The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (CAMPOP)News
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# Christoph Hess awarded the Gerschenkron prize
20th September, 2026
Christoph Hess has been awarded the highly prestigious Gerschenkron prize by the US Economic History Association. This prize is awarded annually for the best Ph.D. thesis on a non-US topic.
# Professor Alice Reid elected to Academy of Social Sciences
3rd September, 2026
Alice Reid, Professor of Demography and Co-Director of CamPop, has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She is one of 74 outstanding social scientists elected this autumn.
President of the Academy, Will Hutton FAcSS, said, "Our newest Fellows represent some of the most influential voices in social science today. Their work is expanding knowledge, challenging assumptions and generating insights that are informing and even redefining decision making across government, business, education and civil society. I am delighted to welcome them to the Academy and look forward to working with them to raise the profile and impact of the social sciences across the UK and beyond."
# Faecal-oral diseases and ‘Sanitary Revolutions’ – the long view – registration open
21st May, 2026
A workshop on Faecal-oral diseases and 'Sanitary Revolutions' – the long view, will take place as part of the ESRC-funded project 'Water, Sanitation and Health in the First Industrial Society: Britain 1780-1930, at the West Hub, Cambridge, 15th-16th June 2026.
# 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.
# Census Summer School
26th November, 2025
Applications are open for a two-week Summer School on 'Micro-Census Insights into Historical Households, Mortality and Fertility', to be held at University of Cambridge from 6-17 July 2026. The course is hosted by Campop and co-organised with the European Society of Historical Demography (ESHD) and COST-Action GREATLEAP. Application deadline: 2 February 2026.
# Cambridge historian Emily Chung finds Friedrich Engels ‘took creative liberties’ with descriptions of class divides in Manchester
21st October, 2025
Campop PhD student Emily Chung has her research spotlighted in The Guardian. By mapping digitised census data, Emily has shown that Engels' blistering depictions of segregation in industrial Manchester - often taken by historians at face value - may in fact have been exaggerated. Emily's research is also featured in a Campop blog post.