (Ramona Negrón & Jessica den Oudsten)

    Boek ‘De grootste slavenhandelaren van Amsterdam’ (Ramona Negrón & Jessica den Oudsten)

    ~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~

    Op 23 augustus 2022 is bij Walburg Pers het boek De grootste slavenhandelaren van Amsterdam. Over Jochem Matthijs en Coenraad Smitt van Posthumus-promovendi Ramona Negrón en Jessica den Oudsten verschenen.

    De jaren 1730-1740 vormen een keerpunt in de Nederlandse slavernijgeschiedenis: de West-Indische Compagnie verliest haar monopolie op de trans-Atlantische slavenhandel, waarop verschillende handelaren in de Republiek besluiten hun schepen in te zetten voor de private slavenhandel. Zo ook Jochem Matthijs en Coenraad Smitt. In ruim dertig jaar tijd verschepen ze tussen 11.000 en 13.000 tot slaaf gemaakte mensen van West-Afrika naar de Cariben.

    Ramona Negrón en Jessica den Oudsten vertellen aan de hand van de reis van een van de eerste private slavenschepen, ’t Gezegende Suikerriet (1743-1745), het tot nu toe onbekende verhaal van de slaafgemaakte mensen en de bemanningsleden aan boord, de betrokken plantage-eigenaren in Suriname en de werkwijze van Amsterdams grootste slavenhandelaren.

    Het N.W. Posthumus Instituut complimenteert beide auteurs van harte met het verschijnen van deze publicatie.


    Uitgeversinfo

  • Masterclass ‘Between Integration and Expulsion’ with Beate Althammer

    Masterclass ‘Between Integration and Expulsion’ with Beate Althammer

    The Ghent University Research Group “Social History since 1750” in collaboration with the N.W. Posthumus Institute is hosting the masterclass ‘Between Integration and Expulsion: Actors, Practices and Subjects of Migration Control in 19th- and 20th-century Europe’, delivered by Dr Beate Althammer (Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) on Friday 30 September 2022 at Ghent University.

    About the speaker

    Dr Beathe Althammer is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of African and Asian Studies at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and specialises in the history of migration, migration control, crime, poverty and social policies. She is currently leading the research project The Borders of the Welfare State: Migration, Social Rights and Expulsion (1850-1933). She is author of Das Bismarckreich 1871-1890 (2009), co-editor on the volumes Bettler und Vaganten in der Neuzeit (1500-1933) (2013), The Welfare State and the ‘Deviant Poor’ in Europe, 1870-1933 (2014) and Rescuing the Vulnerable. Poverty, Welfare and Social Ties in Modern Europe (2016).

    Aims of the masterclass

    The masterclass ‘Between Integration and Expulsion: Actors, Practices and Subjects of Migration Control in 19th- and 20th-century Europe’ offers PhD candidates and early-stage post-docs the opportunity to discuss their research with an expert in the field. During the masterclass a maximum of 6 participants can present their work on the basis of a pre-submitted paper (with a maximum of 6,000 words) and discuss difficulties and opportunities of their research. To engage in a productive discussion, all participants are invited to read each other’s papers in advance.

    How to participate

    Researchers working on migration, migration control and mobility in nineteenth and twentieth century Europe are invites to apply by sending an abstract (c. 300 words) before 15 August 2022 (extended deadline) to organiser Maïté Van Vyve MA, Posthumus PhD candidate at Ghent University.

    Selected candidates will be notified by Friday 19 August 2022. A full working paper should be submitted no later than Monday 1 September. The paper can be a chapter section of the PhD, an article in preparation, or the presentation of the whole project. Participants are expected to briefly present their work (maximum of 5 minutes) and mainly focus on formulating some concrete questions for input and feedback.

    Mail organiser