Social and Labour History News

International Workshop
Navigating Worlds of Coerced Labour: Procurement, mobility, exploitation and resistance of Enslaved, Indentured and Contracted workers in the Atlantic, and the Asia-Pacific region

Venue: International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dates: 16-17 October 2025
Organisers: Britt van Duijvenvoorden, Karin Hofmeester, Pascal Konings, Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, Matthias van Rossum

Call for Papers

Coerced labour in its various forms is a persisting problem in today’s global economy, being found both in the North and the Global South, often labelled as Modern Forms of Slavery. The historical roots of these modern forms of coerced labour relations can be traced back to the development of capitalism and the emergence of a first global economy roughly 500 years ago. The rise of the first supply-chains of global commodities led to an increase in the procurement of labourers, the development of aggressive forms of “recruitment”, the emergence of new patterns of displacement, and the introduction and adaptation of various coercive forms of labour extraction, from slavery to systems of indentured work to coercive contracted migrant labour.

Their existence and persistence have led to the development of significant durable inequalities among workers brought into those global supply-chains and caught into their systems of labour exploitation. While simultaneously they also led to the rise of forms of resistance among those exploited. Over time the demands of the global colonial economy forced those leading the European empire building processes and capitalist development to simultaneously and/or alternately tap into different streams and reservoirs of labour. In some chronologies and spaces these transformations led to the coexistence of various streams of coerced labour relations, forms of recruitment and procurement, displacement and labour exploitation, while in other chronologies and regions colonial and capitalist transformations triggered shifts in the use of different forms of coerced labour relations.

These different forms of coerced labour relations have received a lot of attention from scholars over the past decades. It is unquestionable that there is a significant number of studies on European indentured labour to North America, and on Asia indentured labour to the Americas as well as elsewhere with Enslaved labour and commerce in enslaved Africans particular in the Atlantic receiving the lion share of academic attention.

These bodies of literature tend, however, to be self-contained, with limited dialogue across the various streams of scholarship. These different lines of research and scholarly work also appear to have been influenced by distinct debates and trends in academia and the society at large. While scholarship on slave trade and slavery has been deeply transformed over the past decades under the guise of the Global and the Digital Turns, and the demands and expectations of communities of descendent of enslaved Africans, the study of systems of indentured labour relations and of coerced contracted migrant workers only more recently started developing in similar directions.

The core aim of this International Workshop Navigating Worlds of Coerced Labour is therefore three-fold:

• Foster collaboration between scholars conducting research on different forms of coerced labour relations
• Stimulate dialogue between the different bodies of literature on enslaved labour, systems of indentured and coerced contract labour, and migrant labour
• Promote the development of a shared research agenda that will allow scholars examining forms of coerced labour relations that will allow to identify major similarities and differences, as well as shifts and continuities overtime.

With these three aims in mind, we would like to invite participants in this International Workshop to explore a set of four core themes: i) Procurement and Recruitment; 2) Mobilities; 3) Exploitation, and Resistance.

We are especially interested in addressing a number of core questions that can be posed to across different lines of research on labour coercion.

Coercion, Procurement, Recruitmentand Resistance

Procurement and Recruitmentwas the key moment when workers entered a supply-chain of coerced labour, being it under the condition of enslaved, indentured or forcefully contracted. To compare processes of procurement, the experience of procurers of coerced labour as well as the experience of coerced workers, it is in our view paramount to reflect on the following questions:

1. Did different types of coerced workers ended up being recruited in the same or neighboring regions?
2. Was there an overlap of regions of procurement and recruitment overtime and in situations of transition between different types of coerced labour procurement and recruitment?
3. Who was involved in the process of procurement and recruitment? (Europeans, settlers, local authorities, etc).)? How and Why?
4. What were the factors that influenced procurement and recruitment from both the view point of workers as well as of those gathering the workers? (demand, price, nature disasters, armed conflicts, etc.)
5. How did coerced workers resist procurement and recruitment?
6. Were there major differences/similarities in the forms of resistance against procurement and recruitment, and the strategies employed by enslaved people, indentured workers (both Asia and Europeans), or contracted migrant workers?

Coercive mobilities and Resistance

More often than not, procurement was followed by Coerced displacement or mobility, because labour was in demand in other regions where global commodities were being produced and/or processed, and colonial infra-structures were being developed. To better identify and explain patterns of displacement and mobility and to reconstruct the organization of coerced labour transportation, we would like to invite participants in this workshop to reflect on some of these
questions:

1. Can we identify patterns of displacement and mobility among coerced workers, that show major similarities and/or differences between mobility of enslaved peoples, indentured workers and contracted labourers between different regions in the Atlantic and the Asian-Pacific region?
2. What factors helped shaping the main patterns of displacement and mobility of coerced workers?
3. How was displacement, commercialization and transportation organized? Can we identify major similarities and/or differences in the logics of the different streams of coercive mobilities?
4. Who was involved in the displacement, “commercialization”, and transportation of coerced workers? (Europeans, settlers, local authorities, etc.)? How and Why?
5. How did coerced workers resist displacement and mobility?
6. Were there major differences/similarities in the forms of resistance and the strategies employed by enslaved peoples, indentured workers (of both Asian and European background), or contracted migrant workers?

Exploitation and Resistance

After being coercively displaced enslaved peoples, indentured workers, and contracted migrant labourers were often subjected to oppressive regimes of labour exploitation. To better identify, analyse and compare these regimes of labour exploitation imposed on different types of coerced workers we would like to invite participants in this workshop to reflect on some of the following questions:

1. Were there significant differences between the Atlantic and Asia, and across the vast Asia-Pacific region when it comes to regimes of labour exploitation of coerced workers?
2. Did regimes of labour exploitation vary among different types of coerced workers, across time and space?
3. What kind of strategies were developed and employed by “organisers” and overseers to rationalize and maximize exploitation of coerced workers?
4. Were there significant differences or similarities in the strategies deployed to exploit enslaved peopled, indentured workers and contracted migrant workers?
5. How did coerced workers resist labour extraction and exploitation?
6. Were there major difference and/or similarities in the forms of resistance and the strategies employed by enslaved peoples, indentured workers (both Asians and Europeans), or contracted migrant workers?

We would like to invite colleagues interested in joining this event to send us an extended abstract (c. 1000-2500 words) of their papers by 30th June 2025. Speakers will be expected to submit a full-length paper two weeks prior the event for pre-circulation among the participants with the intend of fostering discussion during the Workshop. Any queries about the submission of the extended summaries and the organization of the event can be directed to Britt van Duijvenvoorde (britt.van.duijvenvoorde@iisg.nl), Pascal Konings (pascal.konings@iisg.nl), and Filipa Ribeiro da Silva (filipa.ribeirodasilva@iisg.nl).

Guild and Artisan Labour Working Group at the VI Congress ELHN

The Guild and Artisan Labour Working Group of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) brings together scholars engaged in a classic topic of economic and social history: craft guilds and artisan labour. We aim to expand upon and deepen the long-standing debates on the socio-economic dynamics that linked these institutions to labour and society from a historical perspective, especially spanning the 14th to the 19th centuries, in Europe and abroad.

Although excellent studies on the subject have not been lacking in recent decades, the main focus—rightly—has shifted toward invisible labour, prompting a reassessment of sources traditionally deemed secondary to guild records, as their predominant use in twentieth-century historiography gave rise to interpretative models that are now increasingly contested—for example, the notion of a stagnant pre-modern economy or the exclusion of women from labour.

We believe that this rich and fruitful season of research must now reconnect with the study of guilds—institutions that, especially in urban Europe, regulated professional training, ensured production quality standards, and controlled access to the market. These institutions exercised normative and identity-shaping power that extended far beyond mere economic regulation, profoundly shaping the social and cultural structures of their communities. However, even if the primary geographical focus of the Working Group is Eurasia, the scope of research also extends to the former colonies and beyond, promoting a global perspective through comparative analysis with other “guild-like institutions” worldwide.

The purpose of this Working Group is to enhance our understanding of this phenomenon and to lay the groundwork for a reconsideration of labour history studies, free from superficial generalizations. What we propose is to focus on these institutions—drawing on the extensive existing literature and brand-new archival research—to study them in their own right and in their fullness, on their own terms, rather than merely as a "phase" or "configuration" within a broader category of labour. 

The Guild and Artisan Labour Working Group invites all interested scholars - at any stage of their academic career (and especially PhD students) - to submit a 250-word abstract for a communication to be presented at the VI Congress of the European Labour History Network to be held in-person at the Universitat de Barcelona between 16-19 June 2026.  The Guild and Artisan Labour Working Group welcomes contributions that engage with, but are not restricted to, the following themes:

1. Guilds, Apprenticeship, and the Labor Market:
   • Ways of learning: apprenticeship, journeymanship, and tramping systems
   • Closed shops, open markets, and “free” trades: limitations and opportunities for apprentices, women, and child labor
   • Labor markets beyond the guilds
2. Change, Conflict, and Institutions:
   • Intra-guild conflicts and liberal competition
   • The role of institutions in the decline of the guilds
   • Journeymen’s organizations in the Ancien Régime: guilds, combinations, or craft unions?
   • Exclusion or integration? Women, foreigners, and minorities in the guild world
3. The End of the Guilds: Between Abolition and Continuity
   • Guild abolition: abrupt ruptures, gradual breaks
   • Resistance, reactions, and readjustments during abolition
   • Guild continuities in labor markets and social movements

We strongly encourage everyone interested to submit a proposal, even if the topic lies outside the three above general topics. We also welcome studies concerning any place or time, so long as it deals with guild and artisan labour.  In order to encourage the widest participation, we will do our best to provide translation and/or session interpretation services for English, Castilian (Spanish), Catalan, Italian, or other languages as needed.  Do let us know if you might be interested in receiving or providing language services.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 1 September 2025. Please send your 250-word abstract to: guild.artisan.labour@gmail.com  specifying which of the proposed sessions would be most appropriate for your paper.  You are also welcome to indicate if your proposal might open up additional lines of inquiry or suggest new thematic directions for discussion.  Kindly include your current affiliation (if any) when submitting your abstract, and indicate if you are a PhD student.  Keep in mind that PhD students and unaffiliated scholars are eligible for a reduced conference fee when registering. 

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, or if you wish to participate in the wider, ongoing activities of the Working Group, please feel free to reach out via email.  Please let us know if you are interested in participating in the Working Group Meeting via video call to be held at the ELHN Conference.  We look forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to circulate this Call for Papers among colleagues who may find it relevant.

The Labour Migration History Working Group of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) invites submissions for its sessions on the theme of “Disparities and Inequalities in Transformations of Labour Migration: Historical Shifts and Historiographical Debates” to be held at the 6th European Labour History Conference in Barcelona, 16-19 June 2026.

The working group aims to build an interdisciplinary network of scholars studying labour migration from a historical perspective. Although migration currently receives great attention in political and academic debates, it is often discussed as a humanitarian emergency, a social and a security problem, but very rarely as a labour (history) issue. Similarly, research sympathetic to the struggles of migrants tends to denounce the violation of human and civil rights experienced by migrants but very rarely refers to the ways in which migration management policies have historically contributed to the creation of unfree and precarious working conditions. Our network seeks to generate scholarly debate about the interconnectedness of labour and migration history and stresses the importance of labour to analyse change in migration patterns and policies across time and space. We are interested in both empirical and theoretical analysis, and in various types of labour migration, perspectives, chronological and regional foci.

We invite papers addressing labour migration history including (but not limited to) the following topics of interest: 

• Labour mobility in domestic, regional and transnational policies and patterns
• Intra-bloc and East-South labour migration in the Cold War context
• Labour migration beyond normative and methodological nationalism 
• Organised migration schemes (e.g. “Guestworkers”) in a comparative perspective
• Labour precarity and coercion in historical perspective
• Entanglements between forced and voluntary migration 
• Methodological considerations and innovations in labour migration history
• Historical shifts in intersections of gender, race, and class in migrant labour flows
• The impact of migration in sending societies: Remittances and the financialization of migrants 

Please send a 300 to 500-word abstract and a short academic CV (max 300 word) in one MS word file to the WG coordinators listed below by 15 July 2025. The proposal should include your name, current affiliation and contact details. The subject of the email needs to be: “Labour migration history ELHN 2026”. If you think your paper fits well with CfP by other working groups (to be found here https://socialhistoryportal.org/ ) please add their names and we will consider your suggestions in cases it will be possible to organise joint panels.

Please send your proposal and any queries to the following email addresses:

• Sara Bernard, sara.bernard@glasgow.ac.uk 
• Nadia Latif, nl2021@caa.columbia.edu 
• Yannis Papadopoulos, ypapado@ims.forth.gr

Dear colleagues,

attached you will find the program for the upcoming 60th ITH Conference, titled “Workers and Worldmaking: Labor in the Era of Decolonization”, which will take place from 25 to 27 September 2025 at: Bildungshaus Jägermayrhof, Römerstraße 98, A-4020 Linz, Austria.

Please note that early bird registration ends on 30 June 2025.

Registration is available via the following form:

https://forms.gle/x2c3jQURrUnHxGN98

 

If you encounter any difficulties, please contact us at: conference@ith.or.at

 

We look forward to see you in Linz!

 

With best wishes,

Therese Garstenauer (ITH President)

Laurin Blecha (ITH General Secretary)

European University Institute, Badia Fiesolana (Italy), 23­–24 October 2025

This two-day workshop invites scholars to explore how concepts of time have been historically instrumentalised in Eastern Europe from the nineteenth century onwards as a political resource to reinterpret the past, to shape conceptions and experiences of the present, and to exploit the unknowability of the future in response to large-scale global changes and in competition with global dominant time regimes.

In recent years, ‘time’ has emerged as a key analytical category (Koselleck, 2004), a development often labelled as the ‘temporal turn’ in history and the social sciences. Recent scholarship has largely converged around three main themes: the politicisation of time (Clark, 2019), the dynamics of large-scale temporal regimes across societies and cultures (Hartog, 2015), and the multiple scales and dimensions through which historical change unfolds (Braudel, 1984). Researchers focusing on Eastern Europe have actively participated in this shift, using ‘time’ as a lens to re-evaluate the region’s historical specificities, while simultaneously seeking to overcome reductive binaries, such as that between East and West (Colla and Gjuričová, 2023; Deschepper et al., 2024; Rindzevičiūtė, 2023). While these studies have provided valuable insights, they have not yet fully accounted for how global temporal regimes and alternative structures of time in their interaction with local conceptions have shaped Eastern Europe’s political, cultural, and economic trajectories (Brauner, 2024; Edelstein et al., 2020).

Building on these insights, this workshop seeks to examine the intersections of local and global temporalities and their varying manifestation in Eastern Europe. We are particularly interested in how temporal frameworks have been constructed, operationalised, and contested to legitimise political authority, reshape collective memory, and mediate the region’s relationship to global dynamics, either by reinforcing national boundaries or creating new forms of transnational connection, whether despite or because of Eastern Europe’s ongoing engagement with the wider world.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

• the relationship between local and global chronopolitics and their role in ‘discounting’ alternative futures
• the construction, contestation, and negotiation of dominant national and global chronologies and narratives of time
• memory regimes and visions of the future, and their transnational entanglements, such as in the fields of art, architecture, urban planning, and industrial design
• the influence of structural and conjunctural cycles on local and short-term perceptions of episodic time
• the temporality of resources (broadly defined), their commodification, and exchange across regions
• the impact of globalisation, technology, and innovation on subjective and uneven experiences of time and daily rhythms.

We are planning with four panels, each consisting of two papers, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. Dr Marcus Colla (University of Bergen) will give a keynote on the temporalities of Eastern Europe vis-à-vis the West.

Applications are welcome from scholars across the social and historical sciences, broadly defined, provided papers adopt a historical approach. Prospective applicants based in East-Central Europe are especially encouraged to apply.

Please send abstracts of up to 300 words, including a title, and a short biographical note to Dr Szinan Radi, s.radi@exeter.ac.uk by 7 July 2025. If selected, panellists will be requested to pre-circulate an extract of their paper (up to 3,000 words) by 26 September 2025. Accommodation for two nights in Florence (in walking distance to the venue) and travel expenses within Europe will be covered.

The workshop is sponsored by the EUI Max Weber Programme and the EUI Widening Europe Programme.

References

Braudel, F., 1984. The Perspective of The World, Civilization and Capitalism. Collins, London.

Brauner, C., 2024. Time: Temporality in Global History, in: Osterhammel, J., Gänger, S. (Eds.), Rethinking Global History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 70–91.

Clark, C., 2019. Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich. Princeton University Press.

Colla, M., Gjuričová, A., 2023. 1989: The Chronopolitics of Revolution. History and Theory 62, 45–65.

Deschepper, J., Kalashnikov, A., Rossi, F. (Eds.), 2024. Time and Material Culture: Rethinking Soviet Temporalities. Routledge, London.

Edelstein, D., Geroulanos, S., Wheatley, N. (Eds.), 2020. Power and Time: Temporalities in Conflict and the Making of History. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Hartog, F., 2015. Regimes of Historicity: Presentism and Experiences of Time. Columbia University Press.

Koselleck, R., 2004. Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time. Columbia University Press, New York.

Rindzevičiūtė, E., 2023. The Will to Predict: Orchestrating the Future through Science. Cornell University Press, New York.

Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo/Egypt, 10-11 November 2025

This conference seeks to explore key questions: What role did the Catholic Church—both as an institution and as a diverse religious community—play in decolonization? How did Vatican diplomacy interact with local clergy, indigenous populations, and political movements? To what extent were these interactions shaped by competition, hybridization, and exchange? How did decolonization influence doctrinal transformations in the 1940s and 1950s, paving the way for the Second Vatican Council?

Pius XII and Decolonization: Catholicism in North Africa and the Levant, 1939-1958

The Second World War and its aftermath marked a fundamental shift in the Catholic Church’s social and political involvement in North Africa and the Levant. Between 1945 and 1960, the Cold War and the rapid dissolution of European colonial empires transformed the global geopolitical landscape. This period also saw the rise of the “Third World” as a political force and a profound reconfiguration of North-South diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations. Amid its own transformation—one that would culminate in the radical reforms of the 1960s— the Catholic Church (the Holy See, nuncios, delegates, religious orders, clergy, intellectuals) both shaped and was reshaped by these changes.
Building on the work of scholars such as Elizabeth A. Foster, Giuliana Chamedes, and Maria Luisa Sergio, this conference examines the Catholic Church’s engagement with decolonization in North Africa and the Levant during the pontificate of Pius XII (1939–1958). As European empires crumbled and the Mandate System dissolved, the Holy See’s stance shifted to meet local circumstances. Seeking to maintain its influence, the Vatican initially adopted ambiguous positions, at times delaying decolonization while promoting interreligious dialogue through intellectual and pastoral work. Vatican diplomacy and the clergy on the ground had to navigate a delicate balance of religious, social, and political dynamics. As decolonization progressed, the Holy See recognized the need to adapt to the emerging landscape of independent African nations and pragmatically accepted the Africanization of local churches. This process unfolded against the backdrop of a new global order shaped by the Cold War and the Vatican’s firm alignment with the United States in opposing Communism. However, the mosaic of nationalist, religious, and ideological forces driving decolonization introduced new challenges for the Catholic Church, such as having to distance itself from the memory of colonial rule, managing relations with new and sometimes volatile governments, and dealing with the numerous conflicts in the region, both military and not.
This conference seeks to explore key questions: What role did the Catholic Church—both as an institution and as a diverse religious community—play in decolonization? How did Vatican diplomacy interact with local clergy, indigenous populations, and political movements? To what extent were these interactions shaped by competition, hybridization, and exchange? How did decolonization influence doctrinal transformations in the 1940s and 1950s, paving the way for the Second Vatican Council? The conference aims to critically engage with newly available sources, prioritizing transnational perspectives and highlighting the agency of marginalized actors. In addition to the recently declassified archives of Pius XII, we welcome scholars employing diverse methodologies and archival materials.

Topics are not limited to, but may include:
● Role of Vatican diplomacy in decolonization movements
● The development of alternative theological frameworks by Catholic intellectuals in response to decolonization.
● The attitudes and responses of Vatican representatives toward movements for decolonization.
● Instances of conflict and collaboration between local clergy and liberation movements.
● Catholic Perspectives on the legacy of colonialism
● Comparative perspectives on Orthodox churches and Protestantism
● Religious groups resisting decolonization, ignoring it, or fostering neo-colonial relationships
● The gradual replacement of European clergy with an emerging native priesthood.
● The role of Catholic non-governmental organizations in humanitarian action.
● The relationships between the Catholic Church and newly independent governments.
● Interfaith dialogue, particularly with Islam, aimed to involve other religious groups in post-colonial nation-building.
● The impact of local theological, nationalist, anti-racist, and Marxist critiques in reshaping Catholic thought and practice.

Please send a 300-word abstract, the title of your intervention, your current or most recent academic affiliation, a brief CV, and a short bio to erica_moretti@fitnyc.edu and jacopo.pili@uniroma2.it by June 10, 2025.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by June 30, 2025.
Language: The working language of the conference is English.
Costs: Accommodation costs will be covered by the organising committee.
This conference is part of the research network The Global Pontificate of Pius XII at the German Historical Institute in Rome. The event is organised in collaboration with the German Historical in Rome, the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, and the University of Rome “Tor Vergata.”

Linnaeus University in Växjö (Sweden), 10-12 September 2025

Taking place on September 10-12, 2025, at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden, the Eight European Congress on World and Global History invites participants to explore new avenues in global history. At the congress 400 speakers from diverse disciplinary and national contexts who are organized in more than 80 panels will share their thoughts on how dominating meta-narratives in global history can be overcome by integrating a broader and more diverse range of voices and perspectives.

Eighth European Congress on World and Global History 2025 “Critical Global Histories: Methodological Reflections and Thematic Expansions” - Registration is open now

Taking place on September 10-12, 2025, at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden, the Eight European Congress on World and Global History invites participants to explore new avenues in global history.

At the congress 400 speakers from diverse disciplinary and national contexts who are organized in more than 80 panels will share their thoughts on how dominating meta-narratives in global history can be overcome by integrating a broader and more diverse range of voices and perspectives. In doing so, they will take stock of the thematical and theoretical expansions global history as a field has undergone in the past decades as well use the opportunity to critically self-reflect and to discuss methodological and thematic innovations.

Panels and Roundtables are organized in 11 congress themes:

• Temporalities and periodizations in global history
• Ethical aspects of doing global history
• Expanding the global archive
• Multivocality in global history
• Global history and decoloniality
• Transdisciplinary approaches
• Indigenous perspectives and methodologies
• Challenging modernity from the perspective of global history
• National history, nationalist backlash, and identity politics
• Global environmental history
• Nordic colonialism

A series of special events throughout the congress are equally dedicated to furthering critical reflection, diversity and inclusivity in global history. First and foremost among them the two keynote lectures by Laura de Mello e Souza and Fe/derico Navarrete. Fe/derico Navarrete explores “Cosmohistories, the multiplicity of worlds and their histories“ and presents cosmohistory as a concept that overcomes unilinear, Eurocentric and teleological perspectives on world histories by investigating historical communities as coexisting and colliding entities that refuse to conform to simplistic and homogenizing narratives. In her lecture on “Provisional Forms of Existence in Portuguese America – 16th-18th Centuries“ Laure de Mello e Souza showcases how the blended knowledge of indigenous, African, and Portuguese actors shaped present-day Brazil. Both keynotes, therefore highlight the multivocality and diversity but also the interdependency of diverse communities in history. The Plenary Session “Nordic Colonialism” convened by Janne Lahti equally seeks to overcome notions of exceptionalism and isolationist narratives by showing how the Nordic countries were involved in and connected to global colonial history. Bringing these various strands of academic interests together the Closing Roundtable on “Publishing Global History” organized by Birgit Tremml-Werner and Daniel Laqua investigates how the publishing industry in Global History can become more inclusive both in terms of content as well as in terms of practicalities.

Programm

Please visit our website to view the full program and to register: https://eniugh.org/congress/

Aix-en-Provence/France, 8-10 December 2025

The revolts of the 1920s (known as the ‘Northern Revolt 1919-1921’ and the ‘Great Syrian Revolt’) should be understood as the expression of patterns mobilisation stemming from a longue durée, whose dynamics lay at the crossroads of local solidarity and community allegiances modelled on blood ties ('aṣabiyya). In the wake of the First World War, the ‘iṣābāt were transformed by political and military modernity so rapidly that, at the end of the Great Revolt, their original form disappeared definitively. Why did the nature of popular mobilisation change after the crushing of the Great Syrian Revolt in 1927?

CfP - A Century of Revolutions - Centennial of the Great Syrian Revolt (1925-2025)

A century ago, in 1925, a small group of fighters sparked a movement of armed resistance south of Damascus, hoping to free the region from French colonial occupation. The rebellion ignited a broad movement of both armed revolt, and political activism. Ottoman Great War veterans organized the fighters. French mandate forces met them with furious counterinsurgent violence. The revolt began in rural areas, but it found support among politicised Syrians of all classes and communities. Despite its initial successes, French aerial bombing and massive military reinforcements crushed the ‘ṯawra’ (revolution or revolt) by 1927. The revolt was the largest post-Ottoman Arab revolt, until Palestine in 1936, and provided a template and model that has remained potent until today. The history of the Revolution, or revolt, has been written and rewritten in academic works and political memory. In 2011, as Syrians took to the streets to protest against al-Assad’s authoritarian rule, their actions and ideals found echoes within the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 and its legacy.

Inherent to the biases induced by translation into foreign languages, the successive names for the Great Revolt of 1925 came about mainly after the end of the movement, under the dual influence of urban narratives and Arab nationalism. The revolts of the 1920s (known as the ‘Northern Revolt 1919-1921’ and the ‘Great Syrian Revolt’) should be understood as the expression of patterns mobilisation stemming from a longue durée, whose dynamics lay at the crossroads of local solidarity and community allegiances modelled on blood ties ('aṣabiyya). In the wake of the First World War, the ‘iṣābāt were transformed by political and military modernity so rapidly that, at the end of the Great Revolt, their original form disappeared definitively.

Why did the nature of popular mobilisation change after the crushing of the Great Syrian Revolt in 1927? Why, while post-Ottoman modes of mobilisation seem to have disappeared from the Arab East, have the legacy and memory of these revolts survived? How and why did the revolts of the 1920s become such a reference that they have helped to sustain a living culture of popular rebellion to this day?

I - Anti-colonial ṯawrāt: rebels and locations of revolt

The Great Revolt began in a location mandate authorities had not expected. Far from the Damascene notables, the Druze were behind the first actions. But while remote from the city, many had been administrative partners with French and Ottoman officials. They were joined by merchants from the Mīdān of Damascus, following the information channels established by the grain trade. The revolt mobilised different groups and social categories, and went beyond the sectarian revolt and a few political or military elites: a whole segment of the last Ottoman generation took part. Some soldiers in the Armée du Levant, at the core of the repression, deserted or joined the revolt. The aim will be to examine the ‘collective action’ that characterised insurrectionary movements by studying the variety of connections between the individuals involved in the revolt.

Ṯawra is multifaceted: from demonstrations to armed insurrection, from guerrilla warfare to leaflets, from occupation to opposition petitions, and including the provision of material or financial support for rebellion. It is embedded in social forms that can be identified in acts and slogans. Contributions should explore the words and actions of the revolt in all of their diversity, and grasp how the revolt takes place in space and time. The question of how to spread the revolt is central: how could one be persuaded to join it, or to oppose it? Mobilisation reveals the structures and fractures that run through Syrian society: local or regional tribal solidarity, a sense of transnational religious community, ephemeral alliances…

Mobilisation also challenges the mandate's territorialisation. The militarisation of the repression, carried out by military columns and air strikes, and the scant use of police forces suggests that the mandate sought to control mobility, not space. The various police forces failed during the uprising: Lebanese gendarmes were mobilised to put down the uprising, while many Syrian gendarmes laid down their arms or joined the revolt. Through resistance contacts and post-Ottoman, diasporic, community or anti-colonial networks, the rebels built a movement that went beyond Syria, while giving substance to a Syrian proto-nationalism of Faysalian heritage. From local mobilisations to marginal international networks, from the villages of Hauran to the militants of Wadi al-Taym and tribes outside the geography of conventional revolt: the space of revolt will have to be defined and redefined.

II - Questions at a time of profound changes between two worlds (1918-1946)

Between 1911 and 1920, the Ottoman Arab East suffered the consequences of the Great War more than any other region of the empire. The implementation of the Ottoman reforms (Tanẓīmāt) such as the equality of the Sultan's subjects, conscription and military mobilisation, had profound and traumatic effects on the populations, as did the post-war occupations. The post-Ottoman rebellions (1919-1927) brought together ex-Ottoman soldiers, officials and ordinary people. Whether they came from Damascus, Beirut, Jerusalem or the hinterlands of Greater Syria, almost all of them hated the division of the territories and the occupation implemented by the two mandatory powers (France and Great Britain). While they could agree on what they opposed, agreement on what they sought was more difficult.

How did Syrians involved in guerrilla warfare envisage themselves as a society in their liberation? What representations of the State and the nation to be built do they have of themselves? What territorial vision do they seek? Was it that of a national territory - al-rubū' al-Sūriyya - whose shape was defined especially after 1927? The theme of Syrian unity emerged before the Great Revolt, on the one hand to counter the division of territories promoted by the mandate, but also, on the other hand, in an effort, theorised by the nationalists, to build a Syrian ‘nation’ (umma) by opposing communal and even ethnic divisions. Unity, sacralised in contemporary struggles for sovereignty, has become a cornerstone of Syrian political culture.

III - From one ṯawra to another

The 1920s revolts have been a constant feature of Syrian history, memory and politics over the last century. The centrality of the revolts to official narratives and identity waned between 1966 and 2024, for reasons having to do with politics and the identity of the state. Arguably memories of revolt have returned to prominence since 2011, and perhaps even more since December 2024. Hawran and the Countryside of Damascus were central in 1925, and they were central in the Syrian Revolution after 2011 also.

From 2011 to 2024 comparisons arose, drawing on the history of the revolts, their territories and also the vehicles through which they were mobilised: from the widespread outcry to the action of the military (whether deserters or not), on to the key role of rural peripheries, on to symbolic times and places (the 40th Day, Friday mosque sermons, etc.), the centrality of Islam at the heart of an imaginary and plural referent, and the forms of local organisation of the ṯawra, etc. Much seemed to point back to 1919-1927; a time when the future seemed to be suddenly open. Closer examination shows a link with the political struggles of the 1930s, which also reveal a new generation of nationalists and the involvement of women in the field.

It is by examining the memory of the ṯawra of 2011-2024, using all possible media - oral (including songs and chants), written, opposition media, videos, etc. - that scholars may point out the emergence of a new protest culture. It is by examining the memory of the ṯawra from 2011-2024 through all possible media - oral (including songs and chants), written, clandestine media, videos, etc. - that researchers can point to the emergence of a new protest culture and define the extent to which it follows in the wake of the struggles of the inter-war period and the extent to which it is uniquely of its time.

IV - Rediscovering sources

In the national archive centres of the Arab world, most of which came into being only recently, contemporary archives are only rarely accessible. In 1959, the Damascus Historical Archives Centre (Markaz al-wathā'iq al-tārīkhiyya) was made up of collections gathered over the years from different cities (Hama, Aleppo, Homs). In this centre, the best-known, most accessible collections are those produced by the Ottoman bureaucracy, and more particularly the court registers (siǧillāt al-maḥākim); the archives produced subsequently remained restricted to a few documentary series often consisting of documents from the mandatary period. This centralisation of archives in the capital was not total, however, and many documents remained in their institution of production or were still hidden in unusual places by certain offices and scholars. As in Egypt, in Syria the French legal model of reinforced protection of archives and their consultation is the norm. This enhanced protection means that access to archives is restricted by an administrative system that is managed on a case-by-case basis and is more or less arbitrary depending on the degree of authoritarianism of the government. In the absence of strict legislation on the obligation to archive the documentation produced by public institutions, this heritage doctrine becomes opaque and reinforces the degree of distrust that some have towards official archive bodies. Thus, the history of contemporary Syria, and more particularly of the Mandate period and the construction of the modern State, has been built up through colonial archives (particularly after the opening of the archives of the High Commission for Syria and Lebanon at the Centre des Archives Diplomatiques in Nantes), autobiographical accounts and private archives, the consultation of which depends on the degree of trust their holders have in the researcher. While the press and literature have made it possible to open up the field to a great deal of work in the interests of an ‘equal’ history, ‘private’ archives have become some true treasures.

Today, following the fall of the Assad regime on 08 December 2024, it is pertinent to revisit the issues of access to sources and the places where documentation is held, whether it be private, public, privatised, exiled or simply hidden in the institution where it was produced. While some collections have been carefully moved to safe locations (notably those at the Damascus Historical Archives Centre), others remain hidden: their existence is enigmatic. After more than a decade of destruction, if the writing of the history of contemporary Syria enters a new era, that of all possibilities; the work of the historian will also be that of the archivist to identify, find, process and map all the Syrian documentary collections scattered at the whim of political resistance, war violence and the exile of archive holders.

How to contribute
We invite researchers from all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences (history, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, political science, etc.) to submit proposals for papers (in English, French or Arabic) that fall within one or more of the four areas described above. To submit your proposals, please send them before 15 June 2025 to: colloque.grs@gmail.com. Proposals should be limited to 300 words, and should include a brief presentation of the author.

In view of the limited resources available for the conference, we invite participants to request that their travel and accommodation costs be covered by their home institution. The organisers may be able to offer assistance if necessary. Papers will be presented in person; no remote arrangements are possible.

by José Hinojosa Durán

Este obra analiza la organización interna y la evolución política del Partido Comunista de España en Extremadura durante el primer semestre de 1936 y la guerra civil. Los dirigentes y afiliados de este partido político, la elaboración y puesta en marcha de sus líneas políticas antes y después del 18 de julio de 1936, la relación con otras fuerzas políticas y sindicales (espacialmente en el Partido Socialista Obrero Español y la Unión General de Trabajadores), tanto en los meses del Frente Popular como durante la guerra civil, el impacto del comienzo de conflicto bélico (verano y otoño de 1936), las iniciativas adoptadas ante el nuevo contexto histórico y geográfico que supuso la clara delimitación de una Extremadura republicana desde noviembre de 1936 hasta mediados de julio de 1938 o la situación del PCE en Extremadura y su política en la última fase de la guerra civil (agosto de 1938 hasta el 1 de abril de 1939) son algunas de las temáticas centrales de esta obra.

https://libreriavirtual.dip-badajoz.es/es/inicio/el-partido-comunista-d…

Workshop in Glasgow, 11 September 2025

Convenors: Dr Anna McEwan (University of Glasgow/Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) Potsdam), Dr Eliska Bujokova (University of Glasgow/University of New Brunswick)

We are inviting participants to a one-day workshop resulting in a podcast entitled, Behind the Pages: Lives of Early Career Historians: Resource Sharing and Podcast Production. The event will take place at the University of Glasgow on September 11th 2025.

The workshop will bring together early career historians to discuss the multifaceted challenges in the early stages of our careers.  We aim to create a forum for collective resource sharing and reflection as well as a podcast tailored to the needs of early career historians. The workshop is underpinned by two interrelated goals:

• Community Building: We hope to build community among early career historians across institutions and historical subjects, providing a space for participants to share experiences, exchange resources, and foster connections. Navigating the early career stage often involves a range of uncertainties, from securing funding to managing life transitions. This workshop seeks to demystify these challenges through collaborative engagement.

• Creation of a Long-Term Resource: We will record the workshop discussions to produce the podcast which will offer themed episodes focussed on the challenges of the early career lifestyle, including international travel, parenting and navigating precarity. Our aim is to produce a resource that complements existing guidance on academic processes, is accessible, relatable, and useful to early career historians.

The workshop will be structured around five themes (though we are open to alternatives), each corresponding to a podcast episode:

• Choosing the Right Path: Navigating the post-PhD Stage
• Moving Country for Career
• Parenting with a Postdoc
• Competition versus Collaboration
• Navigating a Short-Term Lectureship

We are seeking UK-based participants in the early stages of their career (broadly defined) who can speak to the above episode themes or have alternative suggestions that fit broadly with the framework. Participants are asked to submit a 250-word expression of interest by 31st July 2025, covering the theme they would like to speak to as well as a short bio. Please send expressions of interest to: anna.mcewan@zzf-potsdam.de. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. Limited travel funding is available, please indicate in your submission whether this is something you require.

The Precarious Labour Working Group will participate in the Sixth ELHN Conference with thematic sessions. We invite members of the Working Group, and all other interested colleagues, to come up with paper and session proposals under the following call:

We hope to receive session and paper proposals on the history of precarious labour from all over the world. We encourage the participation of researchers at all stages of their work life as well as researchers without institutional affiliation, and we welcome researchers anchored in various disciplines and investigating different historical periods.

For this conference the Working Group Precarious Labour aims to organise sessions on the topics listed below. We explicitly invite papers dealing with studies from across the globe and in different time periods. This includes studies in contexts where concepts such as standard employment and precarity do not apply or was/is not widely used, but where tensions between stability vs precarity play a role.

• Trade unions, precarious and unorganised labour
  How did trade unions in the past respond to precarious working conditions? What was the role of trade unions in establishing standard employment relationships – and how did trade unions relate to workers outside or on the fringes of standard employment? For example, which strategies and repertoires did they use?

• Women in precarious labour
  The working group is interested in examining social groups that are more likely to work under precarious conditions. For this conference we will organise one or two sessions on women workers. What are factors that contribute to precarisation of women’s labour? How do women experience working in precarious conditions? How do social factors such as racialisation, migration, age, education, language etc., relate to gender experiences of precarity? Which resistance strategies have women in precarious work conditions made use of (from collective actions to individual strategies, including for example “weapons of the weak”)?

• If you work on precarious labour or related topics but your paper does not match the two topics above, please feel free to submit it anyway, and we will see if the proposals can fit together thematically.

Information on the Working Group Precarious Labour can be found here.

Meeting of the Working Group Precarious Labour

All scholars with an interest in precarious labour history around the world are invited to join a discussion that will be held during the ELHC 2026 about ideas and themes for future research and collaboration within and beyond the Working Group.

How to submit proposals

Please send an abstract (max 300 words) and a short bio (max 100 words, including contact details) to the WG coordinators, by September 9, 2025.

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact the coordinators:

• Nina Trige Andersen, nina.trige.andersen@gmail.com
• María Fernanda Arellanes, maria.fernanda.arellanes@gmail.com
• Rosa Kösters, rosa.kosters@iisg.nl
• Sibylle Marti, sibylle.marti@unibe.ch

Time and Location

The 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) will take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 16 to 19 June 2026. Registration to the ELHN Conference is expected to open in February 2026. More details will follow. Costs of registration, travel and subsistence are at the expense of the participants. There will be a reduced registration fee for students and scholars without institutional affiliation. If you have an urgent request, please contact the network at elhn@iisg.nl.

Call for Papers
Nordic Labour Internationalism in the 20th Century
15–16 January 2026, University of Oslo, Norway
 
Global challenges loom large for the future of Nordic labour movements. Labour parties must address international or borderless issues like migration, climate change, and weakening security alignments, all while contesting with populist movements for voters and attention. Trade unions meanwhile confront a labour market reconfigured by (de)industrialization, European integration, and globalized trade. To appraise where this present situation may lead, it is necessary to reflect on previous responses. How have Nordic labour movements interacted with international challenges and developments in the past?  

We invite participants to revisit and resituate Nordic labour internationalism in the 20th century. Nordic labour movements actively contributed to shaping geopolitical landscapes and global trade, at times supporting, moderating, or challenging economic and political orders under different geopolitical hegemonies. We encourage participants to explore the strands of internationalist thought in Nordic labour movements, as well as Nordic activity in international and transnational arenas. Of special interest are papers involving trade unions, labour parties, and leftwing activists from one or more Nordic countries, including both top leaders and the rankand-file, with the goal of understanding how workers’ movements influenced and interacted with broad international trends.  

• How and why did Nordic labour movements engage with the broader world, and what were the tangible results of this activity?
• Did Nordic labour internationalism contribute to international tensions and conflict, or durable cooperation and solutions to international challenges?
• To what extent did traditions for international engagement develop in the Nordic labour movements?  

The workshop will take a multilevel approach, from the translocal trade union to the international organization, and invites perspectives both from inside and outside the Nordic region to explore different scales and forms of international engagement. This includes diplomacy, aid and solidarity, propaganda, policy and ideational transfer, activity in international organizations, and migration responses. By bringing together scholarship in such areas, the workshop will constitute an arena for exploring varieties and common characteristics within Nordic labour internationalism and for reflecting on its prospects for the future.  
 
Submission of abstracts

Please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words and a short bio by the 31st of August 2025. Participants chosen for the workshop will have the opportunity to present papers and receive individualized comments from a senior researcher. The goal of the workshop is to draft articles for a special issue in an international journal. Emerging scholars are especially encouraged to apply.

The workshop will take place on the 15th and 16th of January 2026 at the University of Oslo. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the workshop organizers, as will lunch and dinner.

Abstracts can be delivered by email to Byron Rom-Jensen at byronr@iakh.uio.no and Eirik Wig Sundvall at e.w.sundvall@iakh.uio.no.

What contribution can the history of labour provide to the study of family economy?  The ELHN Working Group Labour and Family Economy aims at developing a labour centered reflection on a classical topic in economic and social history: the historical forms taken by family economy in different economic, geographical and institutional contexts.

We consider the family as an economic unit and its members’ labour and activities in a broad sense, including consumption patterns and the whole range of resources’ allocation and distribution within the family. Following a flourishing literature, we would like to consider the family not only as knot of blood tights but also as an extended web taking different forms according to cultural and institutional contexts: maisonnées, kinship coalitions, active parenthood, etc.  

We would like to deal with these topics in a long period perspective. Family-based production is a pervasive phenomenon not only in early modern societies but also in modern times. Our aim is, finally, to broaden the scope of our discussion beyond labour history.

For ELHN Congress in Barcelona, we aim to explore different topics dealing with family economy such as care work, reproductive labour,  migration and family economy. We welcome contributions from various disciplines, including case studies and comparative analyses., from the early modern  period up the the 20th century.

We kindly ask you to consult the call for papers for each proposal to obtain more information.

• Women, work, and family in early modern Italian cities
  Organized by Anna Bellavitis, Université de Rouen Normandie : anna.bellavitis@univ-rouen.fr and Corine Maitte, Université Gustave Eiffel:  corine.maitte@univ-eiffel.fr  
   
• Counting and understanding care work and domestic work in the societies of the past
  Organized by Beatrice Zucca Micheletto, University of Turin, beatrice.zucca@unito
   
• Care Externalities: Historical Perspectives on Care Work Beyond the Home in the Long Term
  Organized by Cristina Borderías Universitat de Barcelona cborderiasm@ub.edu and Raffaella Sarti Università di Urbino raffaella.sarti@uniurb.it
   
• Family work and the Early Modern illicit economy
  Organized by Ida Fazio, Università degli Studi di Palermo, ida.fazio@unipa.it and Anne Montenach, Aix-Marseille Université, anne.montenach@univ-amu.fr
   
• Families on the move: Labour migration and family economies in the pre-modern and the modern world
  Organized by Maria Papathanassiou , associate professor in Modern European History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, mpapath@arch.uoa.gr

How to apply

Please send a 500-word abstract and a short academic CV to the organizers of the session. The proposal should include name, surname, current affiliation and contact details of the proponent. The subject of the email needs to be: “Labour and Family Economy ELHN 2026”. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact the organizers.

Time and Location

The 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) will take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 16 to 19 June 2026. Registration to the ELHN Conference is expected to open in February 2026. More details will follow. Costs of registration, travel and subsistence are at the expense of the participants. There will be a reduced registration fee for students and scholars without institutional affiliation. If you have an urgent request, please contact the network at elhn@iisg.nl.

10-12 September 2025, Turin

Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura (hereinafter “Fondazione 1563”) has since 2013 supported research and advanced training in the field of the humanities. In a wider effort to pursue this goal, in 2020 Fondazione 1563 launched the Turin Humanities Programme, a research initiative that allows junior scholars to work on interrelated research projects under the guidance of especially appointed Senior Fellows.

THP aims at promoting two-year research projects about relevant global history topics. Under THP Fondazione 1563 launched a fourth (2024-26) call for applications for research on Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the New World: Debates in the Early Modern Period.

SUMMER SCHOOL 2025 AND ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

The Turin Humanities Programme and Fondazione 1563 are pleased to invite doctoral students and early career researchers to submit their applications to the Summer School Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period.

The Summer School aims to explore the modern debates surrounding slavery and serfdom in Europe and the Americas within the timeframe of the Early Modern period, defined here broadly as stretching from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth.

The project will aim to encourage a comparative perspective, focussing on three key aspects:
1. Early Modern and Enlightenment debates ranging from race and ethnicity to the rights of man.
Debates about enslavement begin with ethical, economic and theological questions, and evolve in the period towards a greater focus on race, ethnicity and discussion of the rights of man. How are notions of race debated in the period? Is racial discrimination an underlying cause of enslavement, or rather a consequence of it? In what ways is slavery essential to early-modern capitalism and commerce?
2. Serfdom and slavery.
Serfdom existed widely across Europe in the Early Modern period. The challenges relating to research into serfdom in part mirror the challenges concerning enslavement, yet the two phenomena are almost always studied separately. To what extent are there parallels between serfdom and slavery? Are these two phenomena entirely distinct from one another?
3. The role of imaginative literature and the creative arts.
Novels, stories, plays, operas, paintings and prints play an increasingly important role, in the Enlightenment period in particular, in exploring notions and constructions of otherness, and in creating often paradoxical fictions of enslavement. Creative works play a crucial part in communicating these unresolved questions and tensions to a broader public.

The THP 2025 Summer School provides a forum for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the field of humanities and the social sciences (history, philosophy, literature, art history, music, anthropology, religion) to engage with the most up-to-date academic debates on enslavement, serfdom, ethnicity and race in Europe and the Americas in the early modern period, and to approach these questions from a wide range of methodological approaches.

English will be the default language of the Summer School. 

The Summer School programme includes keynote lectures by Demetrius Eudell (Vassar College, USA), Marisa Fuentes (Rutgers University), Vanessa Massuchetto (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory), Darrin McMahon (Dartmouth College, USA), Pärtel Piirimäe (University of Tartu), Ann Thomson (European University Institute, Florence), Devin Vartija (University of Utrecht), research presentations by the Junior Fellows of the Turin Humanities Programme, feedback sessions and roundtable discussions.

To foster dialogue between senior and young scholars, the 2025 Summer School offers its participants a unique opportunity to contribute to the broader discussion on themes of slavery and serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period with their own ideas and research.
Successful applicants will also have the chance to present their papers in panel sessions which will be followed by a Q&A led by a panel discussant.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

To apply for the Summer School, prospective participants should submit a brief academic CV (max. 2 pages), an abstract of the research they wish to present (max. 400 words) and a short essay on why they would like to attend the Summer School (max. 200 words).

Please, upload these materials within the application form that can be found on the website of Fondazione 1563 at the following link www.fondazione1563.it/application-form-thp-summer-school/ by 10.00 PM (Italian/CET time) of June 15, 2025.

The Summer School will be activated only with a minimum of 10 participants; a maximum of 12 participants is allowed.

COSTS AND FEES

The participation in the Summer School is free to all Italian and International postgraduate students and early career researchers.

Travelling expenses to and from Torino and accommodation expenses in Torino will be borne by the participants.

Upon acceptance of the participation in the Summer School, the participants will be asked to confirm their participation in the social events proposed by Fondazione 1563.

For information, please contact the organisers at info@fondazione1563.it

SUMMER SCHOOL 2025 SELECTION CRITERIA

The candidates will be selected based on their resumes and the relevance of their intended contributions to the general subject of the Summer School.

They will be informed of the result of the selection by early July via the email address they included in the application form.

Successful applicants will receive the attendance form that will have to be signed for acceptance and returned, on pain of forfeiture, within 5 working days starting from the date of the communication.

Fondazione 1563 reserves the right to suspend, modify or cancel this selection procedure or the Summer School in any moment at its incontestable discretion, without that being in any way for the Candidates a right or a demand to claim any refund, compensation or reimbursement.

by Fred Siegmund

Americans work "at will" and can be fired or laid off at any time. Work and the boss can be difficult; sometimes we strike, picket and protest. Take the time back in July 1877 after the Pennsylvania Railroad cut wages 20 percent and the Pittsburgh superintendent laid off half his conductors, flagmen and brakemen. Striking crews blocked the tracks, except railroad officials declared to "clear the tracks" and found a compliant governor ready to call out the National Guard. His troops fired directly into the crowds at Pittsburgh's 28th Street grade crossing, leaving 16 dead and 27 wounded. Follow along with the "angry surging tide of humanity" descending into the rail yards for three days of arson, looting and rioting. Take a trip through the Sunday aftermath to consider the burned-out ruins of 1,200 freight cars, 126 locomotives and two miles of smoldering Pittsburgh.

The Fight Over Jobs narrates these street battles in one strike after another along with the confrontations on the picket line, the shop floor, the bargaining table, in Congress and the courts over the years 1877 to 2024. Here is a book that recounts corporate America's never-ending quest for cheap labor. Follow the efforts of their labor organizing opponents and the political and judicial role of Congress and the courts in the competition to control America's labor relations. Tote up the victories and defeats in these never ending battles and decide for yourself: Which side are you on?

Conference in Halle (Germany), 20-21 November 2025

Die Tagung widmet sich den dunklen Seiten der Industriekultur: Zwangsarbeit, Rüstungsproduktion, Arbeitsunfälle und strukturelle Gewalt. Beiträge aus Wissenschaft, Museen, Gedenkstätten, Vereinen und Unternehmen sind eingeladen, Formen unfreier Arbeit, gewaltvoller Arbeitsbeziehungen und erinnerungskultureller Verantwortung zu beleuchten. Ziel ist es, Industriekultur in Sachsen-Anhalt und darüber hinaus kritisch zu reflektieren und Fragen von Identität und Verantwortung neu zu verhandeln. Vorschläge können aus vergleichender oder transregionaler Perspektive eingereicht werden.

Arbeit, Gewalt und Zwang. Industriekultur und Verantwortung

Industriekultur wird häufig von einer Fortschrittsgeschichtsschreibung begleitet. Menschlicher Erfindergeist, Solidarität am Arbeitsplatz und im Arbeitskampf sowie unternehmerische Risikofreude bilden üblicherweise das Koordinatensystem, in dem Industriekultur erzählt und vermittelt wird. Tatsächlich existieren zahlreiche Verbindungen zwischen industrieller Entwicklung und Gewaltstrukturen, wie Zwangsarbeit oder prekären Arbeitsbedingungen. Auch die Rüstungsindustrie als eine auf Zerstörung gerichtete Produktion spielt in industriekulturellen Großerzählungen nur selten eine Rolle. Dies gilt insbesondere für das Gebiet des heutigen Sachsen-Anhalts, dessen industrielle Entwicklung wie die kaum einer anderen Wirtschaftsregion Europas mit den Gewaltverbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts verbunden ist. Die Tagung stellt Fragen nach den verschiedenen Formen von Arbeit, Gewalt und Zwang seit dem Ersten Weltkrieg bis heute und damit einhergehend nach Formen der öffentlichen Erinnerung und Verantwortung von Institutionen. Wie können diese negativen Folgen und Voraussetzungen von industrieller Entwicklung in ein Narrativ von Industriekultur in Sachsen-Anhalt eingebettet werden? Wie verhalten sich also Identität und Verantwortung, Erinnerung an die industrielle Arbeitswelt und Gedenken an staatliche Massenverbrechen, zueinander?

Die Tagung wird initiiert vom Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e. V. und dem Institut für Landesgeschichte am LDA Sachsen-Anhalt in Kooperation mit dem Netzwerk Industriekultur, dem Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt sowie der Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Sachsen-Anhalt.
Eingeladen sind Beiträge aus den Bereichen Wissenschaft, Museen, Gedenkstätten, ehrenamtliches Engagement sowie weiteren erinnerungspolitisch relevanten Institutionen.

Mit den Beiträgen soll eine Diskussion eröffnet werden, in der danach gefragt wird, welche Formen von Gewalt mit Industrie verbunden sind oder durch Industriezweige befördert werden. Im Fokus steht der mögliche Umgang mit der Geschichte von Gewalt an Orten der Industriekultur sowie in industriekulturellen Großerzählungen. Mögliche Beispiele ergeben sich aus heutigen und früheren Initiativen des Gedenkens sowie über Fallbeispiele der Industriegeschichte selbst und ihrer Thematisierung in Museen als Orten der Erinnerungskultur. Neben öffentlichen Institutionen erarbeiteten auch zahlreiche ehrenamtlich engagierte Personen Gedenkorte an Zwangsarbeit. Die ehemaligen Produktionsorte der Rüstungsindustrie von Kriegstechnik (Magdeburg), über Sprengstoffe (Coswig) bis hin zur chemischen Entwicklung des Giftgases Zyklon B (Dessau) weisen teils bereits durch die Arbeitsbedingungen schwerwiegende Verletzungen und tödliche Unfälle aus. Davon unbenommen sind die Erzeugnisse der Produktionen mit Tötungsabsicht hergestellt worden. Darüber hinaus können auch die Arbeitsbedingungen in der Braunkohlen- und in der chemischen Industrie der DDR Thema sein, die Ausbeutung und Ausgrenzung mit sich brachten wie die der (politischen) Strafgefangenen und der Bausoldaten oder von ausländischen Arbeiter:innen. Ebenso können mehr-als-menschliche Beziehungen, der Umgang mit Tieren im Kontext von Krieg, Gewalt und Industrie thematisiert werden.

Insgesamt erbitten wir Vorschläge aus den folgenden vier Themenbereichen der sachsen-anhaltischen Industriegeschichte, gerne in vergleichender oder transregionaler Perspektive:

1. Unfreie Arbeit: Welche Formen und Ausprägungen unfreier Arbeit lassen sich in der sachsen-anhaltischen Industriegeschichte identifizieren? Welche Bedeutung erlangten Formen unfreier Arbeit in der Industriegeschichte des Landes?
2. Arbeitsunfälle und Berufskrankheiten: Wie können Arbeitsunfälle und Berufskrankheiten als Thema der Industriegeschichte und der Landesgeschichte erforscht und vermittelt werden? Welche spezifischen Strukturen des Umgangs mit Arbeitsunfällen und Berufskrankheiten bildeten sich heraus?
3. Arbeitsbeziehungen: Welche gewaltvoll strukturierten Arbeitsbeziehungen lassen sich identifizieren? Welche Bedeutung haben Sexismus, Rassismus und Klassismus in der Industriegeschichte sowie der Erinnerung?
4. Unternehmen: Welche Unternehmensgeschichten lassen sich in die Geschichte von Industrie und Gewalt einordnen? Welche Bedeutung haben dabei insbesondere Unternehmen der Rüstungsindustrie? Welche Verbindung sachsen-anhaltischer Unternehmen zu staatlichen Gewaltverbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts lassen sich identifizieren?

Analytisch begrüßen wir sowohl Beiträge aus dem Bereich der Arbeits-, Wirtschafts-, Unternehmens- und Sozialgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts als auch aus der Erinnerungsgeschichte sowie der Museologie. Besonders freuen wir uns über Vorschläge von zivilgesellschaftlichen Initiativen und Vereinen.

Einreichungen von Themenvorschlägen im Umfang von 300 Wörtern und einer biographischen Notiz bitte bis zum 15. Juni 2025 an info@lhbsa.de

Reisekosten werden übernommen. Eine Publikation ist vorgesehen.

Rückfragen an: John Palatini (palatini@lhbsa.de) / Dr. Jan Kellershohn (jkellershohn@lda.stk.sachsen-anhalt.de) / Justus Vesting (jvesting@lda.stk.sachsen-anhalt.de)

Contact

Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e. V.
E-Mail: info@lhbsa.de

~ Traduzione italiana segue ~

Editors: Sergio Ferrarese (William & Mary) and Judith Tauber (Cornell University)

The Italian 1970s have often been described in reductive terms, reflecting a narrative diffused by politicians and controversial judicial rulings, both of which profoundly influenced public perception of this decade. Of these descriptions, the term “Years of Lead” is the most well-known, but also the most limited in its scope. In reality, Italy’s “long 1968” featured a complex, multifaceted kaleidoscope of social contestation from which emerged vibrant countercultures, revolutionary ideas, and innovative methods of self-organization. The period witnessed worker and student protests, the rise of feminism, the roots of the Italian LGBTQ+ movement, social reform, conservative backlash, changes in sexual norms, and much more.

The social contestation of the 1970s has been (re)elaborated through objects of memory, particularly in innumerable representations in literature, cinema, television, and theater. Given rising scholarly interest in the Italian 1970s in recent years, this bilingual special issue aims to highlight recent research related to the contestation of ideas, structures, and existing norms in the late 1960s–early 1980s, as well as responses to and cultural representations of those events. Issues to be addressed include—but are not limited to—the following: What radical ideas, events, and processes from the 1970s remain understudied and/or little known, and what impact have they had? What shape did public, state, intellectual, and media responses to this social contestation take? How has this activism been retold, and how might we add to or challenge these narratives? What might we learn from the 1970s for today?

We aim to foster interdisciplinary and intercontinental dialogue among scholars, so contributions from various disciplines and countries are encouraged.

We invite you to submit proposals related to individuals, groups, movements and collectives seeking to enact radical social change in Italy during the late 1960s–early 1980s, including but not limited to:
• feminists, the Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano (FUORI), the Fronte di Liberazione Omosessuale (FLO), the Brigate Saffo, the Realtà Lesbica, and others
addressing gender/sexuality-related concerns, including transsexuality;
• operaisti, autonomi, and others involved in workers’ struggles;
• students involved in contestation;
• individuals engaged in countercultural creative pursuits, such as Radio Alice, Radio Sherwood, Puzz or Il Male, among many others;
• individuals involved in the lotta armata;
• anti-Fascists;
• and other entities demanding and/or enacting radical social change not listed here, especially if they are understudied.

We seek contributions regarding:
• the history of late 1960s-early 1980s social contestation in Italy;
• the countercultures (ideas, organizational structures, texts, music, art…) of groups and movements involved;
• public, state, intellectual, and media responses to this contestation;
• as well as narratives and cultural representations (cinema, television, literature, theater, art, music…) of this period’s protests.

We ask that articles directly address (even briefly in the conclusion) what lessons or ideas can be drawn from these experiences.

Please submit a title, a brief proposal in Italian or English consisting of original and unpublished research (200–300 words), and a short biography (max. 200 words) to editors Judith Tauber (jmt349@cornell.edu) and Sergio Ferrarese (sferrarese@wm.edu) by June 15, 2025. The outcome of the selection process will be communicated shortly  thereafter. Authors of the selected proposals will be invited to submit full-length articles (approx. 5,000 words, not including endnotes or works cited) in Italian or English and formatted in MLA style by December 15, 2025. These articles will be double-blind peer-reviewed and, if accepted, included in the next special issue of NeMLA Italian Studies, Volume XLVI.
 

~ ~ ~
CFP per il numero XLVI della NeMLA Italian Studies
1970: Cultura, storia e memoria degli anni Settanta in Italia

Editors: Sergio Ferrarese (William & Mary) and Judith Tauber (Cornell University)
 
Gli anni ‘70 sono stati frequentemente etichettati in modo riduttivo, riflettendo un discorso dominato dal potere politico e da esiti giudiziari controversi dell’epoca, che ha influenzato profondamente la percezione pubblica di questo decennio. Tra le diverse definizioni, quella degli “anni di piombo” è la più nota, ma risulta anche la più limitativa. In realtà, il lungo Sessantotto ha rappresentato un universo complesso e sfaccettato, da cui sono emerse espressioni controculturali sofisticate, idee innovative, metodi di autorganizzazione e autogestione politica e culturale e, infine, percorsi rivoluzionari. Da questa stagione di fermento sociale sono nati il femminismo, inteso come critica radicale al patriarcato, i primi movimenti per i diritti LGBTQ+, nuove pratiche di liberazione sessuale e molto altro.
 
Gli anni ‘70 sono stati immortalati e rielaborati nel cinema, nella letteratura, nelle produzioni televisive e in drammi teatrali, attingendo alla memoria individuale e collettiva. Considerato il recente aumento dell’ interesse del mondo accademico verso una rivisitazione critica di questo decennio, il volume collettaneo che proponiamo intende mettere in luce i recenti risultati degli studi condotti su questo periodo della storia italiana, in relazione alla radicale messa in discussione della società tra il 1968 e i primi anni ‘80, e alle reazioni e alle rappresentazioni di quel tempo. Alcune tra le molte domande guida da considerare nell’elaborazione dei saggi sono: Quali forme, idee ed eventi di radicalismo politico rimangono ancora inesplorati? Quale impatto hanno avuto? Quali modalità hanno assunto le risposte del potere politico e dell’opinione pubblica a questa stagione di contestazioni? Come è stato narrato l’attivismo di quegli anni e in che modo possiamo fare luce su o criticare tali narrazioni? Che insegnamenti possiamo trarre dagli anni ‘70 e come possiamo utilizzare la loro eredità nel presente?
 
Il volume si propone lo scopo di promuovere un dialogo interdisciplinare e intercontinentale tra studiosi del decennio in esame. Si incoraggiano pertanto contributi provenienti da varie discipline e da altri paesi.  

Si invita a presentare proposte relative a persone, gruppi, movimenti e collettivi il cui obiettivo era il cambiamento radicale della società italiana tra la fine degli anni Sessanta e i primi anni Ottanta che affrontino:
• Femministe, il FUORI (Fronte Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano), il FLO (Fronte di Liberazione Omosessuale), le Brigate Saffo, la Realtà Lesbica, e altri che trattano questioni relative al genere, alla sessualità e transessualità;  
• Operaisti, autonomi e altri individui impegnati nelle lotte operaie;
• Studenti attivi nella contestazione;
• Persone impegnate in varie espressioni controculturali come Radio Alice, Radio Sherwood o Puzz, Il Male…;
• Persone legate alla Lotta armata;
• Antifascisti; E altre entità, in particolare se poco studiate, che hanno richiesto o  hanno portato a compimento dei cambiamenti radicali all’interno della società.  

Si invita inoltre ad inviare contributi che riguardano:
• La storia della contestazione sociale dalla fine degli anni Sessanta ai primi anni Ottanta
• Controculture (idee, forme di aggregazione sociale alternative, scritti, musica, arte…) di gruppi della sinistra extraparlamentare e movimenti;
• La risposta dei media, dello stato italiano e dell’opinione pubblica agli eventi legati agli eventi tumultuosi del lungo ‘68;
• Narrazioni ed espressioni culturali (cinema, televisione, letteratura, musica, arte…) del decennio in esame.  

Si richiede che gli articoli affrontino direttamente (anche brevemente nella conclusione) quali lezioni si possono trarre da quel periodo di intenso attivismo politico per il presente.
 
Si prega di inviare un titolo, una proposta originale ed inedita (200-300 parole) in italiano o in inglese, e una breve biografia (massimo 200 parole) ai curatori del volume Judith Tauber (jmt349@cornell.edu) e Sergio Ferrarese (sferrarese@wm.edu) entro il 15 giugno 2025. L’esito del processo di selezione sarà comunicato poco dopo. Gli autori delle proposte selezionate saranno invitati a inviare articoli completi (di circa cinquemila parole, note e bibliografia non incluse) in italiano o in inglese, seguendo le norme redazionali del manuale della MLA, entro il 15 dicembre 2025. Gli articoli saranno sottoposti a revisione paritaria e anonima e, se accettati, saranno inclusi nel prossimo numero speciale, XLVI, della NeMLA Italian Studies.

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Table of contents

 

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

DIANE KIRKBY

 

RESEARCH ARTICLES

“A CALCULATING BLOW”: THE 1937 MELBOURNE STAY-IN STRIKE

PHILLIP DEERY

 

MOBILITY AND LABOUR IN THE COLONIAL PRISON, INDIA C. 1820–70S

NABHOJEET SEN

 

LOST DEBATES: THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY AND WORLD WAR I, 1918

MURRAY PERKS

 

COMPENSATION HID BEHIND ASBESTOS WALLS: CLASS, PROTEST, AND JUSTICE IN THE DUST DISEASES TRIBUNAL OF NEW SOUTH WALES

JAMES WATSON

THE AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS UNION AND RANK-AND-FILE DEMOCRACY IN NEW SOUTH WALES, 1925–60

JOSEPH STARK

 

THE 1913–14 DRYLAND AGRICULTURE STRIKE IN NEW SOUTH WALES

ROBERT TIERNEY

 

RESEARCH NOTE

RESISTING THE ANTI-WELFARE STATE BACKLASH: THE AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE’S SOCIAL WELFARE ADVOCACY, 1975–83

PHILIP MENDES

 

OBITUARY

FAY MARLES (1926–2024): TRAIL BLAZER, FEMINIST, CHANGEMAKER

MARY CROOKS

 

LES LOUIS (1929–2025): LABOUR HISTORIAN

PETER LOVE

 

BOOK REVIEWS

GARY S. CROSS, FREE TIME: THE HISTORY OF AN ELUSIVE IDEAL

STEPHEN ALOMES

 

MICHAEL EASSON, IN SEARCH OF JOHN CHRISTIAN WATSON: LABOR’S FIRST PRIME MINISTER

D. A. CLANCY

 

ALEX ETTLING AND IAIN MCINTYRE, EDS, KNOCKING THE TOP OFF: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF ALCOHOL IN AUSTRALIA

FRANK BONGIORNO

 

HANNAH FORSYTH, VIRTUE CAPITALISTS: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PROFESSIONAL CLASS IN THE ANGLOPHONE WORLD, 1870–2008

CHRISTOPHER SHEIL

 

KATE LAING, SISTERS IN PEACE: THE WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA, 1915–2015

HANNAH VINEY

 

IOLA MATHEWS, RACE MATHEWS: A LIFE IN POLITICS

CHRIS MONNOX

 

DENIS MURPHY, SCREEN WORKERS AND THE IRISH FILM INDUSTRY

LEWIS FITZ-GERALD

 

MICHAEL QUINLAN, CONTESTING INEQUALITY AND WORKER MOBILISATION: AUSTRALIA 1851–1880

SEAN SCALMER

 

IMOGEN RICHARDS, GEARÓID BRINN AND CALLUM JONES, GLOBAL HEATING AND THE AUSTRALIAN FAR RIGHT

FRANK BONGIORNO

JAMES ROBB, TO FREE THE WORLD: HARRY HOLLAND AND THE RISE OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE PACIFIC

BOBBIE OLIVER

 

NINA TRIGE ANDERSEN, LABOR PIONEERS: ECONOMY, LABOR, MIGRATION IN FILIPINO-DANISH RELATIONS 1950–2015

DIANE KIRKBY

 

NOTICE BOARD

NOTICE BOARD

 

RESEARCH NOTICE BOARD

RESEARCH NOTICE BOARD

 

ASSLH DIRECTORY

AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF LABOUR HISTORY

Índice

• Presentación, Hernán Camarero

Dossier: “El enigmático argentino Félix Weil. Tentativas a cincuenta años de su muerte”

• Presentación del dossier, Santiago Roggerone y Hernán Camarero 
• Félix Weil en el debate sobre la socialización tras la revolución de noviembre en Alemania, 1918-1921, Jacob Blumenfeld
• El joven Félix Weil y la Argentina: entre el comunismo,el estudio del movimiento obrero y el proyecto del Instituto de Frankfurt, Hernán Camarero
• Félix Weil, el Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores y la economía marxista (1930-1940), Natalia Bustelo
• Félix Weil, historiador del tiempo presente, José César Villarruel
• “Fuera de lo común”. En torno a la vida y la obra de Félix Weil. Entrevista a Hans-Peter Gruber, Jacob Blumenfeld y Santiago M. Roggerone 

Artículos libres

• Inconsciente, cosificación y democratización en Historia y conciencia de clase, José Luis Moreno Pestaña
• Huelga azucarera y revancha patronal: estrategias de lucha y experiencia obrera en los ingenios Ledesma y La Esperanza, Jujuy (1920-1949), Nicolás Hernández Aparicio
• La división de la Federación Anarquista Uruguaya y la fundación de la Alianza Libertaria del Uruguay (1963-1965): la crisis del tercerismo en las filas anarquistas, Maite Iglesias 

Comunicaciones

• Hacia una nueva historia internacional del socialismo: contribuciones recientes de la historiografía francesa, Lucas Poy 

Crítica de libros

• Jordi Sancho Galán. El antifranquismo en la universidad. El protagonismo militante (1956-1977), por Mariano Millán
• Luis Campos. La Fortaleza. Sindicatos, Estado y relaciones de fuerzas (Argentina, 1945-2001), por Leandro Molinaro
• Rodolfo Laufer. La CGT clasista de Salta. Radicalización obrera y peronismo revolucionario en la Salta de los años 70, por José Barraza

 

Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda, revista de acceso abierto, es una publicación científica de historia social, política, cultural e intelectual, que tiene como objetivo impulsar la investigación, la revisión y la actualización del conocimiento sobre la clase trabajadora, el movimiento obrero y las izquierdas, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, propiciando el análisis comparativo. Es una publicación semestral (marzo-agosto y septiembre-febrero) y todos sus artículos son sometidos a referato externo con el sistema doble ciego. Las colaboraciones deben ser originales y no estar sometidas simultáneamente a evaluación en ninguna otra publicación.

Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda se encuentra indizada en el Núcleo Básico de Revistas Científicas Argentinas, en SCOPUS, ERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences), en Dialnet (Universidad de La Rioja), en el catálogo 2.0 de Latindex, en CLASE (Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, dependiente de la UNAM), en el DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) y en la REDIB (Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico). También es parte de las siguientes bases de datos, indexaciones y directorios: EuroPub, Journal TOCs; MALENA (CAICYT); BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine); CIRC (Clasificación Integrada de Revistas Científicas, de España); MIAR (Matriz de Información para el Análisis de Revistas, Universitat de Barcelona); BIBLAT (Bibliografía Latinoamericana en revistas de investigación científica y social, UNAM); BINPAR (Bibliografía Nacional de Publicaciones Periódicas Registradas); REDLATT (Red Latinoamericana del Trabajo y Trabajadores); Latinoamericana (Asociación de revistas académicas de humanidades y ciencias sociales) y LatinREV (Red Latinoamericana de Revistas Académicas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de FLACSO Argentina). El CEHTI es miembro de la International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI).

Archivos es una publicación del Centro de Estudios Históricos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas (CEHTI)

Director y Editor Responsable: Hernán Camarero

Secretarios de Redacción: Diego Ceruso y Martín Mangiantini

22–26 September 2025, Warsaw

The Asynchronous Histories Summer School aims to explore regions and moments in history marked by the coexistence of asynchronous sociopolitical tendencies and processes. These conditions often reveal paradoxical outcomes when seemingly well-established actors and mechanisms are put into practice. The absence—or inefficiency—of “The Great Synchronizer,” whether imperial order, centralized state apparatus, or the power of capital, has, in various periods and regions, created fertile grounds for blending the old and the new in unequal and unexpected ways.

Rather than viewing this coexistence of asynchronicities as a static phenomenon, we understand it as a dynamic and intricate process. In such situations, old forms may act as tools paving the way for new developments, while new forms may consolidate old arrangements, laws, and privileges. This interplay also triggers epistemological challenges, as research tools developed in global centres often fail to yield productive results when applied to these complex settings. This is why it is both challenging and indispensable to abandon normative definitions of phenomena and states of affairs in favour of listening to local actors, whose diversity ultimately calls into question apparently universal models and descriptions of reality—models that, in practice, are deeply rooted in Western centres.

In the first edition of the Asynchronous Histories Summer School, we seek to stimulate reflection on the theme of conceptual change, broadly understood. Our goal is to examine how concepts, ideas, and ideologies evolve amidst the coexistence of asynchronicities. We aim to move beyond binary perspectives, such as portraying given actors as never-fully-Western imitators or as guardians of domestic traditions. Instead, we propose thinking outside such frameworks, exploring the diverse intellectual stakes pursued by actors in the world’s “grey zones.”

Exemplary areas of inquiry include:

1. Western ideologies in non-Western settings.
2. Domestic political terminologies and procedures.
3. Christian ideas in non-Christian worlds.
4. Non-institutionalized areas of intellectual debate.
5. Transfers as resistance; transfers as domination.
6. Unrealized potentials, repressed imaginaries, and projects halted midway.
7. Local academic traditions in the history of ideas or philosophy.

Confirmed Lecturers

Among the distinguished lecturers for the first edition are:

• László Kontler (Central European University)
• Franz Fillafer (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
• Augusta Dimou (University of Leipzig)
• Waldemar Bulira (University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin)
• Jan Surman (Academy of the Sciences of the Czech Republic)
• Elías José Palti (University of Buenos Aires; National University of Quilmes)
• Olena Palko (University of Basel)
• Banu Turnaoglu (Sabancı University)
• Maciej Janowski (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences)
• Jani Marjanen (University of Helsinki)

Organizing Institutions

Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw

in partnership with

Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences

The History of Concepts Group

Organizing Committee

Anna Gulińska, Bartłomiej Błesznowski, Jan Krakowian, Piotr Kuligowski

Eligibility and Application

We welcome submissions from PhD students. Advanced MA students and early career postdocs (up to two years post-defence) are also encouraged to apply.

How to Apply

Please submit the following materials by May 31, 2025:

• A short CV (maximum two pages).
• A concise description of your research interests (up to 1,000 words).

Send your application to ahss.warsaw[at]gmail.com

Participation Fee

The participation fee is 150 EUR. In justified cases, this fee may be reduced.