On 1 May 2024 Posthumus alumnus Björn Quanjer succesfully defended the thesis ‘A Tale Of Tallness. A household perspective on early life determinants of male height within the Netherlands between 1850 and 1950’ at Radboud University. Promotors were Professors Jan Kok and Angelique Janssens (both Radboud University), co-promotor Dr Tassenaar (University of Groningen).
The Posthumus staff congratulates Björn with his promotion!
Posthumus alumnus Dr Sam Geens (University of Antwerp) was one of the two laureates receiving the Thirsk-Feinstein PhD Dissertation Prize 2024 at the 2024 annual conference of the Economic History Society (EHS). He received this award for his thesis ‘A Golden Age for labour? Income and wealth before and after the Black Death in the Southern Low Countries and the Republic of Florence, 1275-1550’.
The Thirsk-Feinstein PhD Dissertation Prize is annually awarded by the EHS for outstanding PhD theses successfully defended the year before. Sam successfully defended his thesis in 2023 at the University of Antwerp; you can find more info on and the link to his thesis below.
The N.W. Posthumus Institute staff congratulates Sam with this award!
On 30 and 31 May 2024, the (In)Equality Platform of Institutions for Open Societies at Utrecht University will organise a conference on ‘Recolonising Empires during the Cold War: Transitional Social Movements and Social Policy in Post-Colonial Areas’. Main organisers are Professor Marco van Leeuwen (Utrecht University) and Dr Michele Mioni (University of Bamberg).
You can attend this conference on location or via specific Teams links. On the conference webpage, you will find the complete program, including the names of the various international scholars presenting.
The organisers recommend those who want to attend the conference on site, to register as soon as possible, as seating is limited. You can register via the link on the conference webpage.
Posthumus Fellow and Assistant Professor at Utrecht University Dr Maanik Nath was awarded the First Monograph Prize in Economic and Social History by the Economic History Society (EHS) for his book Capital shortage: Credit and Indian economic development, 1920–1960. The prize was awarded at EHS’s Annual Conference dinner on 6 April 2024. Books published within 10 years of authors completing their PhDs are eligible for the prize.
Maanik’s book, published with Cambridge University Press (CUP) in 2023, speaks to readers interested in the root causes of poverty. In terms of its scientific focus, Capital Shortage shows that a tripartite set of risks perpetuated a cycle of credit scarcity, low investment and widespread deprivation across twentieth-century India. The book spotlights the stubborn relationship between climate, law and (under) development in the tropical world.
The N.W. Posthumus Institute staff congratulates Maanik with this award!
No less than 31 Basic Training candidates, more than 1500 pages of documentation, 44 commentators, 6 days: the Individual Assessments cohort 2022 have been completed. Congratulations to the PhD-candidates on obtaining their Basic Training degree! We warmly invite them to the diploma ceremony during dinner at the Posthumus Conference in Leeuwarden. Our special thanks go to the 44 Posthumus fellows who agreed to facilitate the assessment of this exceptionally large cohort. We cannot emphasise enough how important their efforts and commitment are to make the Basic Training a success.
On 16 February 2024 Posthumus alumna Ophelia Ongena succesfully defended her PhD thesis ”Werk in eigen streek!’ Ontstaan en evolutie van een economisch beleid op maat van streken en regio’s (België, tweede helft van de 20ste eeuw)’ at Ghent University. Promotors were Professor Eric Vanhaute (Ghent University) and Dirk Luyten (CegeSoma).
In her research, Ophelia looked how the regional economic policy strategies were interpreted by policy makers, from local/sub-regional governments to the European policy level that became increasingly important in defining regional policy lines. She also studied which political strategies have tightened or weakened those policy, to what results they led to and which actors (with or without a political mandate) played an important role in it. By reconstructing the different policy strategies and visions, each with its own long-term emphasis and underlying ideas, certain fault lines and/or continuities became visible, which gave us a nuanced picture of the most important shifts and policy mechanisms.
We congratulate Ophelia with this achievement.
The Food and Agricultural History Network recently hosted the book presentation of The World of Sugar. How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years (Harvard University Press, 2023), authored by Ulbe Bosma, board member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute and also one of the coordinators of our Research Network ‘Routes and Roots in Colonial and Global History’.
In this global history, Bosma describes how sugar changed from being a luxury product in Asia to be present in most people’s diets worldwide, contributing to health crises and environmental devastation. The book starts with the earliest evidence of sugar production, leads the reader through the Middle Ages to the history of enslaved labour, and explores how sugar transformed life on every continent on political, cultural, economic and ecological levels.
~ because of scope in Dutch only ~
Op 21 juni 2024 vindt in Zutphen het Middeleeuwen Symposium 2024 plaats. Dit symposium wordt gezamenlijk georganiseerd door De Librije Zutphen, de Historische Vereniging Zutphen, Erfgoedcentrum Zutphen en Musea Zutphen, in nauwe samenwerking met de Radboud Universiteit. Het thema dit jaar is ‘Het onmisbare boek: handschriften en druk in de Late Middeleeuwen’, dagvoorzitter is prof. dr. Johan Oosterman, hoogleraar Oudere Nederlandse letterkunde aan de Radboud Universiteit.
Onderzoekers uit Nederland, België en Frankrijk vertellen over de sociaal-economische netwerken rond boeken, de diverse productiemethoden en -centra en de manier waarop schrijvers, drukkers en boekbezitters informatie probeerden te ordenen en ontsluiten. Op 20 juni 2021, daags voor het symposium, is tevens gelegenheid tot deelname aan excursies en het bijwonen van lezingen in de Collegetour.
Voor deelname aan het Middeleeuwen Symposium 2024 en/of Collegetour geldt een bijdrage, voor studenten geldt een gereduceerd tarief.
<a class=""bttn"" href=""” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>MEER INFO
Recently, 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. This decision has been made as a result of the current developments surrounding the X platform.
As mentioned in our statement on social safety, we want our students, staff, and any other person or party involved with the N.W. Posthumus Institute to feel at ease, mutually respected, and included. This not only applies to our own events, but also extends to our online presence and use of social media. Also, we favour an open society with mutual respect to one another.
Recent events have shown that the X platform repeatedly has fallen short in monitoring and responding adequately to messages of a discriminatory and/or offensive nature. The management of X has also shown not to be able to respond in a decent and respectable way in dealing with these events.
These developments, in addition to the already previously implemented limitations in accessibility of the X platform have led us to believe that the use of this platform is no longer compatible with the norms and values supported by the N.W. Posthumus Institute. We therefore will stop using the platform actively, effective 1 March 2024. Our account will remain visible for some time for redirection purposes, but will not be used for active communication from our side.
The N.W. Posthumus Institute will instead join the initiative supported by SURF and the Dutch universities to use the open-source social platform Mastodon as alternative to Twitter. This platform is server-based and moderated via the server owners, so not by a large commercial party. Joining the SURF-pilot allows us to start right away within a trusted and well-embedded logistic environment.
We hope you do understand and respect our decision. Keep a close eye on the website and newsletter about any new developments and join us on Mastodon.
A few months ago, Heidi Deneweth announced her retirement, which also implied her farewell as Confidential Advisor (vertrouwenspersoon) for PhDs enrolled in the Posthumus PhD Training Programme. We thank Heidi very much for her conscious fulfillment of this position.
We are happy to inform you that Torsten Feys, affiliated researcher at Flanders Marine Institute and Antwerp University has agreed to take over the position of Confidential Advisor in Flanders as of 1 March 2024. We thank Torsten for accepting this position.
Torsten Feys works as of 2020 as research coordinator at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). His research focuses on tourism, migration and maritime history. He is also affiliated with the University of Antwerp as visiting professor. Torsten obtained his PhD from the European University Institute (Firenze) on a thesis on the Holland Amerika Lijn and the commercialisation of transatlantic migration (1830-1914). As a postdoc, he worked at Ghent University on the impact of transport companies on migration policies and at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel on the functioning of the Belgian foreigners’ police and its expulsion policies before 1914.
As Confidential Advisors, both Torsten Feys and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (in the Netherlands) may be contacted by any Posthumus PhD candidate or (R)MA student who may have concerns or complaints about inappropriate behaviour within the context of Posthumus teaching activities. The confidential advisors will explore possible solutions together with you, and will point out appropriate institutional support if necessary. The advisors will also register complaints and report to the Executive Committee and the Scientific Director, so appropriate action can be taken. It goes without saying that every step in this process will occur in consultation with you and is based on anonymity. You can find more info on the website via the button below.
MORE INFO ON CONFIDENTIAL ADVISORS
PROFILE PAGE TORSTEN FEYS AT VLIZ