Call For Papers - DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 24th January 2025
The Association of Business Historians conference 2025 will be held in Belfast, UK, from 19 to 21 June 2025 and invites submissions to the conference committee on the theme of ‘Business History Applied’.
Applied history, the use of the past to inform understanding of current challenges and support decision making, is a growing field. It is creating an interesting intersection between business history, numerous management disciplines, and areas of practice. Expanding literatures in various fields are examining how the histories of organizations and individuals are used, proactively and implicitly, through mechanisms such as memory, artefacts, rhetoric, and narratives, to contextualize the organization, managers, entrepreneurs, and the environments in which they operate. This sense making is shown to shape routines, practices, and decisions. This is opening exciting collaborative approaches and the development of methodologies to the historical study of organizations and individuals.
Outside the academy, demand for historically informed analysis amongst policy makers, corporate decision makers, and actors in civil society is also growing. Historical reasoning, using analogues, precedents, and long run trends, is important in the development of deeper understanding of contemporary challenges in business and the economy, and has the potential to improve decision making.
Business historians are well-positioned to make significant contributions with this agenda both inside and outside the academy. We invite participants in considering the conference theme to reflect on these opportunities and challenges - We also welcome papers and panels on any aspect of business history and will look to develop a diverse programme for the conference.
How to submit a paper or session proposal
The programme committee will consider both individual papers and entire panels. We are keen to encourage both developmental and mature papers. Individual paper proposals should include a one-page (up to 300-word) abstract with title of the presentation and brief biographical note. Panel proposals should include a cover letter stating the title and rationale for the panel and the name of its contact person; one-page (300-word) abstract and author's CV for each paper; and a list of preferred panel chairs and commentators with contact information. The deadline for submissions is 24th January 2025.
The ABH Conference organiser is Dr Michael Aldous.
The Program Committee intend to send notifications of acceptance as soon as possible once the deadline has passed.
All questions and queries regarding the conference should be directed to Michael Aldous at ABH2025@qub.ac.uk
Queen’s Business School (https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/queens-business-school/) is part of Queen’s University Belfast. The university has a long tradition supporting business and economic history and the business school is currently home to the Queen’s University Centre for Economic History (https://www.quceh.org.uk/), Centre for Economics, Politics, and History (https://ceph.ie/), and is associated with the Long Run Institute (https://longruninstitute.com/). Belfast is a fascinating city steeped in business and economic history. Its industrial and maritime legacies have left an extensive footprint to explore in the city and wider region. The city is rich in culture and lots of fun. It is well-connected by two international airports.
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Poster submissions
The conference a welcomes poster proposals from graduate students on all aspects of business history.
Poster presenters will normally be in either the First or Second Year of their PhD. We also strongly encourage those who have previously presented a poster to submit a paper proposal to the main conference in a subsequent year.
Those wishing to be considered for inclusion in the programme must submit an application to Dr Michael Aldous (ABH2025@qub.ac.uk) by 24th January 2025. This should provide:
· Title of your PhD project.
· An abstract (300 words) that explains the background to the poster; the questions addressed; the sources and methods employed; and likely conclusions.
· A current CV.
Approved posters must be submitted by 1 June 2025, and a style guide will be circulated to all presenters selected for poster presentations.
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Call for Tony Slaven Doctoral Workshop in Business History, 19 June 2025
The ABH will hold its twelfth annual Tony Slaven Doctoral Workshop on 19 June 2025. This event immediately precedes the ABH Conference, and will take place at Queens Business School, Queen’s University Belfast. Participants in the Workshop are encouraged to attend the ABH Conference following the Workshop. They will also have an opportunity to participate in the Poster Competition (explained in the main call for papers). The Workshop is an excellent opportunity for doctoral students to discuss their work with other research students and established academics in business history in an informal and supportive environment. Students at any stage of their doctoral studies, whether in their first year or very close to submitting, are urged to apply. The workshop provides new researchers with an opportunity to discuss their work with experienced researchers in the discipline, and also includes professional development sessions. The Workshop interprets the term ‘business history’ broadly, and it is intended that students in areas such as (but not confined to) the history of management and organizations, international trade and investment, financial or economic history, agricultural history, the history of not-for- profit organisations, government-industry relations, accounting history, social studies of technology, and historians or management or labour will find it useful. Students undertaking topics with a significant business history element but in disciplines other than economic or business history are also welcome. We embrace students researching any era or region of history.
Each student delivers a 15-minute presentation that is either (depending on how developed your project is) a summary of your PhD prospectus giving an overview of the overarching themes, research questions, and methodologies, or a specific chapter/paper. Time is devoted for discussion of each student’s work and the opportunity to gain feedback from active researchers in the field.
How to Apply for the Tony Slaven Workshop
Your application should be no more than 4 pages sent together in a single computer file: 1) a one-page CV; 2) one page stating the name(s) of the student’s supervisor(s), the title of the theses (a proposed title is fine), the university and department where the student is registered and the date of commencement of thesis registration; 3) an abstract of the work to be presented.
You may apply via email to Dr Michael Aldous at ABH2025@qub.ac.uk. Please use the subject line “Tony Slaven Workshop” and submit by 24 March 2024.
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Coleman Prize 2025
The ABH is pleased to announce that the 2025 Coleman Prize is open to PhD dissertations in Business History (broadly defined) having either a British subject or completed at a British university. All dissertations completed in the previous two calendar years (2023 and 2024) are eligible. In keeping with the ABH’s broad understanding of business history, applications are strongly encouraged from candidates in economic history, social history, labour history, intellectual history, cultural history, environmental history, the history of science and technology, the history of medicine, or any other subfield.
To apply for the Coleman Prize, supervisors are encouraged to nominate recent PhDs. Self-nominations are also strongly welcomed. Please send a PDF including the title of your PhD dissertation and a brief abstract (up to 2 double-spaced pages) to Dr Juan Jose Rivas Moreno at juanjose.rivasmoreno@eui.eu by 14 February 2025. The abstract should make clear the dissertation’s contribution to business history. Longlisted candidates will be requested to submit electronic copies of their dissertations 14 March 2025. Finalists will be notified by 9 May 2025. It is a condition of eligibility for the Prize that finalists will present their findings in-person at the Association’s annual conference.
In a new special series hosted by the New Books Network, Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo is interviewing prior Coleman Prize winners on their dissertations, some of which have already been published as monographs. More information on these interviews can be found at the link here: https://www.theabh.org/news/2023/8/22/coleman-prize-series-winners-podcast-by-bernardo-btiz-lazo