Transnational Migration Streams in Later Medieval Europe: The Role of the Low Countries
Project description
The later Middle Ages has long been considered as largely irrelevant for the study of transnational migration streams. If migration historians bothered with the pre-modern period, they focused predominantly on big waves of conquerors and settlers that caused economic disruption and political havoc, such as the Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries and the Protestant refugees of the sixteenth century. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were assumed to have known no such large-scale movement of people and were therefore ignored. More recent research has effectively debunked this myth. Historians have demonstrated, for example, that during the later Middle Ages, England was home to a significant minority of foreign-born residents who filled crucial gaps in the country’s labour market, had a significant impact on its cultural development and were the subject of intense political and popular debate (Ormrod, Lambert and Mackman, 2019). Similar studies have highlighted the importance of immigrants in other regions of later medieval Europe (see, for example, the work of Katalin Szende on German settlers in Central Europe).
The HOST research group would like to further establish the place of the Low Countries in these later medieval, transnational migration streams and welcomes proposals for Marie Sklodowska Curie-Individual Fellowships in this area. Post-doctoral projects could, for example, compare the experiences of diaspora communities from the Low Countries in various parts of fourteenth and fifteenth-century Europe or establish the role of the Low Countries’ cities as centres for transnational migration. Multilingual candidates with research experience in multiple European countries are particularly encouraged to apply.
About the research Group
Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes (HOST)
Established in 2005, the HOST research group conducts innovative research in the field of urban history, contributing to insights into contemporary societal challenges. Essential to our research is the historical role of cities as catalysts for processes of economic innovation, social exclusion and integration, and political-institutional change. Particular interests include the history of social inequality, migration and economic and social relations, as well as the interactions between these phenomena.
Our work focuses predominantly on the cities of Brabant and Flanders, two core regions of the Southern Low Countries characterized by high levels of urbanization, commercialization and early industrialization, and by a marked variation in urban structures and profound upswings and downswings in economic development. We study these regions from an international, comparative perspective, which allows us to establish the generality and particularity of the urban developments we observe. Our research covers the period from the later Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. This long-term perspective makes it possible to distinguish between the impact of long-term structural transformations and shorter-term conjunctural effects.
HOST has over twenty-five permanent members, including professors, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students. Many of our staff are internationally acknowledged researchers with extensive publication records and involvements in both international and nationally-funded research projects. We welcome proposals for Marie Sklodowska Curie-Individual Fellowships from motivated candidates around the topics suggested on this page, but are also open to other ideas that fall within our areas of interest.
For more information, please visit https://host.research.vub.be/en