Camille Le Brettevillois, PhD Researcher, International Institute of Social History //
The Posthumus ESTER RDC 2025 held in the University of Seville, Spain, between the 3rd and the 5th of November. As members of the Posthumus cohort 2023 & 2024, PhD candidates of our team participated in those intense three days.
Aside from the Posthumus cohorts, this Research Design Course (RDC) welcomed external PhD candidates and senior researchers from different European Universities (Grenada, Évora, Lisbon, Brussel…). The participants were divided in several groups, organized thematically. Each participant had to present a paper to their group and received feedback from a fellow PhD and senior commentator before opening the floor to the public.
This allowed us to exchange about research subjects from different time-periods, with various methodological approach and themes: demographic, environmental, socio-economical history but also gender studies, colonial and post-colonial history were among the many themes of this RDC.
Main challenge here was probably… To comment on each other’s paper in spite of the gorgeous weather out there. For some of us it was their first discovery of the city of Seville. For others, it was the opportunity to visit the Archivo General de India (you can read the blog of Iliana about the archives here!).
We were grateful for the city tour organized by the Posthumus and external organisation, which made us able to enjoy the late-afternoon warmth, the Plaça da España, the Cathedral and many other places of the city centre.
And what would be a Posthumus event without the fruitful meetings with researchers? I think this has been the most valuable thing of the conference. Speaking for myself, I am very grateful of all the rich discussions I had with senior researchers and fellow PhD candidates. Very happy that I have meet all these enthusiast colleagues, with very beautiful projects.
