News

Update: Unfortunately, due to the current situation around COVID-19, the two-day symposium The Transformation in the World of Work in Germany, the Netherlands and Beyond organized by The Germany Institute, the International Institute of Social History and the N.W. Posthumus Institute, in Amsterdam of 10-11 June 2020 will be rescheduled to June 2021. More information will follow in the course of this year.

We would like to draw your attention to a call for papers for the masterclass The Transformations in the World of Work: Bringing Sociological and Historical Perspectives Together.

Woensdag 4 maart was Leo Lucassen te gast bij Studium Generale | Universiteit Utrecht om te spreken over feiten en meningen in het migratiedebat.

Connects labour history, global history and the institutional or political history of international organisations 

Marks the centenary of the ILO and the formation of the International Federation of Trade Unions, World Federation of Trade Unions and the Communist International

Explores the workings of international labour organisations, the links and networks between these, the definition of the worker and the historical legacy of these organisations

Dear participants,

We are very sorry to let you know that due to the escalating number of cancellations, as well as the increasingly stringent measures taken by a number of authorities and universities – including exit prohibitions and quarantine obligations pertaining to the corona virus - we have decided to postpone the ESSHC-conference to March 2021, again in Leiden.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Post-doc Positions: “Expression of Interest” for hosting Fellows at the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands.

The International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands (IISH) invites postdoc fellows to apply together for postdoc funding in the context of the Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual fellowship scheme for EF (European Fellows).

The KNAW appoints Leo Lucassen as director of the International Institute of Social History (IISH). Earlier this week it was already announced that the current director Henk Wals will leave the IISH to become director at KNAW Institute DANS. Both will start in their new positions at the beginning of April.

Luciano Governali, researcher and archivist from the School of Cultural Heritage of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Fondazione Scuola dei beni e delle attività culturali is working at the IISH on the accessibility of the sources of labour history. He made a remarkable discovery in the Turati Collection of the IISH: an unknown postal card from Mussolini.

The letter was published among a selection of others in the first book on the Turati’s paper Filippo Turati attraverso le lettere dei corrispondenti (1880 - 1925), edited by Alessandro Schiavi, Laterza, Bari, 1947, p. 169, but still ignored so far.

De fotocollectie van de Nederlandse fotografe Maya Pejic (geboren 1935) bestaat uit meer dan  220.000 negatieven, dia's en foto-afdrukken. Beelden van minderheden, sociale problematiek, anti-racisme en andere politieke akties, etc. in Nederland vanaf de 60-er jaren van de vorige eeuw. Maar ook beelden van de levensomstandigheden van vooral kinderen en vrouwen in tientallen Derde Wereld landen. Het copyright op de foto's berust bij het IISG.

De winnaar van de Volkskrant IISG Scriptieprijs 2019 is Kerrewin van Blanken met Dilligent observers of natural things.  

"Wij voelden nog vele naschokken na het lezen van deze scriptie. Met een fijn gevoel voor taal en stijl en een rijke selectie aan bronnenmateriaal schrijft Van Blanken een geschiedenis waar gek genoeg niemand eerder uitgebreid over heeft geschreven: de wijze waarop de mensheid aardbevingen onderzocht, in de eeuw voorafgaand aan de vernietiging van Lissabon en de opkomst van de moderne natuurwetenschappen. Het spel tussen de Engelse natuurfilosofen en een wereldwijd netwerk van leken-observatoren houdt op evocatieve wijze rekening met het sociale en menselijke perspectief bij het ontstaan en delen van kennis en de ontwikkeling van wetenschap." Aldus jurylid Jouke Turpijn. 

Meimei Wang (research assistant of Bas van Leeuwen) succesfully presented a case study on the institutions related to the management of the canal in Yangzhou during the period 1700–1850. The main question addressed by this thesis is why the institutions that managed the canal were initially successful but proved to be ineffective in the long term.

Potosí Global (Viajando con sus primeras imágenes, 1550-1650, La Paz: Plural) and Work and Workers in Latin America (Trabajo y Trabajadores en América Latina, Siglos XVI-XXI (CIS, REDLATT, 2019) .

Potosí Global (Viajando con sus primeras imágenes, 1550-1650, La Paz: Plural) is a journey along the descriptions and depictions of Potosí and the connections entangled through them between Seville, Antwerp, Frankfurt and Constantinople. 

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) awarded the Visitor Travel Grant to the project presented by Prof. Touraj Atabaki. The Travel Grant enables Dr Denis Volkov (Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics) to join a new research project at the International Institute of Social History on the Soviet refugees across the southern borders of the Soviet Union during the interwar period (1918-1939).