Online Lecture 6: Public Health
2024-12-06 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturer: Prof. Ivan Miškulin, University of Osijek, Faculty of Medicine
Content of the lecture: This lecture aims to clarify and illuminate the field of Public Health. Many people are still unaware of what public health entails or how it impacts their daily lives. We recognize that “health” and “healthcare” are not synonymous; however, the level of development and comprehensiveness of healthcare reflects the broader concept of health.
Public health encompasses the health of each individual as well as all members of a community, providing an institutional framework for achieving this ideal. It is crucial for people to understand that public health affects various aspects of their daily lives.
Today, the term public health refers to the responsibilities and tasks related to health protection that a government must provide. Historically, the state was primarily responsible for disease prevention and caring for the poor and vulnerable. Nowadays, the state’s role has evolved to include organizing health services and overseeing overall healthcare.
Responsible governments are now formulating public health policies and programs to better understand the causes of disease, ensure social stability and prosperity, and maintain public order.
Objectives of the lecture: Students will learn what public health is, the most significant public health challenges of the 21st century, and how to organize healthcare for all population groups in various emergency situations. Additionally, students will gain an overview of the specifics involved in organizing health services in the community, as well as the details of health and social care organizations. They will also explore methods of financing, the fundamentals of management and health economics, and the implementation of public health interventions.
Recommended reading:

C. Hamlin, The history and development of public health in high-income countries. In R. Detels, R. Beaglehole, M. A. Lansang and M. Gulliford (eds.), Oxford Textbook of Public Health, 5th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009.
A. O’Shaughnessy, J. Wright and B. Cave, Assessing health needs. In I. Kawachi, I. Lang and W. Ricciardi (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice, 4th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020.
World Health Organization, Quality of Care, Geneva, WHO, 14 October 2022. Available at: www.who.int/health-topics/quality-of-care
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Health Care Quality and Outcomes Indicators. Available at: www.oecd.org/health/
World Health Organization, The Global Health Observatory. Available at: www.who.int/data/gho
World Health Organization, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Geneva, WHO, 1986.
M. Marmot, J. Allen, T. Boyce et al., Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years on, London, Institute of Health Equity/The Health Foundation, 2020.
WHO Regional Office for Europe, Screening programmes: A short guide, 2020. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/330829/9789289054782eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Optional reading:

T. L. Beauchamp and J. F. Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 3rd ed., New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 1989.
N. Daniels, Accountability for reasonableness: Establishing a fair process for priority setting is easier than agreeing on principles, British Medical Journal 321(7272), 2000, 1300–1.
J. Atkinson, E. Loftus and J. Jarvis, The art of change making, Leadership Centre, 2015. Available at: www.leadershipcentre.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2016/02/The-Art-of-Change-Making.pdf
W. Bridges and S. Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, Philadelphia, PA, Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2017.
Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (GBD 2019) Demographics 1950–2019, Seattle, WA, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2020.
UNICEF, The state of the world’s children 2021: Statistical tables, 2021. Available at: https://data.unicef.org/resources/dataset/the-state-of-the-worlds-children2021-statistical-tables
World Health Organization, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 1986. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/349652.
World Health Organization, The WHO Global Diabetes Compact. Available at: www.who.int/initiatives/the-who-global-diabetes-compact
World Health Organization, Mental health. Available at: www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health
World Health Organization, Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030. Available at: www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240031029
United Nations, EHO’s work on the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030). Available at: www.who.int/initiatives/decade-of-healthy-ageing

You can download the presentation by prof. Ivan Miškulin in .pdf.

Young Demographers Conference & Masterclasses on Inequality in Health
2025-02-04 - 2025-02-07 | Charles University, Albertov 6, Prague, Czech Republic
The annual international Conference of Young Demographers is held at the Faculty of Science, Charles University traditionally in the first half of February. We welcome submissions from all fields of demography, as well as all related areas of population studies (we are always kind to sociologists, epidemiologists and even economists). We aim to create a relaxed and welcoming environment where especially early career researchers can share their work in progress and thoughts with their peers.
This year we are also co-organising three masterclasses on inequality in health:

Reproductive Health – Anna Šťastná (Charles University)
Inequality in health (general) – Kristina Thompson (Waeningen University)
Historical Health – Věra Slováková (Charles University)

Online lecture 1: Best practices for data management
2025-03-07 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturer: Prof. Tiziana Margaria, University of Limerick, Ireland
Content of the lecture: This lecture aims to enable the students to think critically about key issues around data management, situated in the context of the current best practices. It will also address shortcomings, especially for what concerns manageability over a longer period of time, in a regulatory space, and the dilemmas of governance and sustainability.
Objectives of the lecture: The lecture will introduce the current practice of data description, present the key principles of FAIR and XAIR data, illustrate a few options of data management and governance, also in the context of the GDRP and the AI Act.
It will also encourage the students to reflect on their own situation in this context.
Recommended reading:
Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI): How to Practise Good Research Data Management https://dri.ie/how-to-rdm/
Brian Donnellan, Charles Sheridan & Edward Curry (2011) A capability maturity framework for sustainable information and communication technology’ , IT Professional 13(1) (2011) 33-40. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5708282
Other relevant texts:
John Breslin, Alexandre Passent, Stephan Decker, (2009) The Social Semantic Web , Springer, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-01172-6
Online course:
Udemy.com – Data Management Masterclass – The Complete Course https://www.udemy.com/course/data-management-masterclass-the-complete-course/?srsltid=AfmBOor9zwnQkFSLEmbLLPiVMWKdpmWOC0-CpfWxSMg2KJyOBVcJGl5g&couponCode=2021PM20
You can download the presentation by prof. Tiziana Margaria in .pdf.

Online lecture 2: Using automatic transcription for processing historical sources
2025-03-21 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris)
Lecturers: Adrià Molina (Computer Vision Center) & Joana Maria Pujadas-Mora (Open University of Catalonia & Center for Demographic Studies)
Content of the lecture: The aim of the lecture is to explore the development of a historical digital twin from demographic sources within a big data setup.
Objectives of the lecture:

Highlighting the legitimacy of using automatic methods on demographic sources.
Understanding the current challenges in applying AI to historical sources.
Overcoming challenges through handwriting recognition of population registers to build the BALL database.

Recommended reading:

Pujadas-Mora, J. M., Fornés, A., Ramos Terrades, O., Chen, J., Valls-Fígols, M., & Cabré, A. (2022). The Barcelona Historical Marriage Database and the Baix Llobregat Demographic Database. From algorithms for handwriting recognition to individual-level demographic and socioeconomic data. Historical Life Course Studies, 2022, 12 (99).
Molina, A., Terrades, O. R., & Lladós, J. (2024, August). Fetch-A-Set: A Large-Scale OCR-Free Benchmark for Historical Document Retrieval. In International Workshop on Document Analysis Systems (pp. 347-362). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

You can download the presentation by Adrià Molina in .pdf.

Mentoring and Networking Event at European Social Science History Conference
2025-03-27 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Paris) | Einstein, Nieuwe Rijn 19, Leiden, Netherlands
Are you looking to expand your academic network and gain valuable mentorship? We invite you to a Mentoring & Networking Event on March 27, 2025, from 18:00 to 20:00 at Einstein
This event provides a great opportunity to connect with peers and experienced scholars in an informal setting. Whether you’re seeking career advice, research collaborations, or simply wish to meet like-minded scholars, this is an excellent chance to build meaningful connections.
🔹 Date & Time: March 27, 2025 | 18:00 – 20:00🔹 Location: Einstein, Nieuwe Rijn 19, Leiden
🔹 What to Expect: An evening of inspiring conversations, networking opportunities, and mentorship—plus free drinks and snacks!🔹 Registration: https://forms.gle/WNCS6HAWcT5pDFR99
We look forward to seeing you there.

Online lecture 3: The creation of cause-of-death databases
2025-04-04 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturers: Prof. Angelique Janssens (Radboud University) and Prof. Isabelle Devos (University of Ghent)
Content: Automated transcription of cause-of-death records can be impractical for many researchers due to unscanned or improperly formatted sources, complex layouts, and varied handwriting. This lecture demonstrates how we leveraged crowdsourcing to develop comprehensive cause-of-death databases for the cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam.
Objectives: to highlight both the advantages and challenges of using crowdsourcing to compile cause-of-death databases. We present practical tactics and tools to maintain volunteer engagement and ensure their continued participation.
Recommended reading:
Cornelis W. Van Galen (2019). Creating an audience: Experiences from the Surinamese slave registers crowdsourcing project, Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 178-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2019.1590268
Scivil Citizen Science (2019). Communication in Citizen Science A practical guide to communication and engagement in citizen science. https://www.scivil.be/sites/default/files/paragraph/files/2020-01/Scivil%20Communication%20Guide.pdf
You can find the presentation slides by Prof. Angélique Janssens and Prof. Isabelle Devos here.
https://greatleap.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/recording_angelique2.mp4

Lessons learned using a chatbot to assign ICD-10 codes to historical causes of death
2025-04-25 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturer: Prof. Lars Ailo Aslaksen Bongo, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Content: I will present our lessons learned using the ChatGPT chatbot to assign International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes to Norwegian historical causes of death. Our hypothesis is that we can use chatbots to interactively code historical data for a specific application. Compared to the huge effort required for coding everything once with low error rates, this allows less effort and possibly more accurate coding. However, naive use of chatbots is costly, so a systematic approach is needed. Finally, we propose a new specialization: AI curators for AI generated historical knowledge.
Objectives: The aim of the lecture is to learn about opportunities and pitfalls in using chatbots for interactive analysis of historical data.
Recommended reading: It is recommended to test a chatbot before the lecture.
You can download the presentation by Prof. Lars Ailo Bongo here.

Lars Ailo Bongo

Historical International Classification for Diseases
2025-05-16 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturers: prof. Alice Reid, University of Cambridge, dr. Mayra Murkens, University of Groningen
Content: The recently launched ICD10h coding system is designed to support historical demographers and historians in coding historical causes of death. Widespread adoption of this system across diverse countries and linguistic contexts will significantly enhance the comparability of research on historical cause-specific mortality patterns, while preserving the integrity of the historical context. With the coding manual and the English historical causes of death strings file, researchers can begin coding causes of death. However, this process also involves tidying, parsing, and determining primary causes of death.
You can find the presentation in .pdf here.

Causes of death sources around the world
2025-05-23 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturers: Dr. Elena Crinela Holom, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca; Dr. Grażyna Liczbińska, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań; Dr. Michail Raftakis, University of Bologna
Content: This lecture will provide an overview of available and digitized sources on individual and aggregate causes of death across Europe, covering roughly the early 19th to mid-20th centuries. It will also incorporate insights from questionnaire responses collected from participants in the COST Action CA22116 – The Great Leap. Lastly, by drawing on (historical) sources, the lecture will provide insights into how causes of death were registered and classified by doctors, priests, and civil servants.
Objectives:

Introduce the main types of data sources containing cause-of-death information.
Present key findings from the survey, covering both aggregate-level and individual-level data.
To present and facilitate a collaborative discussion with participants on selected sources of cause-of-death data.

Requirements: Active participation.
Recommended reading:

Alter, G. & Carmichael, A. (1996). “Studying Causes of Death in the Past: Problems and Models”. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 29 (2): 44-48.
Alter, G & Carmichael, A. (1999). “Classifying the Dead: Toward a History of the Registration of Causes of Death”. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 54(2): 114–132.
Janssens, A. & Devos, I (2022). “The Limits and Possibilities of Cause of Death Categorisation for Understanding Late Nineteenth Century Mortality”. Social History of Medicine 35(4): 1053–1063.

You can find the presentation in .pdf here.

Workshop Challenging the Leviathan of individual death records (1800-1950). A walk-in-clinic on automatic transcription
2025-05-26 - 2025-05-27 | Universidade do Minho – Campus de Azurém, Avenida da Universidade, 4800-058, Guimarães, Portugal
The workshop is part of the COST Action project – The Great Leap and is aimed at scholars who are at an early stage of collecting individual-level death certificates (1800–1950). The goal of this workshop is to assist them in finding solutions to facilitate automatic transcription of records. In any case, students or academics who simply want to learn more about the processes of automatic transcription of records are welcome, also when they are not (yet) part of GREATLEAP.
We aim to leverage the extensive experience gained by colleagues who have successfully implemented automatic transcription techniques in the past (e.g. Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands). By pooling efforts and sharing accumulated experience in software development and calibration, the workshop aims to provide faster, more cost-effective, and reliable solutions for those new to these processes.
We will bring together a committee of experts who will analyse the applications in advance and collectively propose potential solutions for the cases presented. Another objective of the workshop is to develop guidelines on best practices for automatic transcription of individual-level death certificates.The workshop is fundamentally organized into three parts. The first day will feature presentations by various specialists, including computer scientists, showcasing relevant case studies. It will also include a tutorial session on preparing and editing digital images for later digital recognition. The second day includes the presentation of concrete questions from participants (whether they are or not members of the Cost network), followed by expert feedback and an extended discussion period. The workshop will conclude with a roundtable discussion, resulting in a document on best practices for automatic transcription of records.
Flyer
Programme
Report
Scientific Committee

Antero Ferreira (Casa de Sarmento, Portugal)
Ciara Breathnach (University of Limerick, Ireland)
Diego Ramiro Farinhas (CSIC, Madrid)
Paulo Teodoro de Matos (ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon)
Tiziana Margaria (University of Limerick, Ireland)

Online lecture 7: Health Inequality in the Long Run: Social and Spatial Dimensions of Mortality
2025-05-30 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | MS Teams
Lecturers: Dr. Hannaliis Jaadla, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
Content: This lecture examines the long run patterns of health inequalities, with a focus on the social and spatial patterns of mortality over the last 200 years. It explores the key questions about the measurement of both health inequalities and socioeconomic status, and provides an overview of how mortality outcomes have varied across social groups and geographic regions, revealing persistent disparities.
Objectives:

Introduce the main concepts to study health inequalities: theoretical basis and measurement.
Discuss plenty of examples from the relevant literature.

Requirements: Active participation.
Recommended reading:

Bengtsson, T., & Van Poppel, F. (2011). Socioeconomic inequalities in death from past to present: An introduction. Explorations in economic History, 48(3), 343-356.
Clouston, S. A., Rubin, M. S., Phelan, J. C., & Link, B. G. (2016). A social history of disease: contextualizing the rise and fall of social inequalities in cause-specific mortality. Demography, 53(5), 1631-1656.
Elo, I. T. (2009). Social class differentials in health and mortality: Patterns and explanations in comparative perspective. Annual review of sociology, 35(1), 553-572.
Galobardes, B., Shaw, M., Lawlor, D. A., Lynch, J. W., & Smith, G. D. (2006). Indicators of socioeconomic position (part 1). Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 60(1), 7-12.
Gregory, I. N. (2009). Comparisons between geographies of mortality and deprivation from the 1900s and 2001: spatial analysis of census and mortality statistics. BMJ, 339.

Please find the Lecture Notes here.

Thematic Virtual Workshop 'New ways of transcribing, visualizing, publishing, and providing access to data on epidemics and contagious diseases'
2025-06-18 09:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Paris) | Virtual
As part of the IUSSP Scientific Panel on ‘Epidemics and Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past’, we will be hosting a one-day online-only workshop on the topic of ‘New ways of transcribing, visualizing, publishing, and providing access to data on epidemics and contagious diseases” at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) on 18 June 2025.
The aim of the event is to bring together experts from various disciplines who are working directly or indirectly on methodological questions of how to transcribe, visualise and publish tabular or otherwise structured or unstructured data in research with handwritten or printed historical sources as effectively as possible using innovative and modern methods. The focus is on methods and sources, and workflows along the entire pipeline are of interest. Participants can focus on one of these aspect, or present work in progress, experiences or lessons learned. The aim is also to learn from each other and to provide each other with insights into best practice, and, as an overarching goal, to start new collaborations and build a community that will meet more regularly afterwards.
The event will be open to all interested listeners when registered: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T2pRGVL9QgyFszc42_gX3Q
Programme
Location: Online, exclusively.
Organizer: Kaspar Staub, University of Zurich.
If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please contact Kaspar Staub (kaspar.staub@iem.uzh.ch).

Workshop and Hackathon ‘Analysing historical mortality and cause of death data’
2025-06-19 - 2025-06-20 | University of Zurich, Switzerland, Rämistrasse 71, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland
The aim of this 2-day-event is to use an exemplary historical data set to explore different ways of statistically analysing and presenting mortality and causes of death data, including with regard to the question of inequality. We will work with concepts such as excess mortality, competing risk analysis, regression based analyses, and other statistical methods. During the workshop there will both be interactive input from selected experts, as well as group- work to address various methodological challenges in the form of a hackathon. The results will then be incorporated into a first draft of a best-practice guide.
This workshop is the first step in a multi-stage process. The key input presentations by the experts will be recorded and then made available to the entire Action. In addition, online follow-up meetings with the entire Working Group 3 and COST Action will be held to review, discuss and further improve the best practice guidelines developed in the workshop (details will follow in summer 2025).
If you have questions: kaspar.staub@iem.uzh.ch
Overview
Dates: June 19 & 20, 2025
Place: University of Zurich, Switzerland
Organisers: Working Group 3 (Kaspar Staub, Maarten van Wijhe, Pavlos Baltas)
N participants: maximum 30
Mode: In Person (key presentations will be recorded and made available)
Programme

Online Workshop Writing Individual Grants on Inequalities in Health
2025-06-25 14:00 - 15:30 (Europe/Paris) | MS Teams
Are you planning to apply for an individual research grant and wondering how to craft a strong proposal? Join us for an online workshop on 25 June 14:00-15:30 CET, where we will explore the tips and tricks of grant writing based on first-hand experiences from scholars in our field. This interactive workshop will focus on general strategies for individual grants, including, but not limited to, ERC Starting Grants. Whether you are just getting started or looking to refine your approach, this session offers insights into what works, what to avoid, and what to expect throughout the process of writing an individual research grant on the topic of inequalities in health.
What to expect:

General tips and tricks for structuring a compelling grant proposal on the topic of GREATLEAP;
Honest and practical personal experiences from past applicants: both successes and challenges;
Discussion on differences between national and European funding schemes;
Plenty of time for questions, discussion, and peer exchang.

Speakers:

Dr. Tim Riswick (Radboud University)
Dr. Ingrid van Dijk (Lund University)
Dr. Katarina Matthes (University of Zurich)

This workshop is an opportunity not only to learn but also to share and connect. Bring your questions, concerns, and curiosity: we are looking forward to a lively and supportive discussion.
Registation
This online workshop is open to all GREATLEAP members and colleagues interested in developing their grant writing skills. Please register here before 20 June 2025: https://forms.gle/Z3xviSei6rx1jpTz5

Training Course on Coding Historical Causes of Death
2025-07-08 - 2025-07-09 | University of Cambridge, The Old Schools, Trinity Ln, Cambridge, United Kingdom
The recently launched ICD10h coding system is designed to support historical demographers and historians in coding historical causes of death. Widespread adoption of this system across diverse countries and linguistic contexts will significantly enhance the comparability of research on historical cause-specific mortality patterns, while preserving the integrity of the historical context.
With the coding manual and the English historical causes of death strings file, researchers can begin coding causes of death. However, this process also involves tidying, parsing, and determining primary causes of death. This training course will guide participants through each of these essential steps.
Over the course of 2 days, participants will explore best practices for tidying cause-of-death data, including identifying the key elements of written strings that are crucial for coding and determining which aspects should be flagged within datasets. We will also focus on effective parsing strategies, addressing how to parse natural causes of death and distinguishing the parsing and coding of violent causes. Additionally, time will be dedicated to the actual coding process—how to select the appropriate code and achieve this efficiently.
We invite researchers at all stages of their academic careers to apply, with a special emphasis on PhD candidates working with historical causes of death. Applicants should possess a basic understanding of historical causes of death and bring their own dataset of causes to work on during the course.
A maximum of 20 participants will be selected, of whom around ten will be eligible for reimbursement of their travel expenses, based on the COST-Action regulations.
To apply, please apply using this form, providing following information:

Your name and affiliation
Career stage
A brief summary of your research and dataset
A short motivation for attending the course
Whether you want to apply for reimbursement

We look forward to receiving your applications
Applications should be submitted before 1st April 2025. Successful applicants will be informed by email on, or before 25th April 2025.

Working Group 2 Meeting on ICD10h
2025-07-10 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Paris) | University of Cambridge, The Old Schools, Trinity Ln, Cambridge, United Kingdom
This event is only for invited scholars who contributed to the ICD10h. More information will follow.

Training Course on Coding Historical Causes of Death & Death, Demography and Digital History Symposium
2025-07-22 - 2025-07-23 | Caulfield Campus, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
The ‘Training Course on Coding Historical Causes of Death’ & ‘Death, Demography and Digital History Symposium’ are organized on 22-23 July 2025 at the Caulfield Campus, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
See the call for applications here.

Summer Training School 'Harmonising and Visualising Data in Research on Health Inequalities'
2025-08-25 - 2025-08-29 | Charles University, Albertov 6, Prague, Czech Republic
This Summer School is designed for early-career researchers engaged in the study of health inequalities through the lens of historical data. Participants will develop advanced skills in data harmonisation and visualisation techniques specifically tailored for historical sources.
Program Overview:
The program will provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the methodological challenges and opportunities when working with historical health data. Emphasis will be placed on:

Data Harmonisation of Historical Sources: Participants will explore advanced methodologies for standardising and integrating diverse historical datasets related to health and its social determinants. Techniques for cleaning, transforming, and linking historical data to create robust and comparable datasets will be covered.

Data Visualisation for Historical Research: The Summer School will equip participants with the skills to create compelling and informative visualisations that effectively communicate complex historical health inequality data. Participants will explore various visualisation tools and techniques appropriate for presenting historical trends, geographical distributions, and social disparities in health outcomes.

Practical Skills Development: Hands-on workshops will provide practical experience in data manipulation, analysis, and visualisation using real-world historical datasets and appropriate software tools.

Networking and Collaboration: The Summer School fosters a collaborative environment, enabling participants to connect with fellow researchers, established experts in the field, and potential collaborators, creating a valuable network for future research endeavors.

Target Audience:
This Summer School is open to young researchers (PhD candidates, and early-career post-doctoral researchers) from various disciplines.
Prerequisites:
A demonstrable interest in historical research and a basic understanding of statistical concepts are required.
Dates & Location:
25ー29 August 2025, Charles University, Faculty of Science, Prague, Czech Republic
Application Process:
Applicants are requested to submit the following:

A motivation letter (max. 400 words) articulating their research interests, the relevance of historical health inequality research to their work, and how this Summer School will contribute to their scholarly development.

Application Deadline:
14 May 2025
Registration Fee:
There is no fee. We anticipate that GREATLEAP will be able to reimburse travel costs and offer a daily allowance to participants who are selected to present but lack the financial means to attend otherwise.
Detailed programme:
You can find a detatailed programme here.
Contact:
Vera Slovakova (slovakove@natur.cuni.cz)
Liili Abuladze (liili@tlu.ee)
Emre Sari (emre@norceresearch.no)

Thematic Workshop: How did we lift the burden? Infectious Disease Mortality in the Western and Non-Western World (1800-now)
2025-08-28 - 2025-08-29 | Radboud University, Nijmegen, Nederland
The history of infectious disease mortality is far from over, neither in the western world nor the non-western world. Yet, the steep increases in life expectancy since the 19th century in the western world were the result of overcoming (non-)epidemic infectious diseases. These massive reductions of mortality due to diseases such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and whooping cough, began before the introduction of modern curative medicine after the 1940s. This presents an important explanatory challenge for historians and historical demographers: what drove this important change in mortality and life expectancy and how did it come about? What explanatory factors can help us understand the great leaps forward? In addition, in order to elucidate the driving factors in this process we also need to have a good understanding of the epidemiological profile of the transformation process. Which diseases were driving the decline in mortality, and which diseases were impervious to improvement before the 1940s and how can that be explained? The epidemiological transition was a complex and dynamic process which did not happen everywhere at the same time or in the same way. Time, place and socio-economic dynamics could differ within smaller regions or countries, or for that matter, even within a single city or town. How can we use these characteristics to say anything about the driving forces behind the epidemiological transition? And how did the experiences compare between the frontrunners in the epidemiological transition, such as the Scandinavian countries and England, and those who came later?
Mortality and health are always, not only in the nineteenth century, the outcomes of complex and multi-causal processes. In this historic extension of life expectancy beyond age 30-40 many factors have played a role, ranging from increased personal hygiene, public health policies, higher incomes, improved nutrition, reduced exposure to infectious diseases, behavioural change, infant feeding practices, and improved education for the majority of the population. How did these factors interact and enhance each other? In recent years there has been a particular stress on sanitary interventions, such as piped water and sewerage. However, reduced infant mortality levels can often not be linked to the instalment of piped water, moreover, mortality often declined before these sanitary innovations became available. Hence, the debate continues. We would like to encourage paper authors to contribute to the debate in this international conference.
We welcome all sorts of contributions, theoretical, empirical and methodological. In particular, we welcome papers from areas and regions of Europe and the world that not belong to the so-called frontrunners in mortality decline in the north-western part of Europe.
The conference is organized by the COST-Action network GREATLEAP, in collaboration with the Radboud University Nijmegen, the HiDo network, and the IUSSP Panel ‘Epidemics and Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past’. The conference serves as a closing event of the NWO-funded research project Lifting the burden of disease. The modernisation of health in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, 1854-1926. It also marks the end of the academic career of professor Angélique Janssens, who directed this research project. The conference will therefore be concluded by a farewell reception.
Applications should contain an abstract (500-600 words) as well as a title, and the names of all authors involved. Deadline: 31st March 2025. Please submit your application via the form.

Workshop Sources and Databases on Causes of Death in Historical Societies (1800–1950)
2025-09-09 09:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | Sala dei Poeti, Palazzo Hercolani, Strada Maggiore 45, Bologna, Italy
Since the 1800s, causes of death have been systematically recorded in various types of historical registries, including parish registers, civil records, and hospital logs. Registration of causes of death was crucial for monitoring population health in earlier societies. However, procedures for collecting this information varied across countries and over time, often reflecting local and national regulations governing record-keeping practices. In recent years, many of these historical sources have been digitized and transformed into databases. These databases are now invaluable tools for reconstructing and analyzing the health status and level of medical care of past populations. They also allow for comparative studies across different populations, regions, and time periods.
As part of the COST-Action GREATLEAP, the objective of this special issue of The Historical Life Course Studies (open access and Q1 journal) is to provide an overview of sources and databases that record individual-level causes of death from 1800 to 1950. The goal is to enable the study of specific populations during this period. Authors of all accepted manuscripts will be invited to present their work at a workshop in Bologna, Italy, on September 9, 2025, held the day before the 5th conference of the European Society for Historical Demography. Financial support will be available through the COST-Action GREATLEAP.

Management Committee Meeting
2025-09-10 09:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) | Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Via Andreatta 8, Bologna, Italy
More information will follow.

Thematic Workshop: Inequality in Myeloproliferative Diseases and Acute Leukaemia Mortality and Surveillance. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
2025-10-03 - 2025-10-05
The workshop will address key issues, including disparities in mortality and treatment access for myeloproliferative diseases (MPDs) and acute leukemias. It will also include discussions on methodologies for managing mortality data, focusing on statistics, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), and database management.
Day 1: October 3, 2025 (Friday)
• Start after 15:00 to accommodate participants’ schedules.
• Registration, welcome coffee, and opening remarks.
• Keynote lectures on historical trends and modern perspectives of MPDs and acute leukemias.
• Cultural evening with traditional Armenian music and dinner.
Day 2: October 4, 2025 (Saturday)
• Dedicated sessions focusing on specific MPDs (Polycythemia Vera, Essential Thrombocythemia, and Myelofibrosis).
• Discussions on mortality trends, surveillance, and data management for MPDs.
Day 3: October 5, 2025 (Sunday)
• Morning sessions on acute leukemias, covering mortality data and surveillance methodologies.
• Conclude by 15:00 to accommodate departures.
You can register here. The deadline for registration is June 1, 2025.

Online lecture 8 - Session 1: OLS regression models and causal inference
2025-10-03 14:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | MS Teams
Lecturers: Dr. Auke Rijpma, Research Institute for History and Art History, Utrecht University
Content:Historical demographers often rely on survival models to analyze events like mortality and health outcomes. While these are powerful and appropriate tools, the more basic OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) model is a very interesting and often robust alternative, especially when data doesn’t perfectly adhere to the requirements of more complex models. What’s more, there is a well-developed literature on how to perform causal inference with OLS models, allowing researchers to go beyond simple correlation to identify meaningful causal relationships. This lecture will introduce the basic OLS model and then cover a number of key causal inference strategies. We will also demonstrate practical estimation procedures using the powerful fixest package in R, highlighting how these methods can be applied to historical demographic data.
Objectives:

Discuss the basics of the OLS model
Introduce important causal inference strategies that can be performed with extensions of the OLS model
Demonstrate OLS estimation in R’s fixest library

Requirements: Active participation.
Recommended reading:

Angrist, Joshua D., and Jörn-Steffen Pischke. 2015. Mastering ’metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect. Princeton University Press.
Zwart, Pim de, Daniel Gallardo-Albarrán, and Auke Rijpma. 2022. ‘The Demographic Effects of Colonialism: Forced Labor and Mortality in Java, 1834–1879’. The Journal of Economic History 82 (1): 211–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050721000577.

Slides for Online lecture 8 – Session 1- OLS regression models and causal inference

Online lecture 8 - Session 2: Multinomial regression models by and for historians/historical demographers
2025-10-03 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | MS Teams
Lecturers: Dr. Mayra Murkens, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen
Content: One of the main issues historical demographers face, is the lack of a proper estimation of the population at risk. Multinomial logistic regression models can approximate differences between groups in past societies without the information on the population at risk. In this lecture, the idea behind multinomial logistic regressions and how to structure your data to perform these models will be discussed.
Objectives:

Show how multinomial logistic regression analyses can offer a solution when a population at risk is missing.
Show what is needed to perform a multinomial logistic regression.

Requirements: Active participation.
Recommended reading:

Renzo Derosas, Cristina Munno, The Place to Heal and the Place to Die. Patients and Causes of Death in Nineteenth-Century Venice, Social History of Medicine, Volume 35, Issue 4, November 2022, Pages 1140–1161, https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkaa050
Murkens, M., Pelzer, B., & Janssens, A. (2022). Transitory inequalities: how individual-level cause-specific death data can unravel socioeconomic inequalities in infant mortality in Maastricht, the Netherlands, 1864–1955. The History of the Family, 28(1), 95–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2022.2084442

Information Session and Launch ‘How to publish your GREATLEAP COST Action research with Open Research Europe’
2025-11-04 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) | MS Teams
We warmly invite you to join us for the launch and information session of the new Open Research Europe Special Collection “Multidisciplinary approaches to historical health inequalities, 1800–2022”.
Registration link: Register here

What this Collection is about
Health inequalities have persisted across time, shaped by structural, socioeconomic, environmental, and demographic factors. The GREATLEAP network brings together historians, demographers, epidemiologists, data scientists, and public health experts to explore how cause-specific mortality data can shed light on the origins, dynamics, and transformations of these disparities from 1800 to 2022. The network is committed to creating comparable individual-level historical cause-of-death datasets, designing analytical tools, and generating evidence that bridges past findings with present health policy challenges.
This Special Collection welcomes contributions that engage with the broad theme of historical health inequalities, and is organized into three thematic subcollections:

Coding and Classifying Historical Causes-of-Death — methodological work around standardization, classification, and coding of historical mortality data.

Approaches and Tools for Individual-level Cause-specific Mortality Data — analytical methods, software, or computational tools tailored to individual-level cause-specific mortality records.

Comparisons between Space and Time using Individual-level Cause-of-Death Data — comparative research that spans regions and periods; to qualify, submissions must involve authors from at least two countries.

Accepted article types include research articles, case studies, open letters, essays, reviews, data notes, methodological articles, software tool presentations, and brief reports (depending on subcollection) — as long as they align with the thematic goals of the Collection.
Open Research Europe
Open Research Europe is an open access publishing platform for the publication of research stemming from European Commission funding across all subject areas. The platform makes it easy for European Commission beneficiaries to comply with the open access terms of their funding and offers researchers a publishing venue to share their results and insights rapidly and facilitate open, constructive research discussion. Open Research Europe operates under a continuous publication schedule. A key benefit of publishing in Open Research Europe is that publication fees are fully covered for all GREATLEAP members, meaning you can publish free of charge. In addition, all articles undergo open peer review, where reviewer reports and author responses are published alongside the article, ensuring transparency and constructive engagement. See their FAQ here.
What will happen at the session

Presentation of the Collection’s goals, scope, and structure
Walkthrough of the submission process and author guidelines at Open Research Europe
Q&A to address any questions from prospective contributors

This session is ideal for anyone working at the intersection of history, epidemiology, demography, data science, public health, or allied disciplines who is interested in contributing to or learning more about the long-term study of health inequality.

Online lecture 9 – Family reconstitution application in event history models
2025-11-07 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris)
Lecturers: Dr. Péter Őri, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute
Content: The lecture provides an overview of infant and child mortality prior to the demographic transition, paying particular attention to differences by sex, age group, parental socioeconomic status, historical period, season, and the impact of different family settings (e.g. parental loss and remarriage, the death of a previously born child, and having siblings). In addition to a theoretical introduction, it presents results from macro-level statistics and individual longitudinal micro-analyses relating to Hungarian communities.
Objectives: The lecture provides information on the levels and determinants of pre-modern infant and child mortality, and the historical sources that enable their analysis. It also explores the application of family reconstitution data in event history models.
Requirements: Active participation.
Recommended reading:

Edvinsson, S., & Janssens, A. (2012). Clustering of deaths in families: Infant and child mortality in historical perspective. Biodemography and Social Biology, 58(2), 75–86. 6. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 19485565.2012.738575
Jaadla, H., & Lust, K. (2021). The effect of parental loss on child survival in nineteenth century rural Estonia. The History of the Family, 26(2), 336–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2021. 1905022
Oris, M., & Ochiai, E. (2002). Family crisis in the context of different family systems: Framework and evidence on «When Dad Died». In R. Derosas & M. Oris (Eds.), When Dad Died. Individuals and families copying with family stress in past societies (pp. 17–80). Peter Lang.
Oris, M., Derosas, R., & Breschi, M. (2004). Infant and child mortality. In T. Bengtsson, C. Campbell, J. Z. Lee (Eds.), Life under pressure. Mortality and living standards in Europe and Asia, 1700–1900 (pp. 360–398). MIT Press.
Schacht, R., Meeks, H., Fraser, A., & Smith, K. R. (2021). Was Cinderella just a fairy tale? Survival differences between stepchildren and their halfsiblings. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society, 376(1827), 20200032. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0032
Sear, R., & Coall, D. (2011). How much does family matter? Cooperative breeding and the demographic transition. Population and Development Review, 37(Supplement), 81–112. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x
Willführ, K. P., & Gagnon, A. (2012). Are stepmothers evil or simply unskilled? Infant death clustering in recomposed families. Biodemography and Social Biology, 58(2), 149–161. https://doi.org/10. 1080/19485565.2012.734745
Willführ, K. P., & Gagnon, A. (2013). Are step-parents always evil? Parental death, remarriage, and child survival in demographically saturated Krummhörn (1720–1859) and expanding Québec (1670–1750). Biodemography and Social Biology, 59(2), 191–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 19485565.2013.833803

You can find the presentation in .pdf here.

Online lecture 10: Retrospective modelling of epidemics using historical mortality data
2025-11-21 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturer: Dr. Katarina Matthes, University of Zurich
Content:
The aim of this lecture is to provide an introduction to how mortality data can be used for retrospective modelling of an epidemic. The session will cover the concept of excess mortality, methods for analysing and visualizing spatial patterns of mortality to identify regional variations, and will show how to estimate the reproduction number (transmissibility) to understand epidemic disease spread.
Objectives:

Introduction to the concept of excess mortality and methods for its application
Introduction to methods for showing spatial patterns
Presentation of the reproduction number (transmissibility)

Recommended reading:
Matthes, K.L., Floris, J., Merzouki, A., Junker, C., Weitkunat, R., Rühli, F., Keiser, O., Staub, K., 2024. Spatial pattern of all cause excess mortality in Swiss districts during the pandemic years 1890, 1918 and 2020. Spat Spatiotemporal Epidemiol 51, 100697. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SSTE.2024.100697
Matthes, K.L., Le Vu, M., Staub, K., 2025. Fertility dynamics through historical pandemics and COVID-19 in Switzerland, 1871–2022. Popul Stud (NY). https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2025.2462291
Mourits, R.J., Schalk, R., Meroño-Peñuela, A., Raad, J., Rijpma, A., van den Hout, B., Zijdeman, R.L., 2021. Retracing Hotbeds of the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic. Spatial Differences in Seasonal Excess Mortality in the Netherlands. Hist Life Course Stud 10, 145–150. https://doi.org/10.51964/HLCS9584
Staub, K., Panczak, R., Matthes, K.L., Floris, J., Berlin, C., Junker, C., Weitkunat, R., Mamelund, S.E., Zwahlen, M., Riou, J., 2022. Historically High Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain. https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-3824 175, 523–532. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-3824
Suter, J., Devos, I., Matthes, K.L., Staub, K., 2024. The health and demographic impacts of the “Russian flu” pandemic in Switzerland in 1889/1890 and in the years thereafter. Epidemiol Infect 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268824001651
Ziegler, E., Matthes, K.L., Middelkamp, P.W., Schuenemann, V.J., Althaus, C.L., Rühli, F., Staub, K., 2025. Retrospective modelling of the disease and mortality burden of the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic in Zurich, Switzerland. Epidemics 50, 100813. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2025.100813.
You can find the presentation in .pdf here.

Online lecture 11 – Use of life tables in research of health inequalities
2026-01-16 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturer: Dr. Sergi Trias-Llimós, Centre for Demographic Studies (CED), Barcelona
Content: This lecture introduces life tables as a fundamental tool for analysing mortality and health inequalities. It covers key demographic concepts—age, period, and cohort—using the Lexis diagram, explains the construction of period and cohort life tables. The session also discusses the Sullivan method for estimating healthy life expectancy and demonstrates the use of decomposition techniques (e.g., Arriaga) to identify the age and cause-specific drivers of health inequalities.
Objectives:

To understand the conceptual foundations of demographic event measurement and period rates.
To learn how age, period, and cohort dimensions interact through the Lexis diagram.

To construct and interpret period and cohort life tables.

To use decomposition methods to quantify the drivers of health inequalities across populations.

Recommended reading:
Luy, M., Di Giulio, P., Di Lego, V., Lazarevič, P., & Sauerberg, M. (2020). Life expectancy: frequently used, but hardly understood. Gerontology, 66(1), 95-104.
Preston, S., Heuveline, P., & Guillot, M. Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes.
You can find the presentation in .pdf here and Excel sheet with examples here.

Online Workshop ‘Transcribing the Past: Citizen Scientists and Automation in Historical Demography’ (1)
2026-01-29 10:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Paris)
Scope and Objectives
Through presentations the first virtual workshop explores projects that are transcribing historical demographic records. After the workshop interested researchers, practitioners, and citizen scientists start working on a best practice manual. The in-person workshop will bring all contributors together to finalize the best practice manual, which will be published in Historical Life Course Studies.

Programme Workshop “Transcribing the Past: Citizen Scientists and Automation in Historical Demography”

Training Workshop ‘Socio-Economic Inequalities in Mortality Over Time’
2026-02-27 | Hotel de Wereld, 5 Mei Plein, Wageningen, Netherlands
There is evidence that the relationship between socio-economic status and health, particularly mortality, is not constant. Depending on the context, inequalities in mortality have emerged, widened, or decreased over the past two centuries. It is not yet clear why this is the case. In this one-day training workshop we will be exploring these changing dynamics together with Prof. Sean Clouston, who will also deliver the keynote lecture at this workshop.

The workshop centers on discussing and testing the four-stage model proposed by Clouston et al. (2016). The model’s four stages are:
1). Natural mortality – characterized by little or no population-level understanding of disease risk factors or treatments.
2). Producing inequalities – marked by unequal access to new knowledge, technologies, or treatments;
3). Reducing inequalities – as innovations become more widely accessible;
4). Reduced mortality/disease elimination – where prevention and treatment are effective and broadly distributed.

Following the workshop, a call for special issue ‘Socio-Economic Inequalities in Mortality in the Long-Run’ in Demographic Research is launced.

Programme of the workshop
