ORGANISATIONAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICAL HISTORY
Adopted on 18 December 2025
The International Association for Political History (APH) understands itself as an international and evolving network of scholars committed to different approaches to Political History in any country.
These organisational principles reflect the agreed forms of cooperation between the members of the APH consisting of chairs, departments and other institutions. The APH welcomes a wider membership of chairs, departments and institutions studying Political History as well as individual members who are part of the collaborative networks of its member institutions.
See Annex for the current member chairs, departments and institutions.
The participating chairs, department and institutions agree that it is advisable to promote the quality and internationalisation of research in Political History, as well as academic education for PhD candidates, and have expressed their willingness to continue cooperation in the field of Political History in the confines of the International Association for Political History as established in Leiden in 2014 and in particular with regard to:
– maintaining the international network for research and research-based education within Political History and related fields of history as well as adjacent disciplines such as political science, political sociology, and political theory.
– organising annual international conferences on Political History as well as seminars, webinars and other events related to research on Political History;
– offering inter-university mobility for the benefit of the PhD programmes and postdoctoral researchers between the participating members;
– promoting and supporting other forms of international cooperation in Political History research, with the aim of creating focus and mass and profiling the field;
– supporting the organisation and activities of PhD and early career researcher networks in Political History.
– further dynamically developing the field of Political History.
For this purpose, the participating institutions determine the following Organisational Principles:
Article 1. Definitions
In these Organisational Principles, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
– participating members: the member institutions (usually chairs or departments of Political History or a corresponding discipline at a research university) that are parties to these Organisational Principles;
– APH: International Association for Political History;
– APH Board: the Board of the International Association for Political History (see Article 5.2);
– APH Bureau: constituted by the APH President, Vice President and Secretariat.
Article 2. Membership
The International Association for Political History will be continued as constantly evolving network for collaboration of chairs, departments, research groups and institutions in the field of Political History broadly defined. See Annex for the current members.
Each participating member pays an annual membership fee by the end of each year. For current membership fees, see the Annex which the APH Board can update when needed. The membership fee covers conference attendance for all faculty and PhD candidates of the participating chair, department, institution, university or member of the collaborative network of the chair.
While the APH does not offer direct individual membership, every scholar interested in Political History in any country is free to contact any of its Board members and ask them to include them in their collaborative network through an email list or in a corresponding manner, including the possibility to attend APH conferences under the institutional membership of the chair. This type of co-opted membership in the APH does not involve payment of membership fees.
The APH Board may also decide on different membership types to make the APH more accessible for academics working in challenging circumstances.
Activities organised by APH will always be open for non-members to attend yet the organisers may charge related fees covering the immediate costs of organising.
Departments and other academic institutions willing to join the APH can apply for membership by committing themselves to the payment of the annual fee, regular participation in the APH Board meetings by their nominated representative or their replacement and the responsible organisation of one of the future conferences. Interested departments are encouraged to contact the APH Presidency or Secretariat regarding membership.
The APH Board decides on new members by majority after a proposal from the APH Presidency.
Article 3. Task
The International Association for Political History has the following tasks:
- to organise annual international conferences in Political History, either in the form of a PhD conference or a state-of-the-art conference open to all interested researchers or alternatively as a combination of the two with a one-day separate PhD workshop preceding the state-of-the-art conference.
- to disseminate information via its website, e-mail list and social media, etc.;
- to facilitate and promote the mobility of PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers between participating chairs, departments and institutions, for example by means of PhD conferences and short-term research visits including a possibility to attend local seminars and receive supervision from committed APH members, etc., all such activities being agreed upon directly between the participating institutions with no additional funding or other engagement by the APH Bureau or Board;
- to promote and support international collaboration of researchers within the field;
- to act, if applicable, alongside the research institutes, as a point of contact for the field, both internally and externally;
- to facilitate and promote interdisciplinary collaboration with related fields of research where appropriate.
The performance of the tasks mentioned in this article is coordinated by the APH Board and Bureau in cooperation with the research institutes of the participating institutions.
Article 4. Presidency
1. The President elected by the APH Board has the leading role in the International Association for Political History, supported by the APH Vice President and the APH Secretariat as members of the APH Bureau. See Annex for periods in office for the previous and current APH Bureau members.
2. The President of the APH is responsible for running the activities of the APH together with the Vice President and the APH Secretariat as well as managing the budget of the APH in collaboration with the Treasurer that the APH has appointed (see Annex for the current arrangement). The President is responsible for ensuring the organisational and administrative activities that are necessary to allow the APH to properly perform its tasks.
3. The President is assigned for a period of three years. This period can be extended by the decision of the APH Board. The same procedure applied to the Vice President.
Article 5. Management
1. The actual management activities of the APH are mandated by the APH Board to the APH Bureau consisting of the APH President, Vice President and Secretariat. The Bureau is responsible for reporting on their management activities to the APH Board in the board meetings.
2. Representation to the APH Board is freely nominated by each participating institution.
3. The standard composition of the APH Board consists of each of the participating institutions appointing one member to the Board from among faculty working in the field of Political History. Extra representatives may attend the board meetings, but every participating chair, department or institution has one vote, regardless of the number of representatives attending the meeting on its behalf. The minimum number of members required to be present for an APH Board meeting to conduct its business legally and officially is President or Vice President and representatives from at least 50 % plus one of its member institutions.
4. The participating chairs, departments and institutions must inform the APH Bureau about any changes in their representation or replacement of the representative proper for individual meetings. Resigning members are requested to ensure the recruitment of the next representative for their chair, department or institution to ensure continuity of cooperation between the institutions.
5. One representative of PhD candidates and one representative of early career scholars (ECRs) on behalf of APH PhD and ECR networks (should they be organised) – designated for this purpose preferably for the period of two years by PhD/ECR meetings during or between conferences (see article 8) – are entitled to attend the meetings of the APH Board as advisors but without a vote in case of a division. The PhD/ECR meetings must inform the APH Bureau about the nomination of such representatives at least a week before a scheduled board meeting.
6. The members of the APH Board appoint a chairperson (President) and replacement (Vice President) from among themselves for the period of three years.
7. The APH Board meets at least twice a year – during the annual conferences of the APH preferably in a hybrid format and between the conferences online – and furthermore as often as the APH President or at least two members of the APH Board deem this desirable. The APH President convenes the APH Board and prepares the agenda of its meetings in collaboration with the APH Bureau.
8. The APH Board takes decisions about the tasks of the APH and the way these are carried out. This certainly concerns (but not exclusively):
(a) adopting and amending the Organisational Principles of the APH;
(b) drafting a multi-year plan regarding future APH conferences;
(c) deciding of the annual budget of the APH;
(d) receiving reports on activities by the APH Bureau and conference or event organisers;
(e) determining activities for PhD candidates, ECRs and other researchers, planning PhD conferences, workshops and webinars and encouraging researcher mobility;
(f) designing policy regarding deepened research collaboration.
Article 6. Other advisory boards or committees
The APH supports organising PhD and ECR councils or plenary meetings which meet flexibly during and between conferences, in which PhD candidates and ECRs, as determined among themselves, will convene, without the APH regulating their activities. The PhD candidate and the ECR council or plenary meeting advises the APH Board primarily through their representatives nominated for APH Board meetings and through contacts with the APH President and the Secretariat. See Article 5.5.
2. The APH Board may decide to establish temporary or permanent advisory boards or committees, for the preparation of or amendment to the Organisational Principles, for example. It will then regulate the size, task and method of composition of these advisory boards or committees.
Article. 7 Resources
The resources of the APH consist of contributions from the participating institutions or any resources acquired by the APH from other sources for the purpose of carrying out the task mentioned in Article 3.
The annual membership fee of the APH is to be paid to the APH account administrated by the Dutch institution hosting the Research School for Political History by the end of each calendar year. The APH Board decides on the level of the fee as well as on the use of the jointly collected funds. For current financial management and membership fees see Annex.
The institutional membership fee for chairs, departments and institutions includes free access to the annual conferences of the APH for all the faculty of each participating institution (covering the entire university and the co-opted members of the chair who is a member) as far as organisational costs are concerned. APH members are expected to pay for their travels, accommodation and meals themselves. The organisers of state-of-the-art conferences may also charge conference fees, particularly if demanded by their external funders. These fees may also take place in the form of voluntary contributions by members affiliated to a participating institution.
The APH Board decides on the allocation of funds for the organisation of annual conferences primarily in the form of a scholarship scheme supportive of participation by PhD candidates, independent scholars and researchers from institutions that are unable to sponsor travels for their faculty. The APH budget also allocates funds for annual administrative costs on the use of which the Bureau decides and reports to the APH Board.
Article 8. Participation by scholars from universities not belonging to the APH and by non-university institutions
In addition to the participating members that have agreed on these Organisational Principles or joined the APH after their adoption, the annual conferences, seminars, webinars and other events of the APH are open for participation by the faculty and PhD candidates of other universities and non-university institutions, whose activities (also) include research in Political History.
Such participants must always pay full conference fees as well as their travel and accommodation costs unless the APH Board has agreed on a special scholarship scheme for a limited group of scholars. External participants are advised to propose an APH membership to their chair, department or home institution should they be willing to participate in decision-making within the APH, enjoy reductions from conference fees or organise APH events in the future.
Article 9. Further elaboration
On matters not provided for in these Statutes, a decision will be made in the APH Board with majority on the proposal of the APH President.
Article 10. Duration and termination
1. These Organisational Principles will enter into force on 1 January 2026 and will remain in force until further decisions are taken by the APH Board.
2. A participating institution may terminate its participation in the APH, considering a period of one year during which the annual institutional membership fee shall be paid. Termination may only take place by means of a written message from the participating institution to the APH Bureau, addressed to the President and the Secretariat.
Article 11. Settlement
In the event of the dissolution of the APH, the APH Board will decide on settling the balance in proportion to the resources made available to the APH by the participating institutions.
Article 12. Disputes
A dispute concerning the interpretation or implementation of these Organisational Principles will be submitted to the APH Board. In case of the APH Board not being able to solve the dispute, the APH resorts to the Dutch jurisdiction.
Annex
APH Bureau members
Presidents of the APH:
Marc Lazar, 2014-2018
Henk te Velde, 2018-2024
Pasi Ihalainen, 2024-2027
Vice Presidents of the APH:
Giovanni Orsina, 2019-2024
Irène Herrmann, 2025-2028
Secretary:
Margit van der Steen, 2014-2023
Lauren Lauret, 2023-present
Treasurer:
Margit van der Steen, 2023-2024
Lotte van Hasselt, 2025-present
As of 2026, the Treasurer of the APH has been nominated by the Dutch Research School for Political History as coordinated by one of its member institutions, in 2026 by Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The finances of the APH are managed by this member institution as laid down in the agreement that the Dutch Research School for Political History concludes with the host institution.
Members of the APH Board as of 1 January 2026
Prof. dr. Marnix Beyen (Antwerp University)
Prof. dr. Norbert Götz (Södertörn University Stockholm)
Prof. dr. Jacco Pekelder (Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien, Münster)
Prof. dr. Irène Herrmann (Université de Genève) (Vice President)
Prof. dr. Pasi Ihalainen (Jyväskylä University) (President)
Prof. dr. Jenny Andersson (Uppsala University)
Prof. dr. Giovanni Orsina (LUISS University Roma)
Dr. Hagen Schulz-Forberg (Aarhus University)
Prof. dr. Carlotta Sorba (University of Padua)
Dr. Piotr Kuligowski (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Dr. Jaroslav Valkoun (Charles University Prague)
Prof. dr. Johanna Rainio-Niemi (University of Helsinki)
Prof. dr. Silke Mende (Universität Heidelberg)
Prof. dr. Mathieu Fulla (SciencesPo)
Prof. dr. Richard Toye (University of Exeter)
Prof. dr. Jörn Leonhard (Albrecht-Ludwigs-Universität-Freiburg)
Dr. Robert Saunders (Queen Mary University of London)
Prof. Javier Morneo-Luzón (Complutense University of Madrid)
Prof. dr. Barbara Klassa (not pictured) (University of Gdańsk)
APH membership fees as of 1 January 2026
Annual fee for participating institutions: 300 euros
Annual fee for the Dutch Research School for Political History (covering the conference attendance of PhD affiliated candidates): 600 euros