SHOC research group - Vrije Universiteit Brussel

07/09/2026

Op 16 oktober 2026 neemt SHOC-lid Benoît Henriet het woord op een seminarie georganiseerd door SHOC-collega Leonie Vanlerberghe en de redactie van het tijdschrift Contemporanea (ABHC-BVNG). Na zijn keynote volgt een panelgesprek waarin concrete uitdagingen en vragen bespreekbaar gemaakt worden door verschillende onderzoekservaringen samen te brengen. Hoe krijgt positionaliteit vorm binnen de koloniale geschiedenis, milieugeschiedenis, gendergeschiedenis of bij onderzoek naar het collaboratieverleden? Welke rol spelen bijvoorbeeld de relatie tot respondenten, toegang tot bronnen, maatschappelijke gevoeligheden of de eigen positie van de onderzoeker? En wat verandert er wanneer historici met hun onderzoek buiten de academische wereld treden en deelnemen aan publieke debatten? Kortom: wat kunnen we als historici van elkaar leren over onze omgang met positionaliteit?

Alle info vind je op de website van Contemporanea:

De historicus in de maatschappij. Positionaliteit in historisch onderzoek naar de hendedaagse periode

04/09/2026

❗Want to know more about Nel de Mûelenaere's new ERC? ⭐

Check out this Vrije Universiteit Brussel page:

https://www.vub.be/en/news/five-erc-grants-for-vub-from-climate-friendly-combustion-origins-universe (in English) or

https://www.vub.be/nl/nieuws/vijf-erc-grants-voor-de-vub
(in Dutch)!

Grote Europese onderzoeksfinanciering voor veelbelovende jonge onderzoekers

03/09/2026

New ERC at SHOC! 🎉📚

We are thrilled that our colleague and VUB History Programme Chair, Nel de Mûelenaere, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her amazing project 'EVERYDAY REBELLIONS: Creativity and Domestic Care as Civilian Resistance in Occupied Europe, 1939-1945'. Her research investigates how civilians in Lviv and Brussels used creativity and care as forms of resistance during the Second World War.

A huge congratulations to Nel! 🎉👏

This is SHOC's second ERC grant in recent years, following Benoît Henriet's FORAGENCY project! ✨

The European Research Council (ERC) has today announced the winners of its latest Starting Grant competition. The funding, worth €705 million in total, will go to 421 early-career researchers across Europe. Several European researchers who applied from outside the EU and Horizon Europe associated ...

20/08/2026

📢 Just Published in Brood & Rozen by SHOC member Claudia Pelgrims! 📖

What does solidarity really mean when words and actions do not line up? And how far does solidarity go once political interests and international relations enter the picture?

In this article, Claudia Pelgrims takes us back to Czechoslovakia 1968, a moment when a communist country tried to bring democratic reform to society, only to be crushed by Soviet military force. Drawing on extensive archival research, the article examines how the Belgian socialist movement responded to the crackdown on the Prague Spring, raising questions about what solidarity looks like in theory and practice, and where ideals give way to political reality. A fascinating and often overlooked piece of history that still resonates today.

A must-read for anyone interested in solidarity, political history and the hard choices that emerge when principles collide with reality.

https://shoc-vub.paddlecms.net/sites/default/files/2026-08/Veel-woorden-weinig-daden-Een-reflectie-op-de-transnationale-solidariteit-in-het-licht-van-de-Belgische-socialisten-en-de-Praagse-Lente-van-1968_Pelgrims.pdf

Brood en Rozen is a journal produced by Amsab-ISG (https://www.amsab.be)

18/08/2026

📣 PhD vacature

Net een master geschiedenis behaald en geïnteresseerd om vier jaar onderzoek uit te voeren?

Dan kun je nog tot 14 september solliciteren voor dit historisch project over Amerikaanse, vrouwelijke hulpverleners in België en Frankrijk vlak na de Eerste Wereldoorlog.

Gefinancierd door Research Foundation Flanders - FWO, begeleid door Nel de Mûelenaere, verbonden aan SHOC onderzoeksgroep.



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Just obtained a master’s in history and interested in conducting four years of research?

You can apply until 7 September for this historical project on American female humanitarian workers in France and Belgium between 1918 and 1924.

Funded by Research Foundation Flanders - FWO, supervised by Nel de Mûelenaere and hosted by SHOC research group at the VUB.

11/08/2026

CALL FOR PAPERS

On 20-21 May 2027, the international conference “Premodern State Formation: New Themes and Directions”, a joint initiative of the Technische Universität Dresden and VUB, will be held in Dresden, Germany. It focuses on the impact and possibilities of the Empowering Interactions approach in late medieval and early modern studies on state formation. Proposals for papers can be sent until 31 October 2026.

More information can be found on this website: https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/ige/fnz/forschung/workshops-und-tagungen/tagung-vormoderne-staatenbildung

10/08/2026

🎉 Exciting (re)publication news!

SHOC is proud to announce the digital republication of SHOC member Anne Winter's and Ellen Debackere's article, entitled “Non-Nationals between Belonging and Removal: Urban Practices of Policies towards Foreigners, Antwerp c. 1830–1880.”

The contribution forms part of the volume "Belonging across Borders: Transnational Practices in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," also republished and edited by Levke Harders and Falko Schnicke. (Re)discover their insights here👉 https://perspectivia.net/receive/pnet_mods_00007663

27/07/2026

In July, SHOC-member Charlotte Van Riet attended the Radiocarbon & Diet Conference in Santiago, Chile. She presented the first results of her PhD research on the city-dwellers of medieval Ypres 🏰. Find out more about it here ⬇️

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlotte-van-riet-17b42821b_early-july-i-attended-the-radiocarbon-ugcPost-7487447582114496512-bfcV/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADdp-O8Bk7izfh4l812l8bMTo82q6nnpgQE

03/07/2026

📚🏆 From Book Launch to Prize Winner: Congratulations, John Latham-Sprinkle! 🎉👏

Ten months ago, we proudly launched The North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, 850–1240, John Latham-Sprinkle’s groundbreaking study of a little-known medieval kingdom. 📖 Today, we are delighted to celebrate another remarkable achievement: John has been awarded the Royal Historical Society First Book Prize 2026 🏅 for this outstanding work!

Widely regarded as one of the most prestigious distinctions for early-career historians, the prize recognises original, intellectually ambitious and methodologically innovative first monographs. 🌟 As Dr Helen Paul, Chair of the RHS First Book Prize Panel 2026, noted:

"John Latham-Sprinkle’s masterly study of the Kingdom of Alania showcases how historical analysis can be brought to bear even when source material is largely absent or fragmentary. (...) John Latham-Sprinkle adeptly shows how that state was formed and brings the existing Russian historiography to a wider audience. The author not only tackles a difficult and under-researched topic but also discusses how histories can and should be written.”

👏🎉 Congratulations, John, on this well-deserved recognition! 🏆🎓

01/07/2026

From Lisbon with medieval perspectives! 🏰

SHOC members John Latham Sprinkle and Imma Petito recently took part in Small Worlds, Big Worlds: Medieval Mediterranean Perspectives, organised by the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean (SMM). Bringing together scholars from across the field, the SMM provides an excellent forum for exchange between specialists of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean.

Imma opened the proceedings with a paper exploring how Genoese merchants became valued diplomatic partners to English kings during the reign of Edward IV, highlighting their evolving role beyond commerce into the political sphere.

John, together with Andres Mesa, presented research tracing the emergence of sixteenth century slaving networks from fifteenth century Genoese and Florentine merchant networks spanning the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In a separate paper, John also reflected on the wider implications of these findings, particularly the possibility that credit based slave trading with local elites in West Africa was consciously modelled on practices developed in the Black Sea.