EOS meets Posthumus

Shortly after beginning my doctoral research in October 2023, I became affiliated with the N.W. Posthumus Institute (NWP) through my supervisors, Dave De ruysscher and Stephanie Van de Voorde. NWP is known as a research school for Economic and Social History which acts as a cooperation between fifteen Flemish and Dutch universities. As a research school, NWP offers doctoral candidates from affiliated universities additional training options, which consists of the Basic Training (first year) and Advanced Training. Currently, NWP is hosted by Utrecht University; the introductory sessions have been led and organized by Dr. Rogier van Kooten, Dr. Jessica Dijkman and René van Weeren.

Seminar 1: Utrecht University

Together with 25 other PhD candidates (cohort 2023), I was invited to the first seminar of the Basic Training at Utrecht University between December 7th and December 8th 2023. The seminar was organized at In De Ruimte at Oudegracht, near the historical center of the city.

During this first seminar: “my PhD in a nutshell”, we were divided into two groups. For the next two days, each group had a tight schedule where there was always one presenter, one chair, one peer reviewer (one of the PhD candidates) and a senior commentator (a postdoc or professor). When it was your turn to present your research (c. 15 minutes), the floor was opened; first to the peer reviewer, who had prepared comments and suggestions. After this, the senior commentator could also communicate and articulate his or her remarks. Each session was chaired by one of the PhD candidates in that group, which was, for many, a first time, orchestrating debate in a round-table environment. In my presentation, titled “Practical Knowledge and The Normativity of Expertise in Construction Litigation (20th Century)” I explained the EOS consortium and the overall research questions and goals of our project. Further, I elaborated on the advanced and further planning of the EOS legal track and what we had in mind for the coming months. It was an enriching experience giving the feedback of many colleague historians that pointed to the importance of identifying the various building actors and situating them in time and space. Some also argued for the importance into detecting the layered relations of these people: both professionally and socially (e.g. the existence of ‘family’ enterprises, or the unique potential of court files to give a voice to women through their role as plaintiff as widow) and the evolution of technologies on the construction site.

Lastly, during our stay in Utrecht, we were kindly invited to DOMunder: the archaeological site underneath the historical Utrecht domchurch, which transported us to the night of August 1st 1674, where a thundering storm had swept away the center nave of the cathedral.

Seminar 2: University of Groningen 

Around 6 months into my PhD – and just one day after returning from the 2024 ARCH trip to New York City – I found myself on the train to Groningen, nicknamed “the capital of the North”. This second seminar, titled: “work in progress”, was located at the Harmoniegebouw of the University of Groningen and was organized between April 10th and April 11th 2024.

After a welcoming reunion with my fellow PhD candidates, we were divided into three different groups, with the same intention as the Utrecht seminar: practicing presenting, chairing and commenting. Unique to this seminar, someone was always assigned the role of “reporter.” In doing so, he/she took note of the discussions held between the presenter and the audience. For this seminar, we prepared a 15-page long paper which acted as a guiding tool during our presentation.
Here, I presented the exploratory archival phase of my doctoral research through my presentation titled “The Judge and the Builder” where I elaborated on the use of court archives in the historical judicial resorts of Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels in construction litigation, and the central role of the judge appointed expert in the cabinet of the investigating judge in the criminal tribunal (correctionele rechtbank). After presenting, I was lucky enough to get senior feedback from Dr. Matthijs Degraeve, postdoc and colleague at the VUB.

Future NWP planning

As a member of the 2023 PhD cohort, I will participate in the upcoming Posthumus Conference at Leeuwarden between May 23rd and May 24th 2024.

Concerning the third seminar of the NWP Basic Training, I am expected at the University of Münster between September 30th and October 2nd 2024. Here, I will present my 25-page long paper on the research design of my PhD. Like in the previous seminars, I will be assigned the role of presenter, peer reviewer and chair throughout the different sessions. This seminar exists in the framework of ESTHER: “the European graduate School for Training in Economic and social historical Research, a Europe-wide network of leading scholars in the field of social and economic history, established in 1991 by the N.W. Posthumus Institute, currently involving 60 universities, offering high-level research training for PhD candidates in an international context.” 1

Looking forward to continuing advocating for the relevance and potential of legal history, as a lens to approach the discipline of construction history, in an environment of social and economic historians!