Why you want to be in Paris this week

No, it's not for the Tour de France

From 25 to 29 July, Paris will host the World Economic History Congress. Usually scheduled every three years, this year’s event comes four years after the previous meeting in Boston. And after many online economic history conferences, it will be great to meet in person again.

The nineteenth WEHC will be one of the largest. It brings together economic historians and other interested social scientists from across the globe to discuss topics ranging from ‘Infrastructure, management of resources and the political economy of the Ancient State’ to ‘Institutions, colonialism and the distribution of wealth’, from questions such as ‘What do we know about natural fertility?’ to ‘Is the new monetary technology a resource or a curse?’ I especially look forward to the presidential sessions, organised by Anne McCants and Kenneth Pomeranz, on the Great Divergence debates.

I will be involved in four sessions and two talks. On Wednesday morning, I present a paper, co-authored with Jonathan Jayes, on measuring mortality during the 1918 Spanish flu in South Africa. Over lunch, I represent our Charting the Uncharted exhibition as a finalist in the Digital Humanities: Science Outreach-competition. That afternoon, I present the first results of a new paper (with Katherine Eriksson and Jonathan Schoots) on the economic causes and consequences of a settler protest movement in the Cape Colony in a session on ‘Government and the economy’ organised by Sumner La Croix.

On Thursday morning I participate in a session on teaching global economic history. At lunchtime, Leandro de la Escosura (Human Development and the Path to Freedom) and I will discuss our new books, both published by Cambridge University Press. Anne McCants will moderate the session. And in the afternoon, I will participate in a session organised by Claude Dieboult and Michael Haupert on global economic history.

A busy couple of days.

This will be my fifth World Economic History Congress. I have fond memories of Utrecht 2009, when the Stellenbosch contingent arrived knowing that we would organise the next one, in 2012. Whereas Paris 2022 is likely to be baking hot, Stellenbosch 2012 was the coldest week in living memory. Kyoto 2015 has special memories; I contested and won a dissertation prize. And after Boston 2018, Helanya and I road-tripped around Iceland. Let’s see what Paris has in store!

If you’re attending, please make sure to reach out. And if you’ve missed out, the African Economic History Network meeting is just around the corner, in October, and will be hosted by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria!

*Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash