2025 Newsletter
I hope 2026 is going well for you, despite the many uncertainties in the world. I am writing to
update you on the activities of the IEHA during the previous year and on our plans moving
forward. The highlights of this year’s newsletter are, of course, a report on the 2025 World
Economic History Congress in Lund, Sweden, and the announcement of the call for papers for
the 2028 World Congress in Montevideo, Uruguay. Read on for more details!
World Economic History Congress 2025 in Lund, Sweden
I’d first like to congratulate Mats Olsson, Igor Martins, and the whole team at Lund for a successful and enjoyable Congress in Lund. The Congress took place from 28 July-1 August in the beautiful AF Borgen and surrounding buildings in the historic centre of Lund. On arriving in Lund, delegates were welcomed by advertisements posted by city authorities – not a frequent occurrence for an academic conference! This was to reflect the hosting of several public events and lectures which linked the city of Lund to the Congress.
The Congress welcomed 1,141 participants from 58 countries. They presented 1,141 papers, spread across 251 parallel sessions. The programme illustrated the breadth and depth of economic history as a field. Attendees enjoyed keynotes by Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk from Utrecht University (“Work, Gender, Race and Class: Towards Intersectional Political Economics?”), Cesar A Hidalgo from Toulouse School of Economics (“Big Data and Machine Learning Explorations of Economic History and Collective Memory”) and Mar Rubio-Varas from Public University of Navarra (“Greening the Past, Informing the Future: Economic History’s Dual Role in Sustainability Challenges”). These reflected the Congress’s theme, “Equality and Sustainability Challenges”. For anyone who missed these lectures, recordings are available on YouTube via the links in the titles.
The conference theme was also addressed by the topics of the parallel sessions. As in previous Congresses, sessions did not need to focus on the theme to be accepted and programme included a wide range of topics, and approaches and periods representing the diversity of the field. Inequality, gender, global and imperial trade, state formation and sector-specific economic histories were the most popular thematic groupings at the Congress. There were also 24 book sessions on books covering a wide range of topics, periods and places.
As ever, a key aim of the Congress was support of the next generation of economic historians. The Congress saw the award of three dissertation prizes and a prize for best poster. The prizes went to:
Pre-1800: Sam Geens, “A Golden Age for labour? Income and wealth before and after the Black Death in the Southern Low Countries and the Republic of Florence 1275-1550” (University of Antwerp)
Long Nineteenth Century: Blaise Truong-Loï, “Bringing Capital (Back) to Life” (Sciences Po)
20th-21st Century: Ying Dai, “The occupational structure of the Yangtze Valley in the twentieth century” (Cambridge University)
Poster prize: Pere López Agràs, “Rethinking pension equity: the challenge of longevity gaps by income” (Universitat de Barcelona)
Participants included 210 PhD students and there were 39 posters presented. The Congress also provided travel grants to support attendance at the Congress. Grants covered registration and six nights’ accommodation in Lund. The majority of applications were funded, for a total of SEK 300,000 in grant funding.
One new feature of the 2025 Congress was a series of meet the editor sessions featuring the editors of eight leading journals in the field: Journal of Economic History, Economic History Review, Explorations in Economic History, European Review of Economic History, Cliometrica, Economic History of Developing Regions, Scandinavian Economic History Review and Business History. These sessions were well-received, especially amongst PhD students and early career researchers preparing to submit their own work for publication.
Another novel feature of the Lund Congress was a series of panels organized by member associations to feature research by their own members. These included a session on “Unification, division and reunification in German economic history”, organized by the Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte; another on “Nordic Economies and Welfare States: Free and Sustainable Lunches?” organized by a consortia of the Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian Societies, and; a session on “Economic History in Brazil: knowledge production and historiographical reflections”, organized by the Brazilian Association. We hope to build on this foundation in future Congresses to give our member associations a chance to showcase their work to a global audience.
Finally, the Congress included several local excursions for delegates to enjoy and experience Lund in a different way. These included a guided walk of the city, a tour of the Skissernas Museum Tour, a guided visit and hands-on dig at the Uppåkra Archaeological Experience, and a fun run on the day after.
General Assembly and IEHA updates
The General Assembly of the IEHA was held on Tuesday, 29 July. Liliane Hilaire-Perez opened the meeting before handing over the presidency to Mats Olsson. Application for membership by the Assocazione Italiana per la Recerca in Storia Economica (ARISE) were presented and approved, and ARISE was welcomed into the IEHA.
We also thanked members of the Executive Committee who were finishing their terms at the 2025 GA for their work over the past six years. These were Lena Andersson-Skog, Dan Bogart, Andrei Markevish, Blanca Sanchez-Alonso, Tomoko Shiroyama and Jochen Streb. Along with the local organizing committee, the IEHA Executive Committee is the beating heart of every Congress. The EC reviews session proposals and staffs prize committees, alongside reviewing proposals for hosting the Congress. I would like to thank the retiring members again for their efforts.
The GA then welcomed new members who had been proposed by their respective societies and approved by the EC. These are: Latika Chaudhary, Sibylle Lehman-Hasemeyer, Alfonso Herranz-Loncan, Timur Natkov, Paul Sharp, and Yasuo Tatatsuki. The EC also agreed to offer provisional extensions of membership to Chris Minns and Se Yan. These proposals were unanimously approved by the General Assembly.
You can find more information on members of the EC and the organization of the IEHA on our newly revamped website, www.ieha-wehc.org. We are continuing to work on the website to make it a valuable resource for both member associations and the field alike. If you have any suggestions, please get in touch via the contact form on the site.
Announcement of the 2028 Congress
Perhaps the most important announcement of the 2025 General Assembly was the location of the 2028 World Economic History Congress, which will be held in Montevideo, Uruguay from 24-28 July, 2028. The Congress coincides with the 300th anniversary of Montevideo’s foundation. The Congress theme, unfortunately increasingly relevant, is World Powers and Conflicts. We are very excited to return to Latin America for the first time since the Buenos Aires Congress of 2002!
We will have two calls for sessions for this Congress. The first call is now open. Sessions proposals are due September 14, 2026, and can be submitted on the Congress website (https://wehcmontevideo2028.org/call-for-sessions/)
New contact information for IEHA Secretary General
As announced at the General Assembly, we will be phasing out the iehaoffcial@gmail.com address as it attracts too much spam. We have a contact form on the IEHA website (https://www.ieha-wehc.org/contact/) or you can reach me on my LSE e-mail address.