Research School for Economic and Social History

Category: News

  • Wieke Metzlar winner of Volkskrant-IISG History Thesis Award

    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!

    NEWS ITEM RADBOUD UNIVERSITY
     
    NEWS ITEM VOLKSKRANT (IN DUTCH, SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED)

  • VICI Grant awarded to Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk

    VICI Grant awarded to 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!

    Photo: (c) Ed van Rijswijk

    NEWS ITEM UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

  • IV Doctoral School in Economic History of the Middle Ages ‘The Economy of Daily Life: Analysing Living Standards in Medieval Europe’ (University of Valencia)

    IV Doctoral School in Economic History of the Middle Ages ‘The Economy of Daily Life: Analysing Living Standards in Medieval Europe’ (University of Valencia)

    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’.

    This Doctoral School will address the latest research on living standards, with a particular focus on training doctoral students and early-career researchers in theoretical and methodological aspects. Papers and presentations will be the essential means to understand living standards and the socio-economic complexities of the medieval population, offering a more comprehensive view of how these aspects were intrinsically linked to daily life and social structures.

    To highlight the wide range of available sources and methodological approaches on the subject, the Doctoral School will feature internationally renowned scholars delivering keynote lectures. This will be followed by presentations by doctoral students and early-career researchers. The three invited professors 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; further specifications are to be found in the full call via the button below.

    FULL CALL (PDF)

  • Successful PhD Defence Posthumus alumnus Stan Pannier

    Successful PhD Defence Posthumus alumnus Stan Pannier

    On 12 February 2025, Posthumus alumnus Stan Pannier successfull defended his PhD thesis ‘Enterprising Merchants in the Global Atlantic – Frederic Romberg and the Austrian Netherlands Trade with West and Central Africa, 1775-1795’ at KU Leuven. Promotors were Professor Maïka De Keyzer (KU Leuven) and Dr Torsten Feys (Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)).

    By examining the ties of the Southern Netherlands with the Atlantic complex, using the case-study of Frederic Romberg, an eighteenth-century merchant settled in Brussels who moved into the slave trade during the American War of Independence (1775-83), Stan demonstrates how Romberg partnered with foreign slave traders, acquired slaving licences from the Spanish court, and forcibly transported thousands of captive Africans toward the Americas. By conducting a micro-study of the organization, strategies, and consequences of Romberg’s operations, Stan dispels the idea that the Southern Netherlands were disconnected from the European colonial project.

    The staff of the N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Stan with this achievement!

  • Conference ‘Becoming Local? Forgotten Lineages of Displaced Communities across the Indian Ocean World, 1650-1850’

    Conference ‘Becoming Local? Forgotten Lineages of Displaced Communities across the Indian Ocean World, 1650-1850’

    On December 10-11, the Forgotten Lineages research project, featuring Posthumus fellow Dries Lyna and 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.

    FULL INFO

  • Valedictory lecture and preceding workshop Professor Herman de Jong

    Valedictory lecture and preceding workshop Professor Herman de Jong

    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.

    RESERVATION FORM

  • Inaugural lecture Chair Francqui 2024-2025 delivered by Posthumus fellow Professor Jan Dumoulyn

    Inaugural lecture Chair Francqui 2024-2025 delivered by Posthumus fellow Professor Jan Dumoulyn

    On 12 March 2025, Posthumus fellow Jan Dumoulyn, Professor of History at Ghent University, will deliver the inaugural lecture for the Chaire Francqui 2024-2025 at the University of Namur. The lecture will be titled ‘Een canon, een verhaal en de kritiek – La vulgarisation de l’histoire “nationale” en Belgique et en Flandre’ [‘A canon, a story, and the critique – The vulgarisation of national history in Belgium and in Flanders’].

    The Francqui Chair, existing since 1933, is one of the cornerstone initiatives of the Foundation Francqui. This Chair encourages the collaboration and exchanges between (mostly Belgian) Universities. This, in turn, enriches academic environments, advances academic excellence and interdisciplinary research, and also contributes to strengthen the different universities’ reputations. The inaugural lesson of such a cycle is usually the opportunity to bring together all the personalities of the discipline concerned.

    The inaugural lecture forms the start of a series of lectures by Professor Dumoulyn at the University of Namur on the theme ‘Histoire urbaine et tensions sociales – Les Pays-Bas méridionaux avant 1302’ [‘Urban history and social tensions – The Southern Netherlands before 1302’]:

    To attend the inaugural lecture and the reception afterwards it will be required to register before 1 March 2025 via Florence Pierre of the University of Namur.

    For info on attending the lectures, please visit the webpage of the lecture involved.

    MORE INFO

  • Posthumus Course ‘Quantative Methods for Historians and Social Scientists’ currently fully booked

    Posthumus Course ‘Quantative Methods for Historians and Social Scientists’ currently fully booked

    In April, the course ‘Quantative Methods for Historians and Social Scientists’ of the N.W. Posthumus Institute will start at Utrecht University. Although the final deadline for registration was set on 15 March 2025, the number of participants for this course has already reached its maximum. Registrations between now and the deadline of 15 March will be placed on a waiting list in order of registration date, however first prioritising (Research) Master students over PhD students.

    INFO AND REGISTRATION

  • Lecture Dr Maanik Nath at Seminar Series Radboud University

    Lecture Dr Maanik Nath at Seminar Series Radboud University

    On Monday 17 February 2025 the Department of International Economics at Radboud University will host Dr Maanik Nath (Utrecht University) for a lecture entitled ‘Drivers of Agricultural Growth in British India’ in the departmental seminar lecture series.
    All those interested are welcome to join the seminar. For more info you may contact Dr Vincent Delabastita.

  • Seminar series Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches

    Seminar series Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches

    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’.

    As a global turn in slavery studies urges us to bring together the study of histories of slavery from across the globe, from Asia to the Atlantic, from local regimes of slavery to the impact of colonial slave trade and slavery, 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. Discussing sources, research practices and methodologies thus serves as a way to further develop the practice of micro-global histories of slavery.

    If you would like to be present at a seminar, or present in it, please contact Dr Sanne Muurling for more information.

    Confirmed dates and speakers

    (please note that time and locations vary! Updated: 20 February 2025)
     
    18 February 2025, 11:00 CET, IISH (Amsterdam)
    Titas Chakraborty (Duke Kunshan University) – Studying enslaved mobilities in Asia
     
    5 March 2025, 15:00 CET, Radboud University (Nijmegen)
    Timo McGregor (Leiden University) – Navigating Court Records and Legal Pluralism in Colonial Contexts
     
    2 April 2025, 15:00 CET, IISH (Amsterdam)
    Meenu Mathai and Susan Thomas (Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit) – (Un)Making the Aṭima in Malabar/Kerala: Sources from the Syrian Christian Church Grantavari
     
    14 May 2025, 15:00 CET, Radboud University (Nijmegen)
    Claude Chevaleyre (CNRS / Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies) and Koen van der Lijn (Leiden University) – Contracted into slavery? Coerced labour in early modern China
     
    4 June 2025, time TBA, IISH (Amsterdam)
    speaker and title TBA
     
    2 July 2025, 15:00 CET, Radboud University (Nijmegen)
    Wouter Raaijmakers (Radboud University) – Living in an Empire of Laws: Between Legislation and Litigation in the Indian Ocean World