Category Archives: Blog

International APH PhD Conference 2023 Program Announcement

We are excited to announce the program for our upcoming PhD Conference: The Mobility of Politics, The Politics of Mobility, which will be held 7-9 June 2023, University of Padua.

Wednesday 7th June 2023

14:00 Registration

14:30 Introduction: Carlotta Sorba (University of Padua) and Henk te Velte (Leyden University).

14:45 Keynote lecture: Aristotle Kallis (Keele University), How fascism became mainstream: mobilities of ideas and revolutions of banality.

15:45 Coffee break

16:00 Panel 1. Migrations

Discussant: Pertti Ahonen (University of Jyväskylä)
Chair: Irène Herrmann (Université de Genève)

  • Christine Mertens, Black Exclusion Laws and the Production of Migrant “Illegality” in the U.S. Antebellum South, 1790s-1840s.
  • Roxane Bonnardel Mira, From transit to settlement. Uses of mobility control policies in Paris in the early 20th century.
  • Eka Saputra Rangga, The politics of minority diaspora and the making civil society: A case of Hadrami communities in post-independence Singapore, c. 1945-2000.

18:00 Guided tour to Palazzo Bo, the historical building of the University of Padua


20:00 Dinner

Thursday 8th June

09:00 Panel 2. Political Activism

Discussant: Henk te Velte (Leyden University)
Chair: Giulia Albanese (University of Padua)

  • Michele Magri, Transatlantic Risorgimento Activism: Exploring the Political Practices and Agency of Italian Exiles in the United States, ca.1820-1860.
  • Michèle Corthals, Communist women’s struggle before and during the Second World War: a Matter of International Mobility of Ideas, Practices and People.
  • Yusra Abdullhai, The Rwenzururu Movement and its Uphill Battle for Self-Determination.

10:30 Coffee break

11:00 Panel 3. Texts and ideas

Discussant: Irène Herrmann (Université de Genève)
Chair: Norbert Goetz (Södertörn University)

  • Atlanta Neudorf, The ‘Right of Assassination’: Félix Pyat, the Orsini Affair, and International Revolutionary Politics in Britain (1858).
  • Francesco Mocellin, The mobility of ideas, books, and people in the entre-deux-guerres Europe: the case of Piero Treves.
  • Ian Lewis, The Transnational Circulation of Political Ideas across Continents: The Case of Japan’s Appropriation of the Architecture of Political Representation.

13:00 Buffet


14:30 Panel 4. Institutions

Discussant: Norbert Goetz (Södertörn University)
Chair: Matteo Millan (University of Padua)

  • Edward Ford, The Global Context of Australia’s Proportional Representation Debate, c. 1890-1910.
  • Mikko Ville Puttonen, The Spring 1945 – the ‘postwar moment’ and awakening political activity in Trentino-Alto Adige/South Tyrol.
  • Maha Ali, Asian Actors in Action: The Mobility of Human Rights Politics at the United Nations.

16:00 Coffee break


16:15 Keynote lecture: Elena Bacchin (University of Venice), Political Prisoners as Transnational Actors of the Italian Risorgimento.


17:15 Board Meeting


18:30 Concert in the DiSSGeA courtyard


20:00 Dinner

Friday 9th June

09:00 Panel 5. Media

Discussant: Federico Mazzini (University of Padua)
Chair: Iréne Herrmann (Université de Genève)

  • Stefano Lissi, The ‘Italian dilemma’: how the dynamics of mobility of the
    Italienische Reise influenced German perceptions of Italian politics
    (1800-1820).
  • Jamie Jenkins, ‘Forward with the People’: The Tabloid Press as a Facilitator of Political Mobility in Postwar Britain.
  • Malo De la Brouchardière, Popular Music and Humanitarian Aid.

10:30 Coffee break


11:00 Final round table. Political History and Mobility
Participants: Pertti Ahonen, Matteo Millan, Niccolò Pianciola, Carlotta Sorba.
Chair: Henk te Velde


12:30 Buffet

With thanks to the organising committee: Giulia Albanese, Federico Mazzini, Matteo Millan, Enrico Francia, Carlotta Sorba
Contacts for further information: Stefano Poggi, Alessandra Vigo aphconference2023@gmail.com

New: Upcoming Events and Call for Papers | February 2023

Call for Papers:

‘The Cloven Dukes’: The Mediterranean Diplomacy of the Small Italian Powers (1530-1730)
University of Haifa, The Haifa Center for Mediterranean History
November 7 – 8, 2023

Deadline: May 1, 2023

Property and Power in the History of Political Thought
14th Annual London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought
June 22 – 23, 2023

Deadline: March 11, 2023

Gordon Forster Essay Prize – Northern History 

Deadline: March 1, 2023

The Chinese Legal Tradition: From Late Empire to the Current Day
Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt
June 12 – 16, 2023

Deadline: February 15, 2023

Charles Schmitt Prize 
Intellectual History Review

Deadline: February 28, 2023

Call for Abstracts:

Massachusetts Historical Society 2023-24 Fellowship Cycle
Massachusetts Historical Society

Deadline: Multiple (dependent on Fellowship)

2023 Deakin Fellowship
European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford

Deadline: February 15, 2023

Postdoctoral Position in European Integration and International Organization History, c. 1940s-1970s
Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen

Deadline: February 15, 2023

Out now:

Journal of Contemporary History, Volume 58, Issue 1

Social History, Volume 48, Issue 1

Journal of Modern History, Volume 94, Issue 4

The Historical Journal, Volume 66, Issue 1

 Let us know about your forthcoming conferences or anything else of interest for the political history community at phdpolhis@gmail.com. Would you like to receive monthly updates?  Please subscribe to our newsletter here!

Call for Papers | International APH Conference 2023 | The Mobility of Politics, The Politics of Mobility

We are thrilled to announce the eight International APH PhD Conference: The Mobility of Politics, The Politics of Mobility. 7-9 June, 2023. Padua, Italy.

In recent years, a lively interdisciplinary dialogue has developed between the so-called mobility studies and the humanities, broadly involving historiography as well. Over the past five years, the Padua department hosting this conference has developed a project exploring the “mobility paradigm” from a variety of humanistic perspectives. The project culminated in the creation of a Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility and the Humanities (Mohu) and a digital humanities laboratory (MobiLab).

Many lines of enquiry in political history open up if we focus on how mobility and circulation have affected political experiences over the last two hundred years in different areas: from the circulation of political ideas and texts to migration policies; from the transnational exchange of political practices and activism, to the proliferation of political institutions and ideologies.

We are seeking abstracts from graduate students that tackle these topics as imaginatively and broadly as possible. Takes on the topic include, but are by no means restricted to:

Mobility of politics

How did the circulation of ideas and practices contribute to the formation of political movements, cultures, ideologies and institutions?

How did the dissemination, translation and manipulation of texts contribute to the construction and transformation of the political sphere?

Politics of mobility

In which ways did politics directed, managed, impeded or transformed the mobility of women, men, ideas and goods?

Programme

The Association for Political History has been created in September 2014 for promoting Political History, broadly defined as the history of institutions, parties, public policies as well as the history of ideas, political cultures, identities, behaviours, passions or emotions. APH welcomes historians working from different perspectives, including the most recent and innovative ones. One of the main goals of APH is to strengthen international cooperation in the field of education and research, thus promoting the quality of research. Furthermore APH provide high-quality training opportunities for PhD candidates and advanced masters students in Political History.

The next international PhD conference of APH will take place at the University of Padua, Italy, from Wednesday, 7th June to Friday, 9th June, 2023. APH invites PhD students from participating, but also from other institutions to apply and present their dissertations to their peers and to senior scholars from member universities, as well as to external commentators and keynote speakers.

In addition to the panel meetings, where PhD students will be able to introduce their papers, discussing them with a senior researcher and another PhD student, several events will also take place: two keynote presentations and a final round table. The full programme of events will be available soon.

The conference welcomes proposals for papers approaching the relationship between mobility and political history from a variety of perspectives. Welcome approaches include, to name just a few: institutional, conceptual, social, cultural, gender, anthropological, transnational and comparative.  The main historical periods dealt with are expected to be the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, with no geographical limitations.

Application

The deadline for applications, to include a 250–400 words abstract, University affiliation and a statement explaining how the paper relates to the PhD project, is 10th of March 2023. Applications must be sent by e-mail to aphconference2023@gmail.com. Acceptance will be confirmed by the 20th of March.

Following acceptance, a paper not exceeding 5,000 words must be submitted to the conference organisers by the 25th of May 2023 at the latest. The papers will be made available to the other participants by publishing them on a private website over the following week. Participants are kindly requested to add a brief introduction to their papers for those who may be unfamiliar with the period, country, organisation or topic of study. Oral presentations of papers during the conference must not exceed 15 minutes, with the remainder of the time devoted to comments and general discussion.

Costs

Participating institutions need to cover their doctoral students’ travel and accommodation costs, but we expect to provide all meals and a social programme. APH could also provide some scholarships to cover travel costs. There will be no registration fees.

Organising committee

Giulia Albanese, Enrico Francia, Federico Mazzini, Matteo Millan, Carlotta Sorba

New: Upcoming Events and Call for Papers (December 2022 edit)

Forthcoming Events

APT 2023 Political Thought Conference

St Catherine’s College, Oxford
5–7 January 2023

Call for Papers

Rethinking the Past and Present of Liberal Internationalism

London,  11–12 May 2023
Deadline: December 15, 2022

At the Crossroads of Modernity: Newspapers as miscellany from the 1880s
Centre for the Study of Journalism and History, University of Sheffield

Sheffield,  19 May 2023
Deadline: January 20, 2023

Gordon Forster Essay Prize – Northern History 

Deadline: March 1, 2023

Collecting Communities: Working together and with collections
Institute of Historical Research, University of London

London, 29 March 2023
Deadline: December 16, 2022

Parliament contested? Rethinking the relationship between national politics, global crises, and pressure from below in the 1970s 
Centre for Parliamentary History, RU Nijmegen

Nijmegen, 9 June 2023
Deadline: January 6, 2023

Fellowships

Massachusetts Historical Society Fellowship

Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston
Deadline: January 15, 2023

Gallia-Stipendium im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts “Gallia Pontificia”

Deutsches historisches Institut (DHIP/IHA), Paris
Deadline: December 31, 2022

Out now

RHS 2022 Public History Lecture
‘The Partition of British India: 75 years on’ by Kavita Puri


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Our newsletter is currently edited by Jamie Lee Jenkins, Kye Allen and Franceso Caprioli and our website and social media is edited by Jamie Lee Jenkins.

New: Upcoming Events and CFP (October 22 edition)

Forthcoming Events

Online panel discussion: ‘New Histories of Neo Liberalism’

With Professor James Vernon (UC, Berkeley), Professor Muriam Haleh Davis (UC, Santa Cruz), Professor Gary Gerstle (Cambridge), Professor Quinn Slobodian (Wellesley College, MA) and Dr Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite (UCL).

13 October 2022

Privados españoles y europeos a través de sátiras, libelos, cartas y discursos (siglos XVI-XVIII)

Colegio de España, París

13–15 October 2022

RHS Colin Matthew Lecture in the Public Understanding of History ‘The Partition of India: 75 Years On’

David Game College, London

1 November 2022

Indirect Diplomacy: Cross-Imperial Contacts beyond Courts

CSIC, Madrid
14–16 November 2023

APT 2023 Political Thought Conference

St Catherine’s College, Oxford
5–7 January 2023

Call for Papers

Women Scientists, Development and Environmental Citizenship: Scientific Transnational Organizations and Public Activism
University of Trieste- Department of Humanities

Trieste (Italy),  20–21 April 2023
Deadline: October 15, 2022

Witch Hunts: Race & the Persecution of Women, Antiquity to the 21st Century

Florence,  14–15 February 2023
Deadline: October 17, 2022

Historicizing the Refugee Experience, 17th-21st Centuries

Duisburg, 4–7 July 2023 
Deadline: October 31, 2022

The 1952 German-Jewish Settlement and beyond. New Perspectives on Reparations During and After the Cold War

Vienna, 15.05.2023 – 16.05.2023
Deadline: November 30, 2022

Gender and Otherness in the Humanities

Milton Keynes, 18.05.2023 – 20.05.2023
Deadline: November 30, 2022

Beauty and Power: Aesthetics, History, and International Law

Cambridge, October 2023
Deadline: November 25, 2022

Nationalism, War and Defeat

Copenhagen, 25– 26 May 2023
Deadline: December 1, 2022

15th St Andrews/USTC Book History Conference on ‘Early Modern Publishers

St Andrews, 29 June – Saturday 1 July 2023
Deadline: December 20, 2022

3rd International Conference on the Military History of the Mediterranean Sea

Istanbul, 26  – 28 June 2023
Deadline: December 30, 2022

Fellowships

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship “History” 

Centre for History and Economics, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
Deadline: October 28, 2022

Gallia-Stipendium im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts “Gallia Pontificia”

Deutsches historisches Institut (DHIP/IHA), Paris
Deadline: December 31, 2022

To received monthly updates on upcoming events, CFP, Fellowships and more, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter here! To promote your own event please email us at phdpolhis@gmail.com

Our newsletter is currently edited by Jamie Lee Jenkins, Kye Allen, and Francesco Caprioli.

New: Upcoming Events and CFP

Forthcoming Events
New Ways of Writing History with Patrick Boucheron and Olivette Otele

Institut Français, London. September 20, 2022

The International Trade in Pre-Modern Manuscripts 1890-1945 and the Making of the Middle Ages

Institute of Historical Research, London. September 20–23, 2022

The Mediterranean of Modernity: Global and Regional Perspectives

Funded by: DFG, Forum Transregionale Studien, HISDEMAB, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Leibniz-ZMO, MECAM, and Universität Konstanz.
Berlin. October 4–7, 2022

Online panel discussion: ‘New Histories of Neo Liberalism’
With Professor James Vernon (UC, Berkeley), Professor Muriam Haleh Davis (UC, Santa Cruz), Professor Gary Gerstle (Cambridge), Professor Quinn Slobodian (Wellesley College, MA) and Dr Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite (UCL).

Online. October 13, 2022

Call for Papers
Continuity and Change in Medieval Central Europe (5th Biennial Conference of MECERN)
Medieval Central Europe Research Network (MECERN)

Bratislava, 27.04.2023 – 29.04.2023
Deadline: September 30, 2022

Women Scientists, Development and Environmental Citizenship: Scientific Transnational Organizations and Public Activism
University of Trieste- Department of Humanities

Trieste (Italy),  20–21 April 2023
Deadline: October 15, 2022

Historicizing the Refugee Experience, 17th-21st Centuries

Duisburg, 4–7 July 2023 
Deadline: October 31, 2022

Call for Chapter
Proposals for ‘A Cultural History of Pregnancy and Childbirth: The Age of Enlightenment and the Atlantic System (1765 – 1860)’

Deadline: October 1, 2022

Fellowship
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship “History” 

Centre for History and Economics, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
Deadline: October 28, 2022

Gallia-Stipendium im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts “Gallia Pontificia”

Deutsches historisches Institut (DHIP/IHA), Paris
Deadline: December 31, 2022

To received monthly updates on upcoming events, CFP, Fellowships and more, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter here! To promote your own event please email us at phdpolhis@gmail.com

Our newsletter is currently edited by Jamie Lee Jenkins, Kye Allen, and Francesco Caprioli.

RSPH PhD Training Program 2022-2023

Introduction:

The Research School for Political History (RSPH) aims to offer PhD students in the history of politics and the political a high-quality training program supervised by some of the leading scholars in the low countries. The RSPH training program is open to all PhDs based in the Netherlands, Flanders or affiliated with the Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien in Münster, conducting research in the broad field of political history,
history of international relations, conflict studies, military history, area studies, global history, and other subdisciplines in premodern and modern history with an emphasis on politics. We offer an extensive curriculum of in-depth tutorials and workshops, focusing on the historiographical, thematic, conceptual and methodological aspects of political history in general and your PhD project in particular. In addition to this, considerable attention is paid to professionalization and transferable skills.
The RSPH is dedicated to creating a research environment which brings you into contact with fellow PhD candidates at other universities, postdocs and senior researchers in the field of political history. We provide excellent network and platform facilities for all researchers in political history, whether ambitious to pursue a career inside or outside academia. The RSPH program for PhD students offers training in the following competencies:

  • Disciplinarily and Interdisciplinary: Students have an informed and critical awareness of the historical and conceptual underpinnings and contexts of political history as an intellectual tradition and academic discipline, and of its relationship to other fields of study. They have knowledge and understanding of the foundations and insights of other disciplines relevant to the study of political history.
  • Theories and concepts: Students have specialized knowledge and critical understanding of theoretical, conceptual and analytical notions relevant to political history. They can reflect on the principal theoretical approaches to political history, evaluate the state of the art in political history, and recognize and develop innovative research orientations in political history.
  • Methods and techniques: Students have focused knowledge and critical understanding of relevant methods and techniques for the study of political history, and the ability to apply proper methods and techniques to research problems. Students have an advanced and critical understanding of sources and data for political-historical research and their associated conceptual frameworks.
  • Communication: Students have an informed and critical awareness of the specific methods used to communicate information about one’s field in scholarly/academic and public contexts. They can use and apply the proper means of communication, suited to the aims of their scholarly and public interventions.
  • Professional Development: Students have an informed and critical awareness of the concrete ways that the political-historical perspective can be developed in professional situations and be of benefit to society.

2022-2023 Program:

The program is structured in accordance with the end terms and competencies:
• Tutorials in year 1 discuss disciplinarily and Interdisciplinary, theories and concepts, and methods and techniques on an advanced level
• Workshops in year 2 are devoted to the application of methods and techniques, disciplinarily and interdisciplinary, and introduce international outreach and science communication.
• Seminars in years 3 and 4 are devoted to the individual application and assessment of disciplinarily and Interdisciplinary, theories and concepts, methods and techniques as well as science communication and professional development.

Opening of the Academic year – the history of ‘ordinary citizens’ and their relation to power


Date: 23 September 2022
Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
Time: 13.00 – 18.00 (including drinks)
The beginning of a new academic year is marked by the annual RSPH opening event. The theme of this year’s opening is writing the history of “ordinary citizens” and their relation to power. Harm Kaal (Radboud University) and Marnix Beyen (University of Antwerp) will deliver an introduction, after which journalist and author Marcia Luyten will give a lecture and discuss the theme. Before the plenary thematic session, there will be a meet & greet for all PhDs enrolled in the school. For PhD candidates at the start of their trajectory, this is the moment to get acquainted with the program, and
meet the program directors and fellow PhDs. For advanced PhD candidates, the event offers the opportunity to catch up with each other and make plans for the coming year.
As a bonus, the thematic session following the meet & greet offers a sneak preview of the summer school scheduled at the end of the academic year. This summer school is open to both RMA and PhD students.

Year One: Tutorials

B.1 Introduction to the Discipline: What is Political History?
Supervisor: prof. dr. Ido de Haan (Utrecht University)
Date: 28 October 2022
In this tutorial, we will discuss the very general, yet at the same time crucial question ‘what is political history?’ The discipline of political history has changed quite dramatically in the last couple of decades. From a well-established, yet also rather stuffy history of national political institutions, it has become a vibrant study of the political as it manifests itself in a variety of places and a multiplicity of forms, and is informed by various disciplines, ranging from law and philosophy to political science and anthropology. In this tutorial, we discuss reflections on the history of ‘the political’ and invite you to reflect on your use of the term, how your research is a contribution to an interdisciplinary political history, and how you account for processes like politicization and depoliticization.

B.2 Crucial Concepts in Political History
Supervisors: prof.dr. Annelien DeDijn (Utrecht University) and dr. Karin van Leeuwen (Maastricht
University)
Date: 18 November 2022
Despite their crucial importance for defining a subject, concepts often receive only little attention in historical research projects. While the lessons on conceptual change learnt from scholars such as Koselleck and Skinner have resulted in the establishment of an entire subfield of conceptual history, many historians working on politics in practice are easily tempted to leave conceptual reflections entirely to these specialists. Yet, it is hard to imagine research projects in political history that do not in one or another way
engage with concepts such as power, violence, rule of law, institutions, identity, colony, democracy, ideology, representation etc. PhDs working on international topics, like the history of international relations, often do work with concepts, often borrowed from the social sciences. In this tutorial, we will briefly introduce you to the various ways in which both historians and social scientists deal with the challenge to define and/or reflect upon their central concepts, and invite you to reflect upon the concepts
central to your research project.

B.3 Methods and Techniques in Political History
Supervisors: prof.dr. Dirk Jan Wolffram (University of Groningen) and dr. Joris Gijsenbergh (Radboud University)
Date: 12 January 2023
This tutorial is dedicated to research methods: the trajectory from historiographical debate through research questions to an effective research strategy. In this interactive tutorial, the central questions are: what is the use of historical methodology, what is your methodological approach, how does your topic legitimize your research methods, and what are the major methodological challenges of your research project? In the tutorial, PhD candidates reflect on the aforementioned questions, present their most urgent methodological bottleneck and try to find the best strategy to solve their problems together with other PhD candidates and senior researchers.

B.4 Sources in Political History
Supervisor: dr. Marijke van Faassen (Huygens ING)
Date: 10 February 2023
The increasing use of digital techniques for researching both analogue and digital texts, archival sources and data clouds requires a new research methodology in which traditional knowledge is closely interwoven with digital skills. In this tutorial, an interdisciplinary team of political historians and information scientists will use case studies from their research to provide insight into this current methodological discussion and to more practically discuss ways to find, criticize, contextualise and finally prepare such complex sources to use them for research. To prepare for the tutorial, the PhD-students are requested to write a text in which they describe the digital and ‘paper’ sources they use in their research and reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of using them. During the tutorial, there will be ample time to interactively discuss the problems they experience and to create awareness for alternative sources to work around the problems they face.

B.5 Themes in Political History: governmentality and gender
Supervisor: prof. dr. Geertje Mak (University of Amsterdam)
Date: 10 March 2023
In the final tutorial of the year, we bring together conceptualizations of the political, relevant concepts for the study of politics, methodologies and sources, by focusing on a specific theme in political history. Based on readings and presentations by senior researchers, the participants will practice the integration of these various aspects of research in political history in a coherent research outline. This year’s tutorial departs from Foucault’s notion of governmentality – the capacity of any administration to direct and transform the people governed. Crucial to this notion is that you cannot govern people when you do not know them, but you cannot know them if you don’t have any control over them. Power and knowledge (over people) are thus entangled. As James Scott explained in his seminal Seeing like a State, reordering the population and the land is a necessary precondition for rule or ‘development’. Therefore, categorizations – even in very mundane techniques of administration – are key to governmentality (see for example Peter Miller and Nikolas Rose Governing the Present). For this tutorial, we specifically consider the crucial role of gender and sexuality in colonial categorizations.

Year Two: Workshops

B.6 Advanced Thesis Design: justifying your choices
Supervisor: dr. Anne Heyer (Leiden University) and dr. Carla Hoetink (Radboud University)
Date: 21 October 2022
This Workshop poses the question: ‘What exactly am I doing and how can that be justified?’. Based on a short, advanced paper on the methodology of their projects, PhD students explore opportunities, challenges and limitations of their theoretical and methodological choices, and alternatives presented and discussed in class.

B.7 Interdisciplinary Approaches
Supervisor: dr. Iva Pesa (University of Groningen) and dr. Christian Wicke (Utrecht University)
Date: 25 November 2022
This Workshop looks beyond the limits of the discipline of political history. How do/can other scientific disciplines inspire and inform political history research? Which debates outside the confines of political history are of interest, and to which debates can your PhD project contribute? We will look at relevant examples of interdisciplinarity in political history research, for example, political anthropology and political economy approach.

B.8 Internationalization
Supervisor: prof.dr. Jacco Pekelder (Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien, Münster)
Date: 20-21 January OR 17-18 February 2023
Please note: this two-day Workshop takes place in Münster (Germany) and will include a social program As a professional historian, you will have to present your research both in national and international print and at conferences. You will also want to be able to organize (international) seminars yourself. This two-day Workshop is meant to learn you how to present yourself and your research in an international context. This Workshop will result in a proposal for a symposium or a conference panel, co-created with one or two fellow PhD candidates.

B.9 Advanced Thesis Design: presenting and defending
Supervisor: dr. Maartje Janse (Leiden University) and Jan Julia Zurné (Radboud University)
Date: 21 April 2023
This Workshop focuses on effectively presenting your PhD project before an audience of senior political history scholars and experts in your field, and responding to comments, feedback and essential critique.The emphasis is on academic debate, Q&A and presentation technique.

Year Three: Seminars

B.10 Outreach and Communication
Supervisor: prof.dr. Dirk Jan Wolffram (Groningen University) and dr. Adriejan van Veen (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Date: 4 November 2022
This seminar is dedicated to the science outreach and communication – vis-à-vis both academia and the public at large – of the individual PhD projects of the participants. Invited speakers from academia, publishing, and journalism will provide information and share experiences on publishing a PhD thesis, presenting scientific results for a larger audience, and publishing in scientific journals.

B.11 Applied History and Current Affairs
Supervisor: dr. Harm Kaal (Radboud University), Stefan Couperus (University of Groningen) and Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University)
Date: 24 February 2023
This Workshop has a dual goal. First of all, it invites PhD students to reflect on the links between their research project, their research methodologies, and current affairs. Students are asked to rethink the relevance and the methodologies of their project from the perspective of current social and political concerns. What is the ‘big question’ that you are trying to respond to? Second, in interaction with people working in the sphere of policy-making, heritage, the press and think tanks students reflect on how they can develop methods of ‘applied history’, how their research can be considered ‘usable history’ for others outside academia, and/or how they may present their academic skills and knowledge to the world beyond academia, also with an eye towards their post-PhD-career.

B.12 Professional Development
Supervisor: dr. Carla Hoetink (Radboud University Nijmegen) and dr. Margit van der Steen (Huygens ING)
Date: 14 April 2023
This final seminar is dedicated to knowledge utilization, CV, finding your way to or creating research consortia and –networks, preparing for grant applications, and career opportunities outside academia. RSPH alumni will share their insights and experiences with you, their successes and – more often – their misfortunes.

How to register:

The PhD training program is open to all PhD candidates in the field of political history that are based in the Netherlands, Flanders or affiliated with the Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien in Münster. We explicitly welcome external PhDs too.
In most instances, the Graduate School of your home university takes care of your registration as soon as you indicate you want to join the RSPH. If this is not the case, or if you have any further questions regarding your enrolment, please contact us via bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl. Please include the
following information in your e-mail:
• Your full name
• Your home university
• The title and a brief description of your PhD project
• The names of your supervisor(s)

Work load, credits and certificates:

As a member of the RSPH PhD community, we assume you are willing to take full advantage of our training program. We highly recommend you follow all the tutorials and workshops on offer in year 1 and year 2 of your trajectory, given the structure of the program and the building up of competencies. This recommendation also goes for the seminars in year 3 of the training program, devoted to deepening your
skills as well as to professional development. Participation in other RSPH events is optional (see schedule above).
As standard, each training activity (tutorial, workshop or seminar) is awarded with 1 ECTS for preparation and active participation. Unless stated otherwise, these training activities consists of a 3–4-hour meeting with an open discussion based on the input and research interests of the participants. Active participation is considered self-evident. Each activity requires preparation in the form of reading literature, writing a
preparatory paper of ca 750 words according to the assignment given. Often you are asked to prepare in advance for commenting on the papers of your peers.
If you wish to earn more (or less) credits, a specific arrangement will be made in consultation with the director of studies of the RSPH. In case you wish to consider this, please send us a reasoned proposal via bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl.
At the end of the program, each participant will receive a certificate, specifying the credits that have been
obtained. In general, the school offers three types of certificates:
• Basic (10 ECTS)
• Regular (20 ECTS)
• Advanced (30 ECTS)

In addition to our training program, PhDs are warmly invited to take part in other events organized by or in close cooperation with the RSPH, e.g. master classes, seminars and conferences. Stay informed of our activities by visiting our website or subscribing to our newsletter.


Come and join us!