Tracing British Lives

13th May, 2026

 

Campop researchers are embarking on an ambitious five-year project to transform research in British social, economic and demographic history. By linking millions of census records across decades, static snapshots of Victorian Britain are transformed into dynamic life histories.

The project will include a dedicated training programme – starting in September 2026 – designed to equip female History undergraduates over the course of their degrees with the quantitative and digital skills necessary for modern historical analysis. Some students will receive a full MPhil scholarship.

Alexis Litvine says: "The idea is to raise the profile of women going into our MPhil, especially in Economic and Social History, which has far too few women applicants. We are currently fundraising for a PhD scholarship to really bridge the gender gap in Economic and Social History, and empower more women to pursue advanced research."

Congratulations to prize winners

5th May, 2026

 

Congratulations to Christoph Hess, who has been awarded the Thirsk-Feinstein PhD Dissertation Prize for his thesis "Inheritance, Family Structure, and Economic Development in the Lower Yangzi Region, c.1650–1950"; and to Emiliano Travieso, who has been awarded the Nicholas Crafts Early Career Award in Economic History.

New mortality and migration data in PopulationsPast.org

13th March, 2026

 

PopulationsPast.org now has cause- and age-specific mortality rates, and age- and sex-specific net migration rates! This extension of PopulationsPast.org - an online interactive atlas of Victorian and Edwardian population produced by Campop at the Department of Geography - adds new dimensions to the existing demographic and socio-economic data.

The new data allows detailed exploration of the geography of mortality and movement in late 19th and early 20th century England, Wales, and Scotland.

Call for Papers: conference on historical and modern sanitary programmes

24th February, 2026

 

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) interventions – the long view. Cambridge, 15-16 June 2026.

This conference invites papers that address WaSH interventions in comparative and/or historical contexts, using epidemiological, genomic, evolutionary, historical and other approaches.

Workshop announcement: An informal introduction to formal demography

16th December, 2025

 

Applications are invited for a forthcoming workshop (23-27 March 2026) sponsored by The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (Campop) and the British Society for Population Studies (BSPS). This week-long mini-course will take place at Cambridge University, and will focus on formal demographic models and methods. Application deadline: 19 January 2026.