Category: News

On 15 and 16 January 2027, the international coe ‘Households as Coercive Labour Regimes II’ will be jointly organised by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) of the University of Bonn and the International Institute of Social History (IISH). Organisers of this event are Stephan Conermann (BCDSS) and Posthumus fellows Ulbe Bosma and Gijs Kessler (both IISH).

During the conference, the organisers would like to focus on larger household-type organizations, including the private households of the military, political and economic elites, but also, for example, army barracks or ships, plantations, prisons, labour camps, haciendas and estates. Such households represent labour regimes based on an asymmetrically dependent work force consisting of servants, peasants, enslaved and other coerced labourers. Various forms of such labour regimes have existed throughout human history in all parts of the globe. This is why the organisers start out from the hypothesis that they are without exception formative for societies. Against this backdrop, they aim to cross the usual historiographical divides between modern and pre-modern and would like to inquire into the various forms, functions, developments, justifications and changes of the different types of coerced labour can be identified in these households.

Participants who want to participate, should submit an abstract (which should not exceed 300 words) ultimately by 15 April 2026 via an e-mail to Stephan Conermann.
FULL CALL (PDF)

On 15 April 2026, the Stichting Nederland-Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Research Network ‘Routes and Roots in Colonial and Global History’ of the N.W. Posthumus Institute will organise a book launch event for Lives, Land, and Labour. A Social History of Eighteenth-Century Sri Lanka (Leiden: Brill, 2026), authored by Posthumus fellow Luc Bulten. The launch will take place in the Belle van Zuylenzaal of Utrecht University Hall (Academiegebouw).

The book is based on the ‘Thombos”, a rather unique collection of eighteenth-century land and population registers detailing the lives lived, lands held, and labour provided by tens of thousands of people inhabiting the coastal regions of Sri Lanka that were colonised by the Dutch East India Company. Turning this archive inside out by highlighting both the indigenous and colonial roots of this administrative system, Luc Bulten presents a gateway into everyday social realities surrounding caste, conjugality, (forced) work, and land tenure. In doing so, he demonstrates how both European expansionism and local agency reciprocally affected the ways such social realities were shaped.

During the launch, Luc will discuss some of the main takeaways of his book, and will then be joined by a junior Posthumus fellow (Pouwel van Schooten, Leiden University) and senior Posthumus fellow Filipa Ribeiro da Silva (International Institute of Social History), who will share their thoughts on the work. Afterwards there is room for a Q&A followed by drinks at the same venue.

Attendance is free of charge, but because of limited seating, prior registration is requested.

REGISTRATION FORM

On 11 March 2026, Posthumus alumna Yannis Skalli-Housseini successfully defended the thesis ‘In the Name of Distributive Justice: Debating Fiscal Reform in 18th-Century Flanders’ at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Supervisor were is Professor Wouter Ryckbosch (Ghent University) and Dr Klaas Van Gelder (VUB).

Yannis’ dissertation contributes to the recent historiographical re-evaluation of the rise of the fiscal state that aims to overhaul this dominant political-economic paradigm. For this purpose, inspired by the literature on inequality studies, it introduces the concept of a ‘fiscal inequality regime’. Addressing the factor of historical change, the dissertation begins by investigating the negotiations between the Flemish rural administrations of Aalst and Veurne with the central state’s fiscal reform commission (the Jointe). In contrast to what the literature suggests, the role of subaltern administrations in these reforms was not merely one of ‘resistance’ and keeping the tax burden low: implementing their own ambitious policies led them to increase the tax burden, nullifying government efforts.

Yannis demonstrates how the connection between ideological and material factors within the concept of the ‘fiscal inequality regime’ allows for a better understanding of Early Modern tax debates. Specifically, the discourses and practices of fiscal contestation against the Castellany tax on cattle in Aalst during the 17th and 18th century are argued to have been essential in shaping the major peasant uprisings in Flanders’ revolutionary 1780s. Moreover, the dissertation shows how ideas within the realm of political economic convinced reformers that lowering the tax burden was a desirable goal.

The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Yannis with obtaining the PhD!

On 3 and 4 December 2026, Ghent University will host the conference, ‘Bridging Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Environmental History of the Low Countries’. The conference is a collaboration between researchers on the medieval and (early) modern Low Countries and the Roman Society Research Center.

The conference wants to encourage the exchange of recent research, ongoing projects, and current debates between scholars working in different disciplines, including environmental history, environmental archaeology, historical ecology, and historical geography. It invites contributions that study environmental change in the Low Countries from Antiquity to modern times. Contributions that cross boundaries between different disciplines are particularly welcome.

Those wanting to present at this conference, should send an abstract (300 words max.) and short cv to Dr Sander Govaerts and Dr Stefan Meysman ultimately by 30 April 2026.

FULL CALL (PDF)