Recently, we had some changes within the General Board of the N.W. Posthumus Institute. Professor Anne Winter, previously acting as substitute representative of our member institute Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), has become the primary representative of the VUB in our General Board, while Dr Bob Pierik will be the new substitute representative on behalf of the VUB.
Category: News
-
Jubilee competition Royal Frisian Society for History and Culture (KFG) 2027 – deadline 31 December 2026
In 2027, the Keninklik Frysk Genoatskip foar Skiednis en Kultuer / Royal Frisian Society for History and Culture (KFG) will be 200 years old. One of the anniversary activities is a scientific competition for the best historical essay of up to 5,000 words (including annotation) on a topic from the history of the Frisians, Friesland and/or the former Frisian lands in the present Netherlands and Germany.
The prize for the winner is € 2,500, a certificate and publication of the essay in the 2027 yearbook De Vrije Fries. The piece must contain original research and must not have been previously published. It should be smoothly written, convincing and well-substantiated. The essay can be written in Frisian, Dutch, English or German. The winning essay will be announced at THE KFG’s anniversary celebration in autumn 2027. The prize will also be awarded then.
This competition is intended for students and young researchers up to 35 years old. Essays can be submitted ultimately 31 December 2026 by e-mail.
-
Workshop ‘Histories of taxation, (in)equality, and redistribution’ – deadline proposals 6 February 2026
The Research School Political History and the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam jointly organise the workshop ‘Histories of taxation, (in)equality, and redistribution’ on Friday 13 February 2026.
The workshop will include contributions by Professor Marc Buggeln (Europa Universität Flensburg), Emeritus Professor Marjolein ’t Hart (VU Amsterdam), and Dr Maarten Manse (Linnaeus University), and explores the role of taxation in relation to (in)equality, redistribution, and colonial power relations.
The workshop is free of charge and explicitly open to research master students and PhD candidates and is credited with 1 EC. Those who want to participate should send an email, including a short statement (max. 1 page) reflecting on how the history of taxation could provide new perspectives on your research, to The Research School Political History ultimately by 6 February 2026.
-
Office Manager René van Weeren interviewed on history of marriage legislation
René van Weeren, Office Manager of the N.W. Posthumus Institute and co-author (with Tine De Moor) of the publication ‘Ja, ik wil! Verliefd, verloofd, getrouwd in Amsterdam, 1580-1810’, was interviewed by the Dutch national broadcast company NTR on the history of marriage legislation. Direct occasion for this interview was a recent case of a Dutch marriage being declared invalid because the formula used by the one-time wedding officiant of the couple did not meet the proper legal conditions. René was asked to comment on this from a historical perspective on marriage legislation for the online NTR section ‘NTR Wetenschap’ (texts and interview in Dutch only).
INTERVIEW -
Janna Coomans bij hoofdrolspelers 2025 RTV Utrecht
~ because of scope in Dutch only ~
Janna Coomans, coördinator van het onderzoeksnetwerk ‘Economy and Society of the Pre-industrial Low Countries in Comparative Perspective’van het N..W. Posthumus Instituut, behoort volgens RTV Utrecht tot ‘de hoofdrolspelers van 2025’ in Utrecht in verband met haar publicatie ‘Dievenland’, waarvoor Janna de Libris Geschiedenisprijs 2025 ontving.
Naar aanleiding hiervan heeft RTV Utrecht in het kader van de afsluiting van 2025 een uitgebreider artikel naar aanleiding van Janna’s publicatie geplaatst.
-
KNHG publishes updated version ‘Professional standards for historians’
The KNHG (Koninklijk Nederlands Historisch Genootschap [transl. Royal Dutch Historical Society]) recently updated the already existing Dutch version of the code of ethics for historians, titled Normen voor historici. An English version is now also available.
This code of ethics is intended to establish unwritten and existing standards for historians and can serve as a guideline in education and research.
-
Change of Coordinator Research Network ‘Life-Courses, Family and Labour
Because Evelien Walhout has accepted another position, her place as coordinator of the Research Network ‘Life-courses, Family, and Labour’ will be taken by Mayra Murkens. Mayra Murkens obtained a PhD from Maastricht University on the thesis ‘Unequal pathways to the grave?’, which focused on the decline of infectious diseases among various social groups in Maastricht and now works as Assistant professor at the University of Groningen with a specific focus on historical demography, social history, and the history of medicine. We thank Evelien for her efforts as coordinator and welcome Mayra to this position.
-
New edition TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History out now!
Issue 3 of TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History is out now!
In this issue, you will find a variety of themes:
- JaapJan van Zwieten, PhD at VU Amsterdam, about the privilege of pre-loading in Amsterdam, which . gave members of the Amsterdam skippers’ guilds the first right to take cargo, bypassing the interests of skippers from outside Amsterdam.
- Seb Verlinden, Posthumus PhD at KU Leuven, with an article on research on crisis management by the States of Brabant between 1739 and 1742, based on policy decisions in response to a mass petition from local communities during one of the greatest food crises of the eighteenth century.
- Margo Groenewoud, postdoc researcher at Radboud University published an article about networks of radical black activism in port cities in the Caribbean and America in the 1920s and 1930s and brings together the history of the changing world with a series of micro-histories of individuals who shaped it.
- Thunnis van Oort, postdoc researcher at Radboud University and project leader of the Suriname Tijdmachine [Surinam Time Machine], describes how transcription files of the ward registers of Paramaribo (1828-1847) have been converted into a structured research database and discusses the historical context of this source and illustrates the possibilities and limitations of the dataset.
The new issue is available open-access online. Printed copies can be obtained via Leuven University Press. Please note that PhDs following the PhD Training Programme of the N.W. Posthumus Institute can subscribe to the journal at a consideravle reduced rate; you can contact the Office Manager of the N.W. Posthumus Institute for this.
-
National Meeting ‘Towards New Horizons of Scholarly Publishing’
On 5 and 6 February 2026, Radboud University will host the National Meeting ‘Towards New Horizons of Scholarly Publishing’. Goal of this event is to bring researchers together who care about the future of the academic publishing system and are motivated to make a positive change.
Participants will explore what Diamond Open Access (DOA, a fully open publishing model where no fees are asked for publishing or reading) has to offer. Keynote speakers will address a breadth of topics concerning DOA, such as the national and European infrastructure of DOA, challenges in transitioning to such a system, starting and managing a DOA journal or flipping a journal, and many more.
Attendance is free of charge, but as the number of places is limited, prior registration is requested.
-
Workshop ‘Writing New Urban History’ (Brussels, 16 January 2026)
The Centre for Urban History and the Centre of Excellence of the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality (AIPRIL) at Antwerp University jointly organise a workshop at the premises of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) in Brussels on ‘Writing New Urban History’, related to the recent publication of the 3-volume ‘The Cambridge Urban History of Europe’.
The organisers seize the opportunity of this recent publication to look ahead to the future of urban history. For this workshop, several promising scholars (among whom several Posthumus-fellows) have been challenged to critically reflect on the New Cambridge Urban History of Europe as a companion to their own innovative research in the field. The workshop will be introduced by the editor if the publication and long-standing Posthumus fellow Maarten Prak.
Attendance is free of charge, but prior registration is required.