Social and Labour History News

The ITH invites submissions for a conference which explores how social movements and political institutions engaged with women’s – paid and unpaid – work, and gendered ideas and practices of work and labour in the aftermath of WWII. The period between 1945 and the 1960s was marked by major turning points for workers’ rights, political engagement, and the development of social welfare systems and saw the struggle for the advancement of political and social rights of women around the
world. Key contexts shaping the struggles on gender and labour in this period included bordercrossing population movements and racialized diversity, changing patterns of international governance and social movement internationalism, post-WWII reconstruction, the economic boom, late colonial rule and decolonization, state-socialist catch-up development, and global sociopolitical competition. In different world regions and on the international stage, these contexts impacted on
the engagement with gender and labour to various degrees.

The conference seeks to advance our understanding of gender and labour in the post-1945 decades from a global perspective. It moves beyond historical narratives of the post-WWII era which have considered the establishment of new political regimes in or after 1945 as an unblemished break with the past, or construed the post-WWII period, alternatively, as the historical moment of women's integration into society as equals to men or as a mere prequel to the global changes after 1968. We invite scholars to submit papers that critically examine the interplay of gender and labour in social movements and the politics of work and explore how this interaction influenced and was influenced by the shifting political, social, and economic landscapes of the post-war period. We are interested in
women's and men’s gendered demands and organizational practices, the nexus of masculinities and labour, and in papers employing cross-regional and transnational perspectives. We are looking for new answers to the question of how to conceptualize a gendered "aftermath" of WWII, in regional and global perspective.

Conference Themes:

1. How to conceptualize an aftermath?
Historical studies have referred to the end of WWII as marking the beginning of a new epoch. The immediate aftermath of the war has been described as an ‘hour zero’, as the era of ‘reconstruction’ after massive destruction or (colonial) exploitation caused by the war, and as a period of (coming) fundamental regime change in formerly Nazi-ruled territories, Eastern Europe and the Global South. We invite applications that engage critically with the interpretative frameworks historians have applied to the aftermath. Questions addressed in this theme include:

● How does this epoch compare to other watershed moments of postwar eras?
● How did labour activists themselves understand the impact of (the end of) WWII, the gendered (post)war labour regimes and the “new” world order of the Cold War?
● Which concepts can capture the immediate post-WWII years when considering regional differences, and putting gendered labour organizing and labour regimes centre stage?

2. Political Rights and the Long Shadow of Wartime Labour Mobilization and (Far-)Right-Wing Politics
The rise of far-right ideologies during the interwar period, political oppression of labour movements, and wartime labour mobilization which included elements of coerced labour left a lasting imprint on the labour movement. In the post-war period, labour movements had to rebuild from this legacy of repression while confronting lingering far-right sentiments and, in some places, new elements of mobilization into work. We aim to explore how labour movements fought for gendered political rights and social justice, while also confronting repression and strong-armed labour mobilization. This session invites scholarly contributions that explore the long-term impacts of gendered wartime politics on labour movements. The
following research questions can be discussed in this section:

● How did the repression of labour under fascist and right-wing authoritarian regimes affect post-war labour organization and activism?
● How did labour movements advance workers’ political rights in the aftermath of the war?
● To what extent did labour movements confront or reconcile with former
collaborators or sympathizers of far-right ideologies?
● How were conceptions of masculinity renegotiated within labour movements as they transitioned from wartime and fascist repression and coercive policies of labour mobilization to peacetime activism and changed political landscapes?
● To what extent did wartime repression of labour activism under different political regimes around the world shape forms of labour mobilization and political organizing in the post-war period?

3. Mass displacement and Migrant Work
Mass displacement and large-scale population movements are one of the characteristics of the aftermath of war. WWII and its aftermath saw people fleeing conflict zones, becoming refugees, prisoners of war, and subject to sometimes forced relocation and detention. The early Cold War saw massive political confrontation over the right to migration and governments’ control over citizens’ movement across borders. Displaced persons, people on the move, and people barred from free movement often faced discrimination, economic hardship, and exploitation, including in domestic work. In this theme, the intersection between labour movements and labour regimes, the state, gender, and migration could be
explored through topics such as:

● How did labour movements and labour administrations address the needs and rights of displaced or detained women and migrant women workers?
● What forms of discrimination did these workers face, and how were or weren’t these challenges overcome?
● How did the inclusion (or exclusion) of migrant women’s labour shape post-war economies and labour politics in countries of origin and receiving countries?

4. Discrimination Against Women Workers and Multiply Marginalized Workers and Communities
The post-war period saw both advancements and setbacks for women workers, including  multiply marginalized women workers and their communities. While labour movements and organizations were central to advancing workers’ rights, they often failed to challenge gender, racial, and ethnic discrimination. In this section, the following questions can be 
examined, among others:

● How did labour movements and organizations react to or challenge the 
discrimination faced by women, workers of color, and marginalized groups in the workforce?
● What role did reference to multiple marginalization play in shaping labour movements’ and organizations’ policies and goals in the post-war era, if any?
● In what ways did multiply marginalized (women) workers organize for their rights within or outside of traditional labour structures?
● Were there explicit discourses on masculinities and femininities in the labour movement and labour organizations?

5. Labour and other Social Movements and the Struggles for Post-War Welfare Politics
One of the most significant legacies of post-WWII labour and other social movements is their role in the creation of welfare and universalist, socially inclusive labour politics. Labour unions and socialist and social democratic parties have been described as key players in advocating for state-led social security systems, healthcare, unemployment benefits, and pension schemes. Many of these policy schemes and advancements were deeply gendered. They tackled women as a special category of workers and engaged, implicitly or explicitly, with the gendered and racialized division of paid and unpaid work. As current research shows, the establishment of welfare politics in countries such as Great Britain and the Netherlands was made possible partly through revenues from their colonial territories. Against this background, we encourage papers which engage with questions such as:

● How did labour movements and organizations and other social movements influence the establishment of gendered post-war welfare and inclusive labour politics?
● What were the key political, economic, and social strategies employed by labour movements and organizations in these reforms?
● How did welfare programmes transform the relationship between labour, the state, and society, and what were the long-term consequences for the labour and other social movements?
● How did international and national labour organizations and other movements interact in shaping governmental strategies aimed at improving women workers’ lives, mobilizing them into the labour force, or remoulding their role in the community?
● How did labour movements and labour activists interact with states, their agents (bureaucrats) and international experts?

SUBMISSION
Proposed papers should include:

- Abstract (max. 300 words)
- Biographical note (continuous text, max. 200 words)
- Full address and Email address

The abstract of the suggested paper should contain a separate paragraph explaining how and (if applicable) to which element(s) or question(s) of the Call for Papers the submitted paper refers. The short CV should give information on the applicant’s contributions to the field of labour history, 
broadly defined, and specify (if applicable) relevant publications. For the purpose of information, applicants are invited to attach a copy of one of these publications to their application.

Proposals to be sent to our conference manager Laurin Blecha: conference@ith.or.at

CONFERENCE PUBLICATION
The ITH aims, depending on the coherence on quality of the conferences paper, to publish edited volumes arising from its conferences. Since 2013 the ITH conference volumes have been published in Brill’s Studies in Global Social History Series, edited by Marcel van der Linden. The ITH encourages the conference participants to submit their papers to this publication project. High-quality papers will be selected by the volume’s editors.

TIME SCHEDULE
Submission of proposals: 31 January 2027
Notification of acceptance: 1 March 2027
Full papers or presentation version: 15 August 2027

PREPARATORY GROUP
Glaucia Fraccaro, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Veronika Helfert, Institut für Geschichte des ländlichen Raumes, St. Pölten
Shivangi Jaiswal, Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Tiina Lintunen, University of Turku
Susan Zimmermann, Central European University Budapest/Vienna
Therese Garstenauer, ITH Vienna

THE ITH AND ITS MEMBERS 
The ITH is one of the worldwide known forums of the history of labour and social movements. The ITH favours research pursuing inclusive and global perspectives and open-ended comparative thinking. Following its tradition of cooperating with organizations of the labour movement, the ITH likewise puts emphasis on the conveyance of research outside the academic research community itself. Currently ca. 100 member institutions and a growing number of individual members from five 
continents are associated with the ITH.

Information on ITH publications in the past 50 years: https://www.ith.or.at/en/publications/

Online ITH membership application form: https://www.ith.or.at/de/mitgliedschaft/

Requisition ID:  29789 Location: Newcastle, GB Contract Type:  Fixed Term Working Pattern:  Full Time Posted Date:  01 October 2026 (on the website of the Newcastle University)/ 12 October 2026 (on the Social History Portal)  

Salary 

Research Assistant: £33,951 to £35,608 per annum
Research Associate: £36,636 to 41,064.00 per annum 

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 01 December 2026

 

The Role

We are seeking to appoint a Research Assistant/Associate (RA) with a specialism in modern British history to work on an interdisciplinary project entitled, The Night Shift 1850-present: Reimagining Sleep, Work and Wellbeing for Healthcare Professionals in English and Scottish Hospitals, led by PI Dr Kristin Hussey and funded by the Wellcome Trust. The project is hosted in the School of History, Classics & Archaeology, which has a vibrant and active research culture: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/about/

The Night Shift is an ambitious research project which aims to radically re-imagine sleep work and wellbeing for healthcare professionals working at night in England and Scotland. Working across medical, environmental and labour histories, the project will provide the first history of the British hospital ward at night. The Night Shift will develop a new framework to understand the lived experience of night shift work by bringing together historical insights with qualitative and Participatory Action Research.

The successful candidate will use historical and archival research to explore the development of night work in hospital settings from the nineteenth century to 2000. They will develop and apply conceptual and methodological approaches to historical night work. The postholder will also help to deliver a variety of public engagement outputs including an exhibition and public programme. Newcastle University is a signatory to the Concordat to support researchers’ career development which entitles researchers up to 10 days annually of personal CPD activities.

This post is a (maximum) 60-month fixed term Research Assistant/Associate in History, and a full-time appointment. The successful candidate will start work as soon as possible after 1 March 2027, ending no later than April 18, 2032. Flexible working is welcome, but the postholder must be willing to travel for fieldwork and other research/engagement activities. 

Applicants with minority and/or host community backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply. Should the successful applicant require a UK Visa for this role, they will be eligible to apply under the Endorsed Funder Route of the Global Talent Visa. The University will support the applicant through this process.

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of Research Innovation Role Profiles.pdf.  These profiles set out firstly the generic competencies and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and, secondly, the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level. 

Newcastle University is committed to the responsible use of research metrics as part of our research culture and research strategy. We advocate for the transparent, appropriate, and inclusive use of metrics, guided by expert judgment, to support high-quality, impactful research that is open, collaborative and sustainable. Click  here for our full policy statement on the Responsible use of Research Metrics. 

 

Contact for the post is Dr Kristin Hussey: kristin.hussey@newcastle.ac.uk 

 

To apply, please upload an up-to-date CV and cover letter outlining how you meet the essential job criteria. Please also upload one writing sample (e.g. journal article, book chapter, or thesis chapter) that you feel best reflects your research (10,000 words max). 

 

Key Accountabilities

Research Assistant

• Work closely with the project PI and others in the team on specific research studies/projects relating to The Night Shift 1850-present: Reimagining Sleep, Work and Wellbeing for Healthcare Professionals in English and Scottish Hospitals
• Conduct archival and historical research across England and Scotland to trace the development of hospital night working practices and to analyse findings to illuminate lived experience by a wide variety of healthcare professionals
• Attend core meetings with the rest of the team as well as workshops and conferences related to the project
• Collaborate with project team and partners to deliver public and policy outputs including an exhibition, training materials and a policy toolkit
• Collect, analyse and interpret research data and draw conclusions on the outcomes
• Co-ordinate own work with that of others, use problem solving to affect the achievement of research objectives and contribute to the planning of the project(s)
• Present information on research progress and outcomes to a Principal Investigator or groups overseeing the research project
• Write up results from own research activity and provide input into the research project’s dissemination, in whatever form (report, papers, chapters, books)
• Use research resources (including, where required, laboratories, workshops and specialist equipment) as appropriate

Research Associate

• Contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical or methodological aspects of the project
• Determine appropriate methodologies for research
• Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations
• Contribute to the writing up of the research and its dissemination, either through seminar and conference presentations or through publications
• Present research findings, either at conferences or through publications in reputable outlets appropriate to the discipline
• Contribute to grant applications submitted by others and develop own research objectives and proposals for funding

 

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of carrying out archival and historical research in the field of modern British history (post-1800), with a relevant disciplinary focus (ie, history of medicine, labour history, environmental history, sensory history)
• Demonstrable knowledge of relevant historiographical themes and methodologies (ie, sensory approaches, embodiment, temporality)
• Outstanding communication skills for realising research aims, public engagement and outreach, as well as those necessary to work successfully as part of a team
• Attention to detail and ability to work at high levels of accuracy
• Ability to present complex information effectively to a range of audiences
• Experience of working collaboratively with colleagues
• Excellent IT skills in all major office applications and with experience with Nvivo software desirable
• The ability to use personal initiative and creativity to solve research problems

In addition for Research Associate

• Awareness of the research environment
• High level of analytical and problem-solving capacity
• Ability to communicate complex information with clarity
• Experience of presentations at conferences and/or in high-quality publications

Attributes and Behaviour

• Commitment to working positively as a member of a multi-skilled research team
• Ability to negotiate and prioritise multiple, competing responsibilities and to work to deadlines
• Willingness to work flexibly, responsively and sensitively to the needs of project participants
• Commitment to continued professional development
• Understanding of good practice in equality, inclusion and diversity

 

Qualifications

Research Assistant

• Masters Degree in History or another relevant subject or discipline, such as Medical Humanities, Geography, Sociology, Cultural Studies, etc

In addition for Research Associate

• Awarded PhD in History or another relevant subject or discpline, such as Medical Humanities, Geography, Sociology, Cultural Studies, etc
   

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Organiser: University of Tübingen; University of Gothenburg; University of Vienna; American Historical Association Host: University of Tübingen Funded by: University of Tübingen; University of Gothenburg; University of Vienna Postcode:n 72074 City: Tübingen Country: Germany Takes place: In attendance Dates: 28.06.2027 - 01.07.2027 Deadline: 15.11.2026 Website: https://rhs.hypotheses.org/  

The purpose of this seminar is to promote the historical study of refugees, who are too often regarded as a phenomenon of recent times. By viewing the problem of refugees from a historical perspective, the seminar seeks to complicate and contextualize our understanding of people who have fled political or religious conflicts, persecution, and violence. By bringing together 14 advanced PhD students and early postdocs from different parts of the world whose individual research projects examine refugees in different times and places, we intend to give a sense of purpose to this emerging field of study and demonstrate the value of viewing the plight of refugees from a historical perspective. The seminar is meant as a platform to share research findings, ideas, and work in progress.

We invite contributions from recent PhDs, as well as young scholars in the final stages of their dissertations. The applicants’ proposal should indicate at what stage the proposed contribution is and what they hope to gain from participating in the seminar. In addition to historians, we also encourage applications from researchers working in fields such as sociology, political science, anthropology, ethnic and area studies, but expect the application to make explicit reference to historical dimensions. Possible contributions include:
- Studies of refugee movements and exile diasporas in various periods and places;
- Studies of the ethnic, gendered, racial, religious, and other characteristics of refugee groups and how they impact on reception policies and processes;
- Studies of reception and aid policies, and on the repercussions of refugees on host states and societies;
- Studies of the changing inter-state framework of refugee movements, such as international or inter-imperial cooperation, the role of international governmental or non-governmental actors, humanitarian organizations, etc.;
- Studies of the infrastructures of exile (camps, networks, economies, regulations)
- Studies of the conceptual history of refugees and exile (legal history, administrative practice, cultural history, etc.)

Papers will be pre-circulated five weeks before the seminar to allow maximum time for peers and invited senior scholars to engage in discussions on the state of the field. The workshop language will be English. The organizers will cover basic expenses for travel and accommodation. The seminar is hosted by Jan C. Jansen (UT), Dane Kennedy (George Washington University), Kerstin von Lingen (UV) and Sari Nauman (UG). The participants will be joined by a group of leading senior scholars in the field of refugee history, including Delphine Diaz (CY Cergy Paris Université-Institut universitaire de France), Peter Gatrell (University of Manchester) and Susanne Lachenicht (University of Bayreuth).

The seminar is supported by the University of Tübingen, the University of Vienna, the University of Gothenburg, the Pro Futura Scientia Project “Outsiders Within” and the ERC projects “GLORE. Global Resettlement Regimes” and “Atlantic Exiles” For more information on the seminar and its previous cohorts, visit its website at https://rhs.hypotheses.org.

Please submit a brief CV (max. 2 pages) and a proposal of no more than 750 words in English in one PDF by November 15, 2026) to refugee-history@histsem.uni-tuebingen.de. Please contact us under the same email address if you have any questions. Successful applicants will be notified in January 2027.

Contact

Email: refugee-history@histsem.uni-tuebingen.de

Recent scholarship has challenged stereotypes about the role of post-Soviet Muslim republics in international politics. These works emphasize how states like Azerbaijan and the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics are more than just an arena in which regional actors such as Russia, China, Iran, and Türkiye, or more distant actors like the United States or the European Union, vie for influence. These works stress how these states actively shape regional dynamics through local norms and strategic engagement (Cooley 2012, Dadabaev 2021, Schatz 2021). Some studies reveal how a variety of actors in these post-Soviet Muslim republics leverage global legal and financial institutions to reinforce and challenge authoritarian governance at home (Cooley and Heathershaw 2017) ; others examine how China’s initiatives in the region recalibrate power balances—offering local actors leverage against Russian influence while seeking to avoid new dependencies (Petersen and Pantucci, 2022 ; Jardine and Lemon 2025). Collectively, this research challenges long-standing stereotypes of isolation, positioning states in these regions as agents in an increasingly multi-polar world ; with local elites and other actors (including civil society, activists, and cultural producers) emerging in this new scholarship as adept managers of the tensions between domestic politics and the demands of larger powers.

Despite the emerging focus on Central Asia and the Caucasus as a cornerstone to geopolitical shifts and, separately, a growing scholarship on the politics of gender and sexuality, only recently have scholars have considered the relationship between the geopolitical shifts in these regions and their impact on the politics and norms of gender and sexuality (Shevtsova, 2023 ; Luciani, 2023 ; Dall’Agnola and Wilkinson, 2025 ; Namazov, 2024). To advance this research agenda and as part of the AHRC-DFG project “Transitions : Examining Changing Regimes of Sexuality in Post-Soviet Muslim Republics,” we are organizing a Special Issue in Sexualities to develop this agenda further. Topics of interest include but are not limited to :

• “Norm entrepreneurs” in shaping discourses on gender and sexuality in Central Asia and the Caucasus since the 1990s.
• Critical junctures in efforts to promote specific normative positions by external actors—through legal reforms, funding initiatives, or other mechanisms.
• Localization of reforms or discourses introduced by external actors in Central Asia and the Caucasus. 
• The endurance of Soviet-era gender norms or how they have been displaced or hybridized. 
• Liberal and Islamic genealogies and discourses on “traditional” or “national” values.
• The role of religious actors in debates on gender and sexuality. 
• The role of global powers, including China, Russia, and USA influencing debates and norms of gender and sexuality.
• The role of other actors including from Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the UAE in influencing debates and norms of gender and sexuality.

Submission Process

In order to provide authors with feedback and ensure the highest quality of the special issue, we follow a multi-step submission process. Authors should send Prof. Dr. Timothy Nunan [timothy.nunan@ur.de] and a proposal as a single PDF document containing their proposed paper title, an abstract of no more than 500 words, and a short biographical note (100 words, describing their current position and research focus) by December 1, 2026. 

Feedback on abstracts and invitations to submit full articles will be returned by early January 2027. Invited authors must then submit their manuscripts (maximum 7,000 words and conforming to the style guidelines of Sexualities) to Dr Delatolla and Prof. Dr. Nunan for initial desk edits by March 15, 2027, before submitting their articles to the journal portal by April 15, 2027. The articles will be independently peer reviewed ; an invitation to submit an article to the special issue does not guarantee publication in Sexualities.

Issue coordinators

• Dr Andrew Delatolla is Associate Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds.
• Dr Timothy Nunan is Professor for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS) at the University of Regensburg.

Keywords

• central asia, caucasus, history of sexuality, international relations, soviet union, iran, turkey

Contact

• Timothy Nunan
  courriel : timothy [dot] nunan [at] ur [dot] de

Organiser: "In Global Transit: International Standing Working Group to Explore Spatial and Temporal Dimensions in Global Migration", Technische Universität Braunschweig Postcode: 38106 City: Braunschweig Country: Germany Takes place: Digitally Date: 02.11.2026 Website: https://transit.hypotheses.org/2762  

Since the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789), France has promised universal rights yet inconsistently lived up to those ideals. Polish Jews arriving in France in the early 20th century tested this commitment and the expansiveness of French hospitality. This talk examines the migration of Jews from Kałuszyn, Poland to France, asking how migrants’ political identity and sense of community changed as they arrived as strangers in a strange land. This microhistory is designed to illustrate the importance and vitality of political ideas in the history of migration.

Online, please register here: https://tu-braunschweig.webex.com/weblink/register/rd02bbf1d139a7d9e300e5976805c7cb8.

Programme

November 2, 2026
12:30-1:30 pm Eastern Standard Time / 18:30-19:30 Central European Time

Contact

Julian zur Lage (julian.zur-lage@tu-braunschweig.de)

Organiser: Maastricht University Location: Maastricht University Brussels Hub, Av. des Arts 47 Postcode: 1000 City: Brussels Country: Belgium Takes place: In attendance Dates: 03.06.2027 - 04.06.2027 Deadline: 30.10.2026   As Michael Rothberg has persuasively shown, memories interact across national borders and political regimes, and tend to cross-fertilize each other in intriguing and consequential ways (Rothberg, 2009). The proposed workshop intends to analyze how memories of European colonialism, Soviet communism, and fascism have become intertwined, and with what effects.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Nazi-Soviet war of 1941-45 was the centerpiece of the devastating aggression the Axis powers launched, conducting comparisons as well as suggesting facile equivalences between fascism and Soviet communism have become something of a commonplace within the European mainstream – first in Western Europe during the Cold War and then, in the post-Cold War decades, across Eastern Europe too. Such comparisons – as well as those facile equivalences – have often been suggested via regime typologies, especially through the concept of totalitarianism (Geyer–Fitzpatrick, 2009). Links between European colonialism, on the one hand, and fascist movements and regimes, on the other, have repeatedly been dissected as well, not least via studies on imperialism, racism, and mass violence (Mazower, 2009). Such links have at times become the subject of public debates too, primarily though far from exclusively in Germany (Zimmerer, 2025). European colonialism and Soviet communism have mostly been understood as antagonistic forces in history since Soviet communist regimes tended to be vocal opponents of West European colonialism and empires. At the same time, Soviet communism, and the Soviet Union in particular, have also been repeatedly critiqued as forms of imperialism (Slobodian–Mark, 2018). It might therefore strike us as rather ironic that memories of the two within current European memory regimes seem largely disconnected, or may even have become implicit competitors, with the “crimes of Soviet communism” entering the EU’s mainstream politics of history earlier than the memory of European colonial history and colonial crimes (Sierp, 2020).

A starting point for the planned discussions is indeed that the intertwined histories and memories of all three sides of this memory triangle have recurrently been discussed already, however, the triangle itself – its history and present shape – has surprisingly rarely been conceptualized and even less often studied. Centering this crucial memory triangle is precisely where our workshop intends to provide new impulses and launch more comprehensive explorations. To close the aforementioned analytical gap, we shall aim to combine approaches from intellectual and conceptual history with those in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies; further approaches, or combinations of them, are most welcome too. In terms of our temporal and geographic scope, we are primarily interested in memories under such rules as well as in liberal democratic environments, especially within the European Union, over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
A special issue of a leading academic journal is being planned. Beyond the analytical and the critical, we also aim at developing policy-relevant insights.

Subjects of particular interest include but are not restricted to

- Studies of historical actors and memory activists who have interconnected memories of European colonialism, Soviet communism, and fascism – and may have personally experienced all three

- Studies of intellectual products, including works of professional historiography, that analyze and reflect on the histories and memories of all three

- Studies of artistic engagement with these pasts across the generations, especially in public spaces, i.e. through sites of remembrance, museums, monuments etc.

- Studies that compare bilateral memories, or how have memories interacted on a bilateral basis, and what do we gain by comparing those bilateral relations – i.e., the three sides of our triangle – to each other?

- Studies that analyze and compare memory regions in Europe, i.e., how have memories of the three interacted in different parts of Europe? What are specific issues of mediation or perhaps conflict between the three in various parts of Europe? How have – (post)colonial and post-conflict – migrations impacted memory narratives on the regional level and beyond?

- Presentations that offer policy-relevant insights responding to questions such as the following: how have debates on the European level been shaped by national and regional specificities and their interactions? What memory issues might need to be addressed in different regions of Europe first? How to deal with the memory triangle on the European level today, how could European remembrance include memories of all three in a equitable manner?

Conveners: Ferenc Laczó, Diana M. Natermann, and Aline Sierp (Maastricht University)
Date and location: June 3 and 4, 2027 at the Brussels Hub of Maastricht University combined with a public panel at the House of European History co-organized by the latter institution

Please apply by sending an abstract of 250 to 300 words and a brief CV of max. two pages to Ferenc Laczó ( f.laczo@maastrichtuniversity.nl ) no later than Friday, October 30, 2026.
We will make sure to notify all applicants before the end of November.

References
Geyer, Michael and Sheila Fitzpatrick (eds.). Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.
Mark, James and Quinn Slobodian. “Eastern Europe in the Global History of Decolonization.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2018.
Mazower, Mark. Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. London: Allen Lane, 2009.
Rothberg, Michael. Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Redwood City: Stanford UP, 2009.
Sierp, Aline. “EU Memory Politics and Europe's Forgotten Colonial Past.” In: Interventions – International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 22/6 (2020), 686-702.
Zimmerer, Jürgen (ed.). Germany's History Wars: Contesting Memory and Identity Today. Berlin: de Gruyter – Oldenbourg, 2025.

Dates: July 4, 2027 - July 10, 2027 Location: Gwangju, South Korea Subject Fields: Black History / Studies, Intellectual History, Labor History / Studies, Sociology, World History / Studies

The abolition of racial slavery in the nineteenth century aligned with universal liberal norms of human freedom and equality but did not merely fulfill those norms. Processes of slaves’ emancipation resulted instead in the reconstitution of racial hierarchies and subjugation constraining or impeding the self-determination of newly freed or colonized Black populations. The labor contract and production systems it structured within globalizing capitalism were key sites of renewed racialized domination to the extent that, when applied to blackness, laboring status was shaped by institutions that prevented actual political citizenship and social inclusion. Liberal ideas and modes of governance were therefore adapted to the task of combining normative universality with practical modalities of racial domination. Blackness thus confronted what Saidiya Hartman called “the afterlife of slavery.” This session will discuss the continuing subordination of formerly enslaved and newly colonized Black and Afro-descended populations within the labor regimes—intended as articulations of employment systems, accumulation patterns, laws, and ideas—of the post-abolition world. The session will also focus on how governments, experts, and social actors conceptualized, enforced, and institutionalized the racial subordination of post-slavery blackness in settler colonialism and evolving modalities of plantation or extractive capitalism. Analyses of and comparisons between cases from the Atlantic world, Africa, West and South Asia, societies along the Indian and Pacific oceans, and the Mediterranean are especially welcome, as are contributions on how the historically long duration of racialized labor regimes shapes social stratifications in today’s racial capitalisms.

Contact Information

Franco Barchiesi, Department of Comparative Studies, Ohio State University

Contact Email barchiesi.1@osu.edu

by Marília B.A. Ariza, Maria Helena P.T. Machado, and Cassia Roth

This special issue brings Brazil squarely into the centre of the recent trend on gender, slavery, and capitalism in the global history of slavery. The articles here  – from scholars working in American, Brazilian, and European universities at all career stages – are specifically dedicated to the study of Brazilian slavery and gender. The articles emphasize different aspects of enslaved women’s lives in Brazil during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Topics range from pregnancy, breastfeeding, child rearing, and other reproductive experiences to varied labour regimes including both field and domestic labour, to enslaved people’s use of the judicial system and their fights for freedom. The articles also bring the topic of indigenous slavery in its varied forms in frontier areas during the colonial and imperial periods into dialogue with histories of African slavery. Together, they demonstrate how Brazilian historiography is evolving in its consideration of the importance of gender in defining slavery and illuminating the history of the most persistent and varied system of slavery in the Americas.

Table of Contents

Part I: Enslaved Reproduction in Legislation, Custom, and Practice

Cassia Roth, Rethinking Borders and Birth: Free Womb and Free Soil in Portugal and Brazil

Daniele Weigert, Between Civilization and Slavery: Dispossession and Racial Mixing in Brazilian Nation Formation

Maria Helena P. T. Machado & Antonio Alexandre Isidio Cardoso, A Freedwoman and Her Enslaved Children: Terror, Motherhood, and Death in Northern Brazil amid Slavery’s Decline

Part II: Health, Body and Gender in Slavery

Tânia Salgado Pimenta & Flavio dos Santos Gomes, Diseases, African Women and Atlantic Demography in Rio de Janeiro, c. 1830–1855

Lorena Telles, Childbirth in the Slave Quarters: Midwives, Doctors and Afro-Descendant Culture in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Brazil

Caroline Passarini Sousa, Slavery and Reproduction: Enslaved Women in Medical and Plantation Manuals in Brazil and Cuba

Part III: Motherhood and Slavery: From Frontiers to Plantations

Izabel Barros, Beyond the Ledger: The Story of Enslaved Women on a Swiss-Owned Plantation in Nineteenth-Century Ilhéus

Mariana Muaze, The Private Sphere of Domination: Gender Relations, Domestic Slavery, and Violence in Paraíba Valley during the Nineteenth Century

Part IV: Gendering Freedom

Karoline Carula, The Maternal Experiences of Enslaved and Freed Women in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1880-c.1888

Luciana da Cruz Crito, Sabina da Cruz: Fabulations About the Life of the Woman Who Denounced the Malê Uprising

Marília B.A. Ariza, On Being a Freedwoman: Gender Relations, Gendered Violence and a Woman’s Perspective in Southeastern Brazil During the 1880s

Contact Information
Cassia Roth   Contact Email cassia.roth@ucr.edu

The aim of this international conference is to more fully elucidate the relational nature of the distinction between refugees and migrants, its function in the wider field of migration, and its genealogy. While chiefly historical in focus, the conference will also foster interdisciplinary approaches and reflections.

Organisers

• Bastiaan Bouwman (Utrecht University, the Netherlands),
• Fabrice Langrognet (CNRS, France),
• eremy Adelman (University of Cambridge)

Funders

Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (Fung Global Network Fund), Gates Cambridge Trust

Registration

Attendance is in-person only. Registration is possible (capacity allowing) by sending an email to fgnf.cambridge@gmail.com.

Programme

Thursday 15 October

8:30-9:00  Registration

9:00-9:15  Opening remarks Bastiaan Bouwman, Fabrice Langrognet, and Jeremy Adelman (Utrecht University, CNRS, and University of Cambridge)

9:15-11:15  Panel 1: Refugees, migrants, or alternative categories?

Moderation and discussion: Mia Bay (University of Cambridge)

• Aytek Soner Alpan (British Institute at Ankara) – “From Treaty Category to Identity Claim: Mübadil and the Uneven Making of the Refugee-Migrant Divide”
• Mae Ngai (Columbia University) – “Refugees, History, and the Human”
• Catherine Nolan-Ferrell (University of Texas at San Antonio) – “‘Unrecognized Refugees’ and Alternate Citizenships in Chiapas, Mexico”

11:30-12:00  Discussion: Archival access in uncertain times

Moderation: Jeremy Adelman (University of Cambridge)

Speaker: Heather Faulkner (Senior Archivist, UNHCR)

12:00-13:00  Lunch (Bradfield Court) – speakers only

13:00-15:00  Panel 2: Repatriation and the end of refugee status

Moderation and discussion: Irial Glynn (University College Dublin)

• Noel Mariam George (London School of Economics) – “Across a Sea of Papers: Repatriation, Treaties, and the Afterlives of Post-Imperial Displacement in South Asia”
• Tosin Durodola (School of Advanced Study, University of London) – “Ending Refugeehood: Cessation and the Historical Production of the Refugee–Migrant Divide”
• Wolfgang Thiele (Free University of Berlin) – “Refugees’ Authenticity on Trial: Forced Repatriations and Transnational Activism in Cold War Japan”

15:30-17:30  Panel 3: Labour, security, and precarity

Moderation and discussion: Christoph Rass (Osnabrueck University)

• Laura Robson (Yale University) – “The ‘Nansen Passport’ and the Birth of the Modern Guest Worker”
• Jiajia Duan (University of California, Irvine) – “Walk the Line: The Golden Venture and the Making of Chinese Asylum in the Post–Cold War United States”
• Laura Madokoro (Carleton University) – “‘Dust Bowl’ Refugees: Citizenship, Mobility and the Hardening of Rhetorical Strategies”

18:15-19:45  Reception at Gates Cambridge Sr. House (17 Mill Lane) – upon registration

20:00  Conference dinner – speakers only

Thursday 16 October

8:30-9:00  Walk-in (coffee/tea)

9:00-11:00  Panel 4: The evolution of international norms and concepts

Moderation and discussion: Tugba Basaran (University of Cambridge)

• Leo Lucassen (Leiden University) – “In The Eye of The Beholder, The Fuzzy Boundary between ‘Normal’ and Refugee Migrants. A Global Historical Approach”
• Yulia Ioffe (University College London) – “Complementary Protection and the Changing Boundaries of the Refugee–Migrant Distinction”
• Esther Brito (Pontifical University of Comillas) – “Concretizing the Tensions of Queer Mobility: Migration and Asylum as Sites of Contradiction”

11:30-13:30  Panel 5: Agency and refugee claim-making

Moderation and discussion: Anne Irfan (University College London)

• Anna Deriugina (University of Vienna) – “From Political Exile to Managed Mobility: Russian Émigrés in the Age of Displaced Persons”
• Nadia Latif (Mount Holyoke College) – “Towards A Micro-History of The Forced-Voluntary Distinction through The Experiences of Palestinian Refugees in Burj al-Barajneh Camp”
• Farhana Afrin Rahman (University of Warwick) – “Claims Without a Category: Legal Non-Status and the Gendered Politics of Belonging in Rohingya Displacement”

13:30-14:30  Lunch (Bradfield Court) – speakers only

14:30-16:30  Panel 6: Ending empires and intergroup dynamics

Moderation and discussion: Ria Kapoor (Queen Mary University of London)

• Ana Guardião (University of Coimbra) – “Addressing Forced Displacement: Migration and ‘Refugeedom’ within Portuguese Decolonisation (1960s-1970s)”
• Michal Frankl (Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe) – “(Un)defining Refugees in Postimperial Austria and Czechoslovakia”
• Arnab Dutta (University of Groningen) – “The Foreshadowing of Refugee Politics before the Postcolonial Moment: Jewish Exiles in British Bengal, 1930s-40s”

17:00-18:00  Concluding discussion

Chairs: Bastiaan Bouwman, Fabrice Langrognet, and Jeremy Adelman (Utrecht University, CNRS, and University of Cambridge)

Location

• Bradfield Court - Silver St
  Cambridge, Großbritannien (CB3 9EU)

Takes place: in attendance

Keywords

• refugee, migrant

Contact

• Fabrice Langrognet
  courriel : fabrice [dot] langrognet [at] cnrs [dot] fr

Saint-Denis/France

Ce séminaire de recherche du Centre de recherches sociologiques et politiques de Paris (Cresppa) explore les rapports de pouvoir dans les musiques hip-hop sous les angles esthétique, politique et professionnel. Il y est question des rapports de pouvoir qui configurent les industries musicales et les trajectoires des artistes et personnels de renfort des musiques hip-hop, des contestations sociales portées dans et hors des mondes du hip-hop, notamment du point de vue des rapports sociaux de classe, de sexe et de race. Les musiques hip-hop y sont abordées en tant que phénomène français mais aussi international, en dialogue avec les collègues étrangers invité·e·s au sein du Cresppa ou de passage en France.

Présentation

La sixième saison du séminaire « Fight the power ? Musiques hip hop et rapports sociaux de pouvoir » (CRESPPA / Cemti / ACTE) reprend cette année ! Les séances auront lieu principalement à l'Université Paris 8, en salle A2-201 ou A2-204, les vendredi après-midi de 15h à 17h30 (sauf exception signalée). 

Les inscriptions sont obligatoires et se font ici. Un lien visio pourra être envoyé aux participants inscrits qui en font la demande mais sans garantie de la qualité de la connexion internet.

Programme Séance n°1 - Jeudi 8 octobre 2026 (15h)

Pour la première séance, nous aurons le plaisir d'accueillir Ismael Allem (rappeur et comédien) pour une discussion avec Marie Sonnette-Manouguian (Paris Nanterre / Cresppa-CSU) intitulée « Patrimonialisation et médiation du rap : la transmission des histoires et pratiques du hip-hop » en salle A2-201.

Nous vous invitons ensuite à découvrir le spectacle d'Ismaël Allem – Cie Trou d’mémoire « Le rap est une musique de vieux » de 18h à 19h30 à La Coupole de la Maison de l'Etudiant.

« Le Rap Est Une Musique De Vieux « mêle narration, musique et vidéo, dans une forme iconoclaste proche des conférences gesticulées... avec du rap dedans. Destiné aux plus fins connaisseurs comme aux novices, le spectacle propose de décrypter les origines de cette musique, et d’apporter des éléments de réponse à ce paradoxe : le rap est à la fois une musique très méconnue, et la plus écoutée en France aujourd’hui.

Séance n°2 - Vendredi 11 décembre 2026 (9h30-13h)

Demi-journée d'étude consacrée au rap en Asie centrale « Digitalisation hip-hop knowledge and musical innovation : Central asian european dialogue » en partenariat avec le projet « MAJIC : Memories, arts and social justice in central asia ».

• Présentations de Dilda Ramazan (Sorbonne Université), Lucia Direnberger (CNRS, IFEAC), Florian Coppenrath (Humboldt, Berlin) et Karim Hammou (CNRS, Cresppa-CSU).

Séance n°3 - Vendredi 5 février 2027 (15h-17h30)

Présentation de l'ouvrage « Géographie du rap : Villes et scènes en France et aux Etats‑Unis » (PUR, 2026) par son auteur Severin Guillard (Université Picardie Jules Verne, Habiter le monde), discussion par Keivan Djavadzadeh (Paris 8, CEMTI).

Séance n°4 - Vendredi 2 avril 2027(15h-17h30)

Présentation de l'ouvrage « Reflexivity in French Rap : More than a Mirror to the Republic » (Oxford, 2026) par son autrice Emily Q. Shuman (Radboud University), discussion par Emmanuelle Carinos Vasquez (Sorbonne Université, Institut ACTE).

Séance n°5 - Vendredi 11 juin 2027 (15h-17h30)

Présentation du dossier de la revue French Cultural Studies « Race and the cultural industries in France » par ses directeur·ices, Karim Hammou (CNRS, Cresppa-CSU) et Emily Q. Shuman (Radboud University) et par l'auteur de l'article « La race dans le rap français, un signifiant flottant ? Diam's et la construction d'une persona en clair-obscur », Keivan Djavadzadeh (Paris 8, CEMTI), discussion par Princia Andrianirina (Paris 8, Cresppa-CSU).

Informations utiles

Les séances sont en français. Merci de prévoir d'arriver 15 minutes avant à l'Université Paris 8, le temps de vous diriger vers le bâtiment de la maison de la recherche. 

Vous trouverez le programme en corps du mail et bientôt (dès que le site fonctionnera à nouveau) sur https ://fight-the-power·sciencesconf·org/. Pour rappel, nous encourageons toutes les personnes intéressées par les recherches sur le hip-hop à rejoindre la liste de diffusion H-Herc, afin de recevoir et de diffuser l'actualité de la recherche sur cet objet.

Lieu

• A2-201/A2-204 (Bâtiment A, attenant à la Maison de la Recherche) - 2 rue de la liberté
  Saint-Denis, France (93200)

Format de l'événement

• Événement hybride

Appendices

• affiche ftp 2026.png
• affiche ismael.png

Mots-clés

• hip hop, rap, pouvoir, intersectionnalité, culture

Contact

• Mail des organisateur-ices du séminaire
  courriel : fight-the-power [at] sciencesconf [dot] org

Inscription

• Lien d'inscription 2026-2027

The mainstream historiographies of industrialisation habitually emphasise the novel energy sources and materials that powered this transformative era, such as coal, steel, steam and electricity, implicitly assuming that wood, an important pre-industrial resource, was destined for an inevitable decline. Histories of industrialisation also disproportionately focus on Europe and North America. Stemming from the research vectors of the ERC Starting Grant “Industrial Wood: European Industrialisation as Seen from the Forests (1870-1914)”, this conference aims to rethink the relevance of wood in an unevenly industrialising world throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. It follows more recent interpretative paths, which draw attention to the material diversity of industrial metabolism, in order to achieve a more complex understanding of the social, economic and environmental histories of industrialisation. The conference also seeks to geographically decentre the research perspective and discover the links between forests and industrialisation in the global context.

Industrialisation, understood as a systemic social and economic transformation underpinned by technological innovations and leading to changes in production regimes, was an uneven and chronologically mis-aligned process within Europe and globally, stretching from the late 18th century far into the 20th century. Consequently, the relationship between industrialisation and forest exploitation varied depending on the national and international politics, markets, law regulations, access to technology, environmental movements, property and labour regimes, imperial dynamics and colonial power. Attentive to these complexities, the organisers have approached industrialisation as an a-synchronous, multi-focal and globally encompassing social and economic process, activated by a confluence of economic impetus and political agenda.

Even if in the course of industrialisation wood has been marginalised as a combustible, it maintained its significance in industrial economies as a construction material. Moreover, innovations in technology and transportation – both the drivers and the outcomes of industrialisation – made forests increasingly accessible for large-scale extraction, thus bringing industrial logging into the furthest reaches of the woods and fundamentally reshaping them economically, socially and ecologically. Recent historical, anthropological and archeological studies, focusing mostly on North America and Europe, show that extractivism, (im)migration and environmental degradation were a part of this process. They also reveal that industrialisation of timber production did not mean a complete break with rural economies, and that the demand for wood as fuel or production material (for paper or packaging, for example) changes depending on the historical moment. Through this conference, we aim to broaden the conversation geographically to include global histories of industrialisation and to answer these questions: how did industrialisation change the world’s forests? What kinds of new relationships, dependencies and hierarchies did the arrival of industrialisation within the forest context instigate with regards to natural environments and the working lives linked to their transformation? How does our understanding of industrialisation change when we cease to read it as a sequence of substitutions and instead view it as a process of persistence, accumulation and re-articulation, wherein old material and energy flows are not erased by new ones but are intricately woven into them, undergoing profound transformation? Ultimately, what does the industrialisation of forests mean? And how do we adjust our research methodologies to answer these questions?

The conference seeks to explore cases, with a double focus on forests and industrialisation, in various political contexts and across different geographies throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The papers should relate to but do not have to be limited to the following themes:

• industrialisation and wood consumption
• labour, migration, gender and ethnicity
• empires, colonialism and decolonisation
• industrial wood uses, wood-based businesses and geographies of timber flow
• networks, circulation of ideas and technology
• industrial timberscapes (timber production complexes, workers settlements, infrastructure)
• deindustrialisation and its impact on livelihoods
• environmental effects of industrialisation in forests

Scholars in humanities and social sciences, interested in these topics, are welcome to apply. Ultimately, the conference aims to foster an interdisciplinary confluence between environmental history, social history, economic history, environmental anthropology and related sub-disciplines. We invite contributions from doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers and senior scholars.

ORGANISATION, SUBMISSION AND DEADLINES:

To apply for the conference, please submit a single PDF-file consisting of:

• an abstract of the presentation with a title (max. 500 words)
• name, institutional affiliation, and a list of relevant publications

The applications should be sent to inwood@unito.it.

The organisers will cover meals, travel (economy-class flight or train) and accommodation expenses. The conference will be held in person.

Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2026.

The notifications about the participation in the conference will be sent by the end of January 2027.

Successful applicants will be asked to submit the drafts of their papers (6,000 words) by 15 June 2027.

The organisers plan to publish the papers as an edited volume or a special issue of a journal.

Conference date: 6-8 July 2027

Host: 
University of Turin

Organisers:
Giacomo Bonan, Kateryna Burkush, Vincenzo Colaprice, Csongor Jánosi, Claudio Lorenzini, Silvia Pizzirani

by Bernhard H. Bayerlein

Mit der Pariser Wochenzeitung Die Zukunft (1938–1940) gründete Willi Münzenberg, der einflussreichste antifaschistische Medienmacher der Zwischenkriegszeit, ein visionäres Sprachrohr aller Hitler-Gegner. Unterstützt wurde er dabei von Arthur Koestler und Manès Sperber sowie progressiven Christen und Sozialisten. Noch kurz vor dem Einbruch des Zweiten Weltkriegs entstand ein deutsch-französisches und europäisches Netzwerk, eine neue demokratische Alternative zum Kampf gegen das Hitlerregime und seinen Helfer Stalin: eine neue christlich-sozialistische Symbiose für ein neues Deutschlands in einem
vereinten Europa.
Anhand neuer Archivfunde erzählt das Buch eine beinahe untergegangene Geschichte: Die der letzten Kohorte von Dissidenten, Revolutionären und Christen; Literaten, Wissenschaftlern und Kulturschaffenden, die noch bis in den Zweiten Weltkrieg hinein den Traum von Hitlers Sturz verwirklichen wollten. Ans Licht kommt die bisher verborgene Saga europäischer Freiheitskämpfer, Mittler und Expats zugleich, die nicht am Scheitern der politischen Parteien vor Hitler verzweifelten.
Begleitet werden Dutzende Akteure aus Kultur und Politik wie Alfred Döblin, Fritz von Unruh, Günter Thormann, Otto Klepper, Babette Gross und Anna Siemsen, René Schickele, Josef Roth, Hermann Rauschning, Emmanuel Mounier, Pierre Viénot, Manès Sperber und Arthur Koestler. Sie schufen transnationale Netzwerke und Passagen zur Bekämpfung des Nationalsozialismus und gründeten die Deutsch-Französische Union „um Frankreich zu retten und Deutschland mit ihm“.
Das „Münzenberg-Imperium“ erweist sich als Paradigma für die fruchtbare Vernetzung aller Teile der Gesellschaft, gegen ihre Zerstörung durch totalitäre Herrschaft und für eine gelebte Demokratie.

Open Access: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/9783111086576/ht…

Organizer: Joseph M. Snyder, Editor-in-Chief of World History Bulletin ZIP: - Location: - Country: United States Takes place: Digital From - Until: 15.10.2026 - Deadline: 15.10.2026 Website: https://www.thewha.org/world-history-bulletin  

World History Bulletin is seeking quality research essays, experiential learning case studies from graduate reading and seminar coursework, and GA/TA/lecturer classroom activities for inclusion in its upcoming issue on the Industrial Revolution in World History.

The Industrial Revolution marks a pivotal era of profound global economic, technological, and social change, transforming societies from predominantly agrarian economies into industrial powerhouses. Historians continue to debate several key aspects of this period, including its precise starting point—some argue for the late 18th century, while others suggest earlier or later dates—and the reasons why the revolution began in Great Britain rather than elsewhere. These debates often focus on factors such as natural resources, political stability, colonial markets, and innovative culture. Another central topic of debate is the uneven spread of industrialization: while Britain and, subsequently, parts of Western Europe and North America reaped significant benefits in terms of wealth and power, other regions experienced slower growth and, in many cases, increased exploitation. Questions about who benefited most—industrial capitalists, workers, or entire nations—remain at the heart of historical analysis, highlighting the complex legacy of the Industrial Revolution.

The Bulletin is interested in a range of topics related to the theme of the Industrial Revolution in World History, including (but not limited to):
- Perspectives on the Origins of the Industrial Revolution, which might explore key political, economic, and sociocultural developments (e.g., ethics and morality, evolving legal doctrine, etc.).
- Comparative Case Studies on the Global/Transregional Impacts of the Industrial Revolution, which might contrast the socioeconomic, cultural, and political changes wrought by the First Industrial Revolution (centered on Britain and Western Europe) with those of the Second Industrial Revolution (as it spread and evolved across Eurasia and the Atlantic World from the latter-19th century).
- Empire-Building and the Industrial Revolution, which might explore the linkages between industrialization and the global exploitation of non-industrialized states and territories for natural resources and/or as a result of the competition for markets (e.g., Leopold II and the Congo Free State, the Opium Wars, etc.).
- The “Great Divergence” or “European Miracle,” which might explore the deeper sociocultural underpinnings (e.g., religious moral frameworks, corporate structures, etc.) of the Industrial Revolution which led to the shift in global economic dominance from the Early Modern centers (e.g., Qing China, the Ottoman Empire, etc.) to European (Western) states (including their colonies and territories).
- Historiographic Surveys of Scholarship on the Industrial Revolution and/or the Great Divergence, including the so-called “California School” and its challengers (e.g., Peer Vries).
- Pedagogical Essays on Coursework/Instruction Centered on the Industrial Revolution or the Great Divergence, including unique research projects, role-playing games (short- or long-term), and related exercises/assignments.

The World History Bulletin therefore invites submissions on the topic of the Industrial Revolution in World History. We are especially interested in articles that share fresh research or historiographical perspectives which explore the questions of Industrial Revolution in world-historical perspectives; present innovative teaching at all levels that employs techniques related to sociocultural and economic contexts foundational to, or arising from, industrialization in world history; or explore the connection between student engagement and world history as a result of coursework related to the theme the Industrial Revolution in World History. We also welcome short interviews with designers, artists, writers, and scholars and small roundtables on a book, film, or other work.

Submission Guidelines:
Articles should range between 1,500 and 6,000 words in length, including endnote text. Book reviews should be around 1,000 words in length. The Bulletin accepts submissions that adhere to the style, format, and documentation requirements as outlined in the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (18th). The Bulletin uses endnote citations, rather than footnote citations. Text of submissions should be spelled according to American English standard usage (e.g., favorite, rather than favourite). Submissions should be written in the past tense, rather than the literary present, and passive voice should be avoided. Submissions should be formatted in 11-point Garamond type font.

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2026

Essays and questions should be directed to Joseph M. Snyder, Editor-in-Chief of World History Bulletin, at jmsnyder@semo.edu

Contact (announcement)

jmsnyder@semo.edu

Organiser: Bianca Schumann Host: Department of Musicology and Performance Studies, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Postcode: 1010 City: Vienna Country: Austria Takes place: Hybrid Dates: 07.04.2027 - 08.04.2027 Deadline: 15.10.2026 Website: https://www.mdw.ac.at/imi/internationale-musikwettbewerbe/#English  

In the light of numerous anniversaries of internationally renowned classical music competitions that will be celebrated in 2027, the workshop aims to conduct an interdisciplinary and cross-sectional exploration of international music competitions over the past century as sites where art, society, and politics intersect.

The workshop is conceived as preparation for a special issue of the double-blind peer-reviewed Journal of Musicological Research.

“Le producteur de la valeur de l’œuvre d’art n’est pas l’artiste mais le champ de production”. With this statement, Pierre Bourdieu succinctly encapsulates his theory of the intricate relationship between artistic value and socio-institutional structures, as elaborated in Les Règles de l’art (1992). This sociological perspective on the conditions of artistic value has also left its mark on cultural studies-oriented musicology. This is evident in the growing emphasis on social, political, and institutional contexts in reflections on musical-cultural practices and aesthetic norms.

A sociocultural approach is equally valuable for examining international music competitions. After all, these events constitute cultural spaces in which (aesthetic) judgments about artistic performances are negotiated through institutionally regulated procedures, which in turn are significantly shaped by social and political contexts. Thus, while music competitions ostensibly serve as stages for assessing artistic excellence, they also simultaneously function as showcases for social values and cultural representation.

The numerous anniversaries that several internationally renowned classical music competitions will celebrate in 2027 provide an auspicious opportunity for deeper exploration. For instance, 2027 marks the centenary of the first International Chopin Piano Competition. Additionally, the 65th anniversary of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the 50th anniversary of the Sydney International Piano Competition highlight how the culture of international music competitions has long since spread beyond European borders and established itself as a global phenomenon. This expanded scope is also reflected in the World Federation of International Music Competitions, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2027.

With this in mind, the workshop aims to conduct an interdisciplinary and cross-sectional exploration of international music competitions over the past century as sites where art, society, and politics intersect, with no geographical restrictions.

Potential topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Political contexts: Cultural policy and geopolitical conflicts; international representation and national profiling; globalisation and renationalisation.
- Social structures and career development: Social selection (gender, class, origin); professionalisation and visibility.
- Aesthetic evaluation: Evaluation criteria and logics; comparability of musical performance.
- Repertoire: Programme design; canon formation; interpretation.
- Institutional networks: Transnational cooperation in times of (geo)political crisis.
- Media and the public: Communication of jury assessments; representation of cultural-political interests.

Contributions from all sub-disciplines of musicology, as well as related fields (e.g., cultural studies, social sciences, gender studies, political science, and history), are welcome for both the workshop and the special issue.

The workshop is conceived as preparation for a special issue of the double-blind peer-reviewed Journal of Musicological Research. Guest-edited by Bianca Schumann, the issue will assemble a selection of contributions presented during the workshop.

Interested scholars are invited to submit an abstract (max. 250 words) and a short biography (max. 120 words) in German or English by October 15, 2026 to schumann-b@mdw.ac.at. Notifications of acceptance for the workshop will be sent by November 15, 2026. The workshop’s languages are German and English. The workshop will take place in person; hybrid participation may be possible in justified cases. Early career researchers may apply for financial support to cover accommodation and travel expenses.

Abstracts for the special issue are due by May 15, 2027. Submissions must be in English. After an initial review, selected authors will be invited to submit full manuscripts by June 15, 2027. Final manuscripts must be received by December 31, 2027 with publication in Journal of Musicological Research scheduled for July 2028.

Contact

schumann-b@mdw.ac.at

Organiser: Institute of Culture Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences; University of Humanistic Studies Utrecht Funded by: Austrian Academy of Sciences Postcode: 1010 City: Vienna Country: Austria Takes palce: In attendance Dates: 08.10.2026 - 09.10.2026 Website: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ikw/detail/events/decolonization  

Decolonization has become a buzzword in academia, but what, precisely, is “decolonization”? The conference brings together scholars whose research expands the geographies, methods, and vocabularies through which decolonization is understood. By examining the “promises, problems, and practices” involved in defining decolonization, this conference frames it as both a practical and an epistemic challenge.

The conference pursues three main objectives. First, it seeks to reassess the historical and geographical boundaries of decolonization and to open new perspectives of research on its postcolonial forms. Second, it aims to uncover underexplored narratives by encouraging reflection on archival sources, fieldwork practices, and epistemic reflexivity. Third, it examines how the shift from decolonization to decoloniality takes shape across different academic and institutional contexts. Ultimately, this conference seeks to address the “so what?” question by asking how debates on decolonization can help us take the next step: to think about ‒ and conduct ‒ research differently.

Programm

THURSDAY 8th OCTOBER

13:00–13:15 Welcome

Anaïs Angelo / Austrian Academy of Sciences
Nicole Immler / University of Humanistic Studies Utrecht
Johannes Feichtinger / Austrian Academy of Sciences

13:15–14:30 Keynote
Chair: Anaïs Angelo / Austrian Academy of Sciences

Frederick Cooper / New York University
Decolonizations: Possibilities and constraints

14:30–15:00 BREAK

15:00‒16:30 Expanding the frontiers of histories of decolonization
Chair: Anaïs Angelo / Austrian Academy of Sciences

Cassandra Mark-Thiesen / University of Regensburg
Prismatic discourses on decolonization in immediate post-independence journals from Africa

Florian Wagner / University of Erfurt
‘Du bon usage de la décolonisation’? (Mis-)Appropriations of decolonization in the journal Civilizations (1950s-2000s)

16:30–17:00 BREAK

17:00‒18:30 Central Europe as a space of discussion on decolonization
Chair: Sophie Schasiepen / The House of Austrian History

Angela Kóczé / Central European University
Europe’s internal colony? Romani women and the decolonial critique of Central Europe

Bolaji Baolgun / SOAS University of London
Varieties of European colonialism: Locating and contextualising Central-Eastern Europe within the 'colonial orbit'

FRIDAY 9th OCTOBER

09:00‒09:15 Welcome

09:15‒10:30 Keynote
Chair: Antje Daniel / University of Vienna

Kodzo Gavua / University of Ghana
Decolonizing the colonized

10:30‒11:00 BREAK

11:00–12:00 Visualizing decolonization? Artistic and research practices

Disscussion with Noémie Étienne / University of Vienna
Memory Biwa / Independent Researcher
Places flooded with sound: Outa !Nanseb’s letters as counter-archival listening practices

12:00–13:30 LUNCH

13:30–15:00 Decolonizing knowledge production through state institutions?
Chair: Kerstin Klenke/ Austrian Academy of Sciences

Chibuike U. Uche / University of Leiden
Knowledge, state power, and revisionist scholarship

Valérie Rosoux / Max Planck Institute Luxembourg
Coming to terms with Belgium’s colonial past: The failure of the parliamentary commission

15:00–15:30 BREAK

15:30–17:00 Transformative justice ‒ decolonial reparations?
Chair: Valérie Rosoux / Max Planck Institute Luxembourg

John Njenga Karugia / Humboldt University Berlin
Provincialising decolonization: Institutionalising responsible cosmopolitanism

Nicole L. Immler / University of Humanistic Studies Utrecht
Dialogics of justice: towards a decolonial approach to repair

17:00–17:15 SHORT BREAK

17:15–18:15 Which future to decolonization?
Chair: Anaïs Angelo ‒ Nicole Immler ‒ Johannes Feichtinger

Closing debate with input by A. Dirk Moses / City College of New York & Central European University

Dirty Laundry is an architectural and feminist inquiry into how washing reveals the spatial organisation of social life and environmental relations. From rivers and communal wash places to social housing laundries, domestic interiors, laundromats, industrial facilities, and global textile infrastructures, washing connects bodies, materials, water, labour, technologies, and landscapes. Yet despite its fundamental role in sustaining everyday life, laundry has rarely occupied a central place within architectural histories and theories. It has not been invisible; rather, the spaces, practices, and labour relations through which washing is organised have often been naturalised, feminised, displaced, or excluded from architectural narratives.

Moving from river to machine, this volume examines washing as a spatial practice through which social, political, and ecological relations are mediated by architecture and the built environment. It explores how relations of labour, gender, class, ownership, coloniality, welfare, public health, wealth, whiteness, hygiene, cleanliness, technology, water, detergents, chemicals, and waste systems become organised through space — shaping the distribution of bodies, resources, responsibilities, and forms of belonging. Washing reveals how ideas of modernity, health, respectability, domesticity, and care are not only social values and economic conditions but spatial arrangements, materialised through buildings, infrastructures, landscapes, and everyday environments.

While the Frankfurt Kitchen became an emblematic architectural response to domestic labour, efficiency, and the organisation of everyday life, it also generated feminist counter-imaginaries that challenged the spatial confinement and unequal distribution of domestic work. The kitchen became not only an object of architectural reform but a site from which feminist activists, artists, and practitioners reimagined relations between labour, care, and space. Laundry offers a different but equally significant field of inquiry. There is no equivalent canonical figure through which washing has entered architectural history. This absence raises questions about how laundry has been imagined, designed, and spatially organised, and what forms of architectural and feminist counter-planning might emerge when washing becomes the starting point. Dirty Laundry seeks to examine architects, designers, and practitioners who have engaged explicitly with spaces of washing — from rivers and communal wash places to collective laundries, domestic environments, laundromats, and industrial infrastructures — and to consider how these spaces have shaped both the realities and imaginaries of labour.

Rather than approaching laundry as merely a private domestic activity, Dirty Laundry considers washing as a spatial practice and a form of labour through which societies organise maintenance, social reproduction, and environmental relations. The volume examines communal washing places and rivers; welfare-state laundries and shared infrastructures within social housing across different political and historical contexts in a wide range of geographies; public washing facilities that continue to sustain everyday life in many parts of the world; laundromats as urban spaces of encounter, necessity, and visibility; and industrial systems through which washing becomes entangled with global economies, technologies, and ecological transformations. Dirty Laundry considers the hidden environmental cost in the form of detergent pollutants and microplastics entering water bodies and discarded in far away locations and also the weary and sick bodies of people who perform the often arduous labour.

Bringing together architectural history, feminist scholarship, spatial theory, decolonial approaches, and environmental humanities, the volume investigates the architectures and ecologies of washing across diverse geographical contexts and economic conditions. It asks how cleanliness and hygiene have shaped spatial practices, how ownership and access have structured relations between private and collective provision, and how colonial, capitalist and state socialist systems have organised the movement of water, textiles, labour, and waste. At the same time, it attends to situated forms of knowledge, collective practices, and alternative arrangements of care through which washing sustains communities and environments.

The volume invites contributions from scholars, architects, designers, and practitioners working across different regions, histories, and economies. It seeks to expand architectural discourse beyond canonical buildings and authorship toward the everyday spaces, infrastructures, landscapes, technologies, and labour practices through which worlds are maintained. By attending to laundry, Dirty Laundry examines architecture not only as the production of form, but as the mediation of relations among bodies, materials, environments, and the unequal conditions through which everyday life is sustained.

Dirty Laundry: Architecture, Labour, and the Spatial Politics of Washing
Edited by Chloé Darmon, Marianna Janowicz, and Elke Krasny
Abstract Submission: 1000 words
Deadline: October 15, 2026
Send to: dirtylaundry.arch@gmail.com

The project will culminate in a peer-reviewed edited volume featuring selected contributions.
Indicative timeline: Full chapters due Fall 2027;
manuscript submission Summer 2028.

Organiser: Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini”; European School for Training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER) Postcode: 59100 City: Prato Country: Italy Takes place: In attendance Dates: 09.05.2027 - 15.05.2027 Deadline: 15.10.2026 Website: https://www.istitutodatini.it/ester/htm/call_for_papers_2027.htm  

Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” and the European School for Training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER) will organise their 13th jointly-organized Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar for economic and social historians on 9th-15th May 2027, in Prato (Italy) on the theme of: “The Role of Foreigners in Economic and Social History”

The topic of the Datini-Ester seminar is closely related to the theme of the yearly congress organized by the "F. Datini" International Institute of Economic History and devoted in 2027 to “The role of foreign communities in the economic growth of pre-industrial Europe and the Mediterranean Area (13th-18th centuries)”.

The 2027 Datini-Ester seminar will deal with the role of foreigners in economic and social history.

Foreigners - merchants, craftsmen, professionals, and labourers - occupied intermediate legal and social positions that made them both vulnerable and indispensable within historical societies. They also were central to economic growth, trade networks, and cultural exchange. Their mobility enabled the circulation of skills, capital, and innovations, fostering transregional integration in history.

We invite papers on legal status, professional roles, networks, and institutional frameworks, as well as conflict, xenophobia, generation of trust, adaptation, and cultural transfer. Comparative perspectives are encouraged to deepen understanding of economic interdependence.

We welcome scholars working on both the macro and micro level. Papers can cover any relevant aspect and any period from Antiquity until today.

Participants in the Datini-ESTER advanced seminar can receive 4 ECTS credits.

Organiser: Prof. Nicole Immig / Ioannis Terezakis / Emelie Bosselmann, Chair of Southeast-European Studies Host: Justus Liebig University Giessen Postcode: 35390 City: Giessen Country: Germany Takes palce: In attendance Dates: 09.12.2026 - 11.12.2026 Deadline: 15.10.2026  

The study of Greek labor migration to the Federal Republic of Germany begins from the observation that, despite its long history and social significance, the field remains comparatively under-researched and has so far developed in fragmentary ways. It represents a field that - also compared to other destinations where Greeks settled abroad - is in significant respects still in an early stage of development, as historical research on the topic remains limited in scope and reach and has not yet found the sustained scholarly attention it deserves. Nevertheless, Greek labor migration offers a productive point of departure precisely because it cannot be understood in terms of labor recruitment alone. Rather, it points to wider migratory processes of departure, transit, settlement, community formation, and everyday negotiation that often unfolded in multi-ethnic and multi-religious settings and shaped social life well beyond the workplace in the receiving society of Germany.

Current research on Greek labor migration is constrained by several critical gaps and the field still lacks systematic and sustained exchange across disciplinary boundaries, leaving key thematic areas under-analyzed. By relying predominantly on official state archives and top-down institutional categories, current research misses alternative identity classifications and informal social structures that emerge from below. Furthermore, it constitutes a field whose sources are often dispersed across public archives, community collections and privately held materials across various regions in Germany, Greece, and elsewhere, while Oral-history interviews have yet to be professionally produced, at a time when many of the first Greek labor migrants who came to Germany in the early 1960s will soon no longer be among us.

This workshop aims to bring together scholars working on Greek labor migration to Germany from the post-war period to the present, in order to take stock of ongoing work and identify relevant source bases and archival holdings. Ultimately, its core objective is to map what exists, by creating a forum where existing projects can be brought into closer conversation and a shared framework for future inquiry can be established, while building sustainable networks that contribute to a wider interdisciplinary conversation.

The workshop encourages reflection on the methodological challenges of the field, offering new analytical tools for researching labor migration, while welcoming perspectives that explore, but are not restricted to, the following dimensions:

- The lived experience of departure, arrival, and settlement, including practices of coexistence and conflict.
- The role of migrant organizations, networks, and political participation within both sending and receiving societies.
- The organization of leisure time, the shaping of neighborhoods, and micro-level social interactions.
- The construction of migrant infrastructures (associations, institutions) and how belonging is organized in local contexts.
- The role of religious communities and orthodox practices in structuring communal life.
- Administrative processes prior to departure from Greece, including the role of personnel and recruitment dynamics (specifically in rural areas).
- Comparative perspectives on how individuals navigate environments in rural villages versus major urban centers.
- Family and generational relations through the lens of loss, vulnerability, and structural failure, moving beyond linear "success stories" of integration.
- The historical links between different forms of mobility (e.g., exile and forced labor) and their evolution into labor migration.
- Interrelations between the Greek state administration and German companies, including corporate initiatives to source labor.
- The influence of media on public discourses in both Greece and Germany.
- Practical and methodological approaches to the collection, preservation, and sharing of primary source data.

The workshop specifically invites Early Career Researchers —including advanced Master's students, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral researchers—from disciplines across the humanities and social sciences whose work engages with these themes. The workshop aims to produce a peer-reviewed publication based on the contributions and discussions.

Submission Guidelines and Organisation

Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract (approx. 300 words) outlining the research question and methodology along with a short academic CV. Proposals should be sent by email no later than October 15, 2026, to ioannis.terezakis@uni-giessen.de or emelie.zoe.bosselmann@protonmail.com. Accepted participants will be notified by November 1, 2026.

The workshop will take place in English at Justus Liebig University in Giessen from December 9 to 11, 2026. Accommodation and travel expenses will be covered. Participants are kindly asked to indicate in their application whether they require travel costs.

Contact

ioannis.terezakis@uni-giessen.de, emelie.zoe.bosselmann@protonmail.com

Between Global Standards and Unequal Treatment
The International Labour Organization and Racialised Labour, 1920s–1950s
- Fabiana Kutsche

This book investigates the development and impact of racialised labour policies and discourses within the International Labour Organization (ILO) from 1919 to the late 1950s. Drawing on concepts from Critical Race Theory and Postcolonial Theory, it explores how beliefs about racial difference became linked to assumptions about suitability for capitalist production and were articulated internationally by bureaucrats, colonial experts, politicians, employers and trade unionists. While colonial labour forms a central focus, the study also considers the role of independent member states with predominantly non-white populations in Asia and Africa. A detailed case study of India highlights its unique position as the ILO’s only non-sovereign member and traces its transition through decolonisation into a post-colonial state. Offering new insights into the racial foundations of international labour governance, the book brings together Colonial and Global Labour History while advancing debates on racialised knowledge production in international organisations, imperial internationalism, epistemic inequality and the history of knowledge.

Download this book at De Gruyter Brill in Open Access

Futures in the History of Deindustrialisation
Edited by Eloisa Betti, Liliosa Azara, Stefan Moitra, Francesca Sanna, Christian Wicke

Deindustrialisation has placed the societies affected in a state of crisis. When industrial closure threatened their very existence, established “horizons of expectations” were called into question, as new collective memories and visions of the future emerged. Deindustrialisation has therefore generated fears and hopes about what the future might hold and what could be done, individually or collectively, to come to terms with transformation. While the consequences of industrial restructuring may be considered traumatic, exposure to socioeconomic change has also opened up new ways of imagining the future as a space of possibilities. Individuals, communities, and political and social agents have engaged in envisioning future prospects, seeking ways to respond to closure and shape what is to come. This volume brings together historical studies of futures in deindustrialising regions of Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United States, demonstrating how historical actors – including political and administrative bodies, trade unions, artists, and educators – anticipated what lay ahead, from ecological sunrise to cultural dystopia.

Book available at Bologna University Press - Open Access