On the Waterfront 29
On the Waterfront is the semi-annual magazine of the IISH. This is issue 29
On the Waterfront : newsletter from the Friends of the IISH
Authors: Bouwe Hijma, Huub Sanders, Eric de Ruijter
Place of publication: Amsterdam
Year: 2015 / Issue: 29 / Format: 16 pp.
Including lecture by Jan Lucassen at the Friend's meeting on June 2014: A social-economic history of India since the Middle Ages
Introduction
Only a selection of the many events at the IISH during the previous six months can be highlighted here. The centennial anniversary of the NEHA seems to be the obvious place to start. A century is a respectable age for this institution with which the IISH is so closely linked, and the celebration took place in respectable surroundings.
On 27 June the community of economic historians convened at the Trippenhuis for a festive gathering. Two foreign celebrities with strong ties to the Netherlands, Jan de Vries and Joel Mokyr, delivered a magnificent account of advances in the discipline.
A broader account appeared in the special issue of TSEG (Vol. 11, No. 2), published in recognition of this anniversary. This issue also related trends in the discipline of social history. Milestones relating to the future of the IISH included the large grant awarded by the NWO on 1 July to a consortium of institutions for the CLARIAH project: Common Lab Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities. The IISH figures prominently in this consortium, together with Utrecht University, in the component addressing economic and social history. While this introduction does not accommodate a more extensive description, the prominent role of the IISH in this digital world is certainly essential for the future.
I will conclude with two staff transitions. The first is that Leo Lucassen has joined us as director of research, officially from 1 September 2014. Soon after he arrived, he drafted some interesting ideas about the course of research. The Friends will definitely be hearing more about them.
The second change is that Willem van Schendel has retired. Involved in research and collection development about Asia since 1996, he worked closely with Eef Vermeij, Emile Schwidder, and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff to chart new horizons in knowledge and collections. On 13 November he delivered a fascinating farewell lecture at the Old Lutheran Church. Fortunately, he will not be severing all ties with the IISH.
This issue features a report on the opening of the exhibition sponsored by the Friends in St. Petersburg Together and Apart, the presentations of collections on 19 June 2014, and the lecture at that occasion by Jan Lucassen about work in India. This issue ends, sadly enough, with an in memoriam for Bart Hageraats.
