Another crisis of the open society? Historical perspectives on the politics of the COVID 19 pandemic

Webinar and debate organized by the Association for Political History (APH) and the LUISS School of Government (SoG) with Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University), Irène Herrmann (University of Geneva) and Richard Vinen (King’s College London).

APH-SoG webinar, 17 September 2020, 13.00-14.45 CET

The COVID 19 pandemic constitutes a challenge for political history and calls into question politics, institutions, and the essential values of the open society.

This webinar organized by the Association for Political History (APH) and the LUISS SoG offers historical perspectives on the politics of the COVID 19 pandemic, focusing on the limits and contradictions of direct democracy, transboundary cooperation, and emergency policy in pandemic times.

This is the first in a series of events to discuss dimensions and challenges of political history and will be followed shortly by the webinar and debate “Nutzen und Nachteil revisited” (September 25) on the use of applied history. Click here for more info and to request a separate (free) invitation link to the webinar “Nutzen und Nachteil revisited”.

“Nutzen und Nachteil” revisited: what’s the use of Applied History?

Webinar and debate on the opening of the new academic year of the Research School Political History (the Netherlands) with Ido de Haan, Irène Herrmann, Harm Kaal, Jelle van Lottum and Catrien Santing.

25 September 2020, 3.00-4.15 CET

We warmly invite you for the digital opening meeting of the Dutch national Research School Political History (OPG), organized in cooperation with the Association for Political History. After the introduction of the new PhD´s and the first results of our investigation into the career prospects of PhD´s political history, we discuss the use of applied history.

Information: bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl
Registration: email before 23 September to bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl
and you will receive the Zoom link.
Participation is free of charge

Democracy in the EU: the European ideal as a straitjacket? #phdthesis

In this blog post, Koen van Zon tells us more about his PhD thesis Assembly Required. Institutionalising Representation in the European Communities (Radboud University Nijmegen, February 2020).

It is commonplace in politics, media and academia to portray the European Union (EU) as a technocracy, run by a faceless elite of rule-obsessed busybodies. Scholars and journalists have shown time and again that this image does not account for the member states, for no European laws get passed without them. Yet, the image of the EU as an undemocratic organisation persists, which also raises the question where this leaves the EU’s ‘democratic’ institutions, such as the European Parliament. Why have the institutions which represent popular interests at the European level not been able to fundamentally challenge the technocratic nature of the EU?

Piracy, Security and the Remaking of the Mediterranean #phdthesis

In this blog post, Erik de Lange tells us more about his PhD thesis Menacing tides (Utrecht University, February 2020).

“Our present predicament of omnipresent uncertainty, sudden twists of fate and the sense that a serious menace looms somewhere beyond our reach make it all the more understandable what seafaring people and coastal communities fear most about piracy – both in the present and the past.”

Call for Papers | International APH Conference 2020

Layers and Connections of the Political

This conference has been cancelled due to the circumstances regarding Covid-19.

Politics has changed a lot, in the last half-century – and so has political history. The boundaries of the political have been redrawn. The large social and political bodies of the mid-twentieth century have grown weaker or have dissolved. Public institutions have become both less insulated from society and less effective in controlling and guiding it. Therefore, defining what is political has become more difficult. Political historians have confronted this challenge, and in the process have gained a deeper understanding of their object of study, have enlarged their scope and refined their methodologies, and have entered into closer dialogue with the “other” histories and the social sciences.