Research School for Economic and Social History

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  • Dr Justyna Wubs-Mrozewycz new board member N.W. Posthumus Institute

    Dr Justyna Wubs-Mrozewycz new board member N.W. Posthumus Institute

    Recently, Dr Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz has joined our General Board as representative of the University of Amsterdam. This position became vacant because Dr Danielle van den Heuvel has recently been appointed Professor of Social and Economic History at Utrecht University.

    Dr Wubs is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are premodern conflict management, mobility, identity and alterity, intergroup dynamics, language and communication and hence also the Hanse, premodern commercial cities in Europe, premodern maritime trade in Europe, and food and drink in medieval Europe. Over the past five years (2018-2023) she was the Principal Investigator of the NWO VIDI project ‘Managing multi-level conflicts in commercial cities in Northern Europe (c. 1350-1750)’.

    The General Board sincerely welcomes Justyna as new board member!

    PERSONAL WEBSITE

  • PhD Defence Posthumus alumnus Ewout Hasken (Utrecht University)

    PhD Defence Posthumus alumnus Ewout Hasken (Utrecht University)

    On 17 October 2024, Posthumus alumnus Ewout Hasken will defend his PhD thesis ‘From Rags to Riches: Changing Perceptions of Family Business in the Netherlands, 1945-2019’ at Utrecht University. Promotores are Professor Bas van Bavel and Professor Naomi Ellemers (both Utrecht University), co-promotor is Dr Gerarda Westerhuis, previously Assistant Professor at Utrecht University and currently Sectoral Economist Retail and Leisure at ABN AMRO Bank.

    Right before the start of the formal defence ceremony, between 10:15 and 10:30, Ewout will deliver a ‘layman’s speech’ to introduce his research topic to the audience present.

    We wish Ewout a successful defence!

    FULL INFO

  • 3rd Global Conference on the History of Risk and Insurance (Warsaw, Poland)

    3rd Global Conference on the History of Risk and Insurance (Warsaw, Poland)

    On 3 and 4 July 2025, The Warsaw School of Economics will be hosting the Third Global Conference on the History of Risk and Insurance. This conference investigates insurance as crucial to social development, economic advances, finance globalisation, and general capitalism. It discusses risk and how people have coped with it from the early beginning of human society to the era of artificial intelligence, locally, regionally, and internationally, with a closer look at the Central and Eastern European regions. This global lens invites the combination of the wide global perspective with local, micro-historical perceptions. The conference combines business professionals and academics from around the world.

    Papers are invited to take either a comparative view, contrasting different geographical contexts, or a generalizing, international perspective. The conference theme also includes the areas of consumption, such as the social and ethnic patterns of insurance markets, and the changing perceptions of risk in different geographic and cultural contexts especially in the face of the application modern AI approach. Scholars are particularly invited to cross traditional academic boundaries by offering insights on geographical entanglements or trans-epochal developments. The conference follows an interdisciplinary format, bringing together scholars from various disciplines interested in the history of insurance from global perspectives, notably from Business History, International Business Studies, Global History, Consumer History, the History of Law, and Historical Sociology.

    Abstracts (500 words max.) were due by 16 December 2024. For further details, visit the conference website (see button below).

    CONFERENCE WEBSITE

  • Lecture by Professor Jan de Vries (UC Berkeley) on ‘Climate, economy and society in the Netherlands, 1579-1800’

    Lecture by Professor Jan de Vries (UC Berkeley) on ‘Climate, economy and society in the Netherlands, 1579-1800’

    The organisers of the Economic and Social History seminar series at Utrecht University cordially invite you to the lecture ‘Climate, economy and society in the Netherlands, 1579-1800’ by Jan de Vries, Ehrman Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley. The lecture will be held on 15 October 2024, 4-6 pm, at Janskerkhof 2-3, room 0.21.

    Jan de Vries has constructed a series of annual data on winter temperatures in Holland, starting in 1579. He will explain the creation of this data-set but, more importantly, what the data can tell us about the changes in the local climate during the Little Ice Age, and its impact on the Dutch economy and society at a time when the Dutch dominated world trade and managed to become arguably the richest people in the world.

    Jan de Vries is professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is one of the most-cited economic historians of his generation and famous for his work on both Dutch and European economic history. His books include (with Ad van der Woude) The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815 (1997), The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present (2008), and The Price of Bread: Regulating the Market in the Dutch Republic (2019).

    Attending is free of charge and no reservation is required. However: full is full, members of the ESH group at Utrecht University will have priority.

  • Boeklancering ‘Dochters van Lucy’

    Boeklancering ‘Dochters van Lucy’

    ~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~

    Op 27 september 2024 zal de lancering van het nieuwste boek van emeritus professor Jan Luiten van Zanden, Dochters van Lucy, plaatsvinden te Utrecht.

    Dit boek, dat hij schreef in nauwe samenwerking met Posthumus-bestuurslid Sarah Carmichael, vertelt het verhaal van de macht en de onmacht van vrouwen en mannen vanaf de eerste mens, Lucy, zo’n 3,2 miljoen jaar geleden, tot de emancipatie van de vrouw in de vorige eeuw. Centraal staan de vragen wanneer en waarom de ongelijkheid tussen vrouwen en mannen ontstond en in welke delen van Eurazië de genderongelijkheid het meest intens was. Het spoor gaat terug naar het ontstaan van steden en staten, meer dan vijfduizend jaar geleden. Daarna concentreert het verhaal zich op welke rol religie speelde. En hoe sterk waren Nederlandse vrouwen in de late Middeleeuwen en de Gouden Eeuw? Waarom werd de huiselijkheid zo dominant in de negentiende eeuw, waardoor de vrouw werd gemarginaliseerd op de arbeidsmarkt en in het maatschappelijk leven? Aan de hand van verhalen over vrouwen en mannen en voorbeelden uit kunst, misdaad, godsdienst en sport worden mythes over de vrouw-manverhoudingen doorgeprikt.

    Bijwonen van de boeklancering is op uitnodiging> Het boek is via de uitgever Prometheus en andere verkooppunten beschikbaar vanaf 11 september 2024.

    WEBSITE UITGEVER

  • Rural History Conference 2025

    Rural History Conference 2025

    The 7th biennial conference of the European Rural History Organisation (EURHO) will be held in Coimbra, Portugal, from 9 to 12 September 2025, hosted by the University of Coimbra.

    CONFERENCE WEBSITE

  • Programme symposium of Environmental History in the Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries (25-26 October 2024)

    Programme symposium of Environmental History in the Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries (25-26 October 2024)

    Keynote speaker is professor Richard Hoffmann, esteemed author of ‘The Catch: An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries’ and ‘An Environmental History of Medieval Europe’. If you would like to attend, flease fill out the form: Sign up!

     

  • Posthumus account on X definitely cancelled, follow us on Mastodon!

    Posthumus account on X definitely cancelled, follow us on Mastodon!

    Follow us on Mastodon

    Earlier this year, 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.

    As we are not using X (formerly Twitter) account anymore and tweets still archived there are all outdated for quite some time, we have now definitely cancelled our account there.

    We invite you all to join and follow us on our Mastodon account!

  • Invitation to first National Sector Plan Conference ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’

    Invitation to first National Sector Plan Conference ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’

    The Organising Committee on behalf of the Assistant Professors involved in the Sector plan theme ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’ is cordially inviting participants to the very first National Sector Plan Conference ‘Cultural Heritage and Identity’ organised by the Dutch faculties in Arts and Humanities and hosted by Erasmus University Rotterdam. The conference is intended for all staff involved in the sector plan theme.

    The conference (which will be held in English) will facilitate roundtable discussions on national cooperation in education, research, and dissemination. Additionally, there will be time for networking and exchange.

    To keep track of the number of potential participants, pre-registration (without final commitment) is possible via the button below.

    TO PRE-REGISTRATION FORM

  • Posthumus PhD Seminar I to be held in Maastricht, 12-13 December 2024

    Posthumus PhD Seminar I to be held in Maastricht, 12-13 December 2024

    The N.W. Posthumus Institute is happy to announce that Seminar I, ‘My research in a nutshell’, to be attended by the PhDs enlisted in cohort 2024 of the N.W. Posthumus PhD Training Programme, will be hosted by Maastricht University on 12 and 13 December 2024 under the guidance of Dr Joris Roosen, Assistant Professor of Regional History at FASoS and head of research and vice-director at the Centre for the Social History of Limburg (SHCL).

    Through this one- or two-days seminar, the new cohort PhD students get to know each other and their projects. The seminar provides a forum to present initial ideas and get feedback from both other starting researchers and two Posthumus fellows. Prior to the meeting every participant writes a short research note (in English) about the historiographical background and the substance of the project: ‘My project in a Nutshell’, in order to position the project in the academic debate. Participants will read and discuss each other’s notes.

    Those already enlisted will be informed by e-mail. Please note that signing up for the 2024 cohort is still possible until the deadline of 15 October 2024.

    We are looking forward to welcome our new PhDs to Maastricht in December!

    Image credits: Image created by CumulusNL from NL Wikimedia, published under Creative Commons license BY-SA 3.0