RHN 58/2022 | Call/EURHO
Call for expressions of interest: Rural History 2025
EURHO invites expressions of interest from academic societies, university departments or research institutes who would be interested in hosting the 2025 Rural History Conference. This will be the eighth Rural History conference. Previous meetings have been held in Brighton (2010), Bern (2013), Girona (2015), Leuven (2017) and Paris (2019) and will be held in Uppsala (2022) and Cluj (2023).
These conferences have demonstrated that there is considerable interest in rural history and an appetite for a conference in which rural historians can showcase their work in front of their peers. The EURHO is now looking for a host for the rural history conference to be held in summer/autumn 2025.
On the basis of the previous conferences, we would envisage a conference attracting over 400 delegates and having probably eight to ten parallel sessions spread over four days. Ideally, the venue will have at least eight conference rooms each able to seat about 30-40 placed close together, a large room suitable for publishers’ displays and a room suitable for lunches, coffee etc. Powerpoint etc is a sine qua non. Space will also be needed for conference registration etc. Easy access to a sizeable lecture theatre for any plenary sessions (keynotes) and the conference meeting would be a major advantage. The venue should also be able to provide catering, including lunches and possibly a conference dinner.
The conference might be held in a campus setting or might expect some or all of its delegates to stay in hotels, in which case access to discounted rooms would be advantageous. Access to a supply of budget rooms in university residences would be a considerable asset.
The conference host would need to appoint a conference director and a conference administrator. Allowance should also be made for a website manager. Abstract management and bookings for the past and current conference have been handled through a third party supplier either Regonline or Conftool. The final selection of papers rests with a panel appointed by EURHO in conjunction with the host society.
Further information about timetables, the selection of papers etc. can be gathered from the current Rural History 2021 website: https://www.ruralhistory2021.se/
Under present arrangements EURHO does not directly finance or manage the conference. Previous conferences have been managed by a host society which has accepted the financial risk of the conference and has provided some funding for PhD students as well. EURHO needs to receive a share of the conference surplus to allow its work in developing the study of rural history to continue and levies a small membership fee on delegates (currently 20 euro per participant). A financial target will be set in conjunction with the Society’s Treasurer. EURHO is aware of the constraints under which university departments and research institutes operate. Essentially though the conference is expected to be self-financing and to return a surplus to the host and EURHO.
Expressions of interest should
- identify the venue proposed, its size and the availability of suitable conference rooms
- the dates at which the venue could be available ideally in late August or early September 2021 (taking care to avoid other conferences in cognate disciplines)
- the availability of residential accommodation
- the financial arrangements envisaged.
Expressions of interest along these lines should be sent to the EURHO Secretary, Ernst Langthaler (ernst.langthaler@jku.at), before 15 June 2022. They should fill no more than 2 pages of A4. Location maps, prospect uses for hotels or university accommodation should ideally be given in the form of links rather than additional attachments. Rough costings should be provided (although it is accepted that they will be in 2022 prices).
Further advice on what is entailed can be supplied by the directors of the 2013 conference (Peter Moser: peter.moser@agrararchiv.ch), 2015 conference (Rosa Congost: rosa.congost@udg.edu), 2017 conference (Leen van Molle: leen.vanmolle@kuleuven.be), 2019 conference (Gérard Béaur: gerard.beaur@ehess.fr) and 2021 conference (Patrick Svensson: patrick.svensson@slu.se).
The EURHO plans to announce the location and date of the 2025 conference at the Uppsala Conference in June 2022.
Gérard Béaur, President