Fondazione F. Datini posthumus

Datini - ESTER
Advanced Seminar 2019
'Income, Wealth, Inequality'

The Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” and the European School for Training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER) announce their sixth jointly-organized Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar for economic and social historians on 12th-17th May 2019, in Prato (Italy) on:

Income, Wealth, Inequality

ESTER, established in 1991, is an international postgraduate network incorporating more than 60 European Universities. ESTER organizes research training in the form of both the annual Research Design Course for starting PhD-students and a series of Advanced Seminars on special themes within economic and social history.

"F. Datini" International Institute of Economic History was founded in 1968 by Federigo Melis and Fernand Braudel. The aim of the Institute is the study of pre-industrial economic history (13th-18th centuries) and the creation on the topic of a space for historical culture, making comparison between different methodologies and schools of research easier and supporting young scholars during their formative years.

The focus of the 2019 seminar is the level, structure, evolution of income and wealth and their distribution among social classes, families, individuals and among nations. Its aim is to investigate the structure of income and wealth in past and present societies and the inequalities both within and between countries. Attention will be devoted to the forms of income (wages, interests, profits, rents) and wealth (both real and financial assets), their changes in time and the influence of the institutions on their distribution.

Papers can cover any relevant aspect and any period from Antiquity until today.


Description and organization of the Advanced Datini-Ester Seminar
The seminar is jointly organized by the members of the board of the Datini-ESTER Seminar: Paolo Malanima (responsible for the project, Fondazione Datini), Ben Gales (Posthumus Institute), Jaco Zuijderduijn (Posthumus Institute), Francesco Ammannati (secretary, Fondazione Datini). The members of the board, together with other colleagues, specialist in the field, will participate in the seminar as instructors.

The Datini-Ester Advanced Seminar consists of two complementary parts:

a) the participation in the international Datini congress, devoted in 2019 to Economic Inequalities in Pre-industrial Societies: Causes and Consequences, to be held in Prato, from May 12th (opening 18.00 with the inaugural speech in the municipal building) until May 15th (afternoon) 2019. For information on the congress: http://www.istitutodatini.it/temi/htm/temi51.htm
b) a two-day workshop from May 16th (morning), until May 17th (late afternoon), in a reserved room of the Datini Palace in Prato: (http://www.cittadiprato.it/EN/Sezioni/199/Datini-Palace/).

The workshop will bring together a number of senior researchers from different countries. Prior to the workshop, students will be asked to prepare a paper. They will have the opportunity of presenting their research project dealing with one or more core problems of their research field and discussing them with both senior researchers and other fellow students. Each paper will be presented by the author during the seminar and then examined and discussed by one of the participating students and by one of the instructors, after which a general discussion among all participants will take place.

The students will be guests of the Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” from Sunday May 12th (in) until May 18th morning (out). On May 17th, at the end of the seminar, the students will receive diplomas attesting their participation in the Datini-ESTER seminar and Datini congress.
The diplomas will be delivered only to the students who will take part both in the seminar and the Datini congress.

Besides providing a feedback opportunity for ongoing projects on maritime connections and trades and the opportunity to attend the international Datini congress, the aim of the workshop is also to foster cooperation between eco-nomic and social historians coming from different countries.

This Advanced Datini-ESTER Seminar is open to 15 PhD-students and Post-Docs (who finished their doctorate less than five years prior to the seminar).

Applications and admission
Students should apply online, and present a 800 words abstract of the content of their dissertation project dealing with income, wealth and inequality.
A first selection of students (by ESTER and Datini) will take place on the basis of the abstracts. After this stage, students who are accepted will be asked to draft their research paper.
The final admission to the course depends upon the following points:
• the student must meet the deadline for submission of his/her paper;
• the paper must be of sufficient academic quality and the level of the English used in the paper must be sufficient.

The language of the papers, such as that of the seminar, will be English.

The paper instructions can be found here. (pdf, 356 kB)

Dates and location
The Advanced 2019 Seminar will take place in Prato, Italy, from May 12th (Sunday with the inauguration of the congress) to May 17th (Friday), so the day of arrival will be Sunday May 12th and the departure Saturday morning May 18th. Both the students and instructors will meet on Sunday evening (12th May) at 8 o'clock for a dinner together. The seminar will start on Thursday 16th at 9 am. Students wishing to participate are requested to send their application no later than the 15th October 2018. To this purpose the students will use the online form. The selection of students will be completed by the end of October 2018. Deadline for submission of papers by accepted students is March 15th 2019. Following that date, the papers will be made available to all participants.

Dates: a summary (2018-19):
June 2018 Call for Applications
15th October 2018 Deadline Applications
31st October 2018 Selection completed, applicants informed
15th March 2019 Deadline paper submission
31st March 2019 Papers online for reading
12th May 2019 (morning or afternoon) Arrival in Prato
12th (6 pm)-15th May 2019 International Datini Congress
16th (from 9 o'clock)-17th May 2019 Advanced Seminar
17th May 2019 (end of the seminar) Delivery of diplomas
18th May (morning) Departure

Funding
Costs for accommodation and catering will be covered by the organizers. The organizers will not cover travel costs (possibly covered by students' home institutions). Travel arrangements to and from Prato have to be organized by the selected participants themselves.

The workshop will be funded by the Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” and by the ESTER Graduate School.

Contacts:
For inquiries concerning this course, please contact ESTER:

ESTER/N.W. Posthumus Institute
Faculty of Arts
P.O. Box 9103
The Netherlands

E-mail: nwp@let.ru.nl

For inquiries concerning the hospitality in Prato, the students have to contact the secretary of the Datini Institute on the dates of their arrival and departure:

Letizia Finocchiaro

Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” di Prato
E-mail: letizia@istitutodatini.it
© Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini"