Michail Raftakis

#ESHD2025 Last Key Note Talk

Julieta Rotaru @Inalco

Ethnic Identity Formation and Socio-Professional Dynamics: A Study of Romanians, Gypsies, and Rudari in the Romanian Principalities

@sdh-demohisto.bsky.social @eshistdemo.bsky.social @ayhdemographers.bsky.social @thegreatleap22116.bsky.social

oday, keynote talk is given by Pulitzer Prize winner David Kertzer on Changing Jews into Aryan’s in Fascist Italy #ESHD2025

@sdh-demohisto.bsky.social @eshistdemo.bsky.social @ayhdemographers.bsky.social @thegreatleap22116.bsky.social

#ESDH2025 has started!

Prof. Guido Barbujani is giving the first keynote on the famous human races.

The image presents a line graph depicting global maternal mortality rates from 1985 to 2023. The y-axis represents the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, ranging from 0 to 500, while the x-axis spans the years from 1985 to 2023. The graph shows a downward trend in maternal mortality rates, starting at approximately 460 in 1985 and declining steadily over the years. A notable increase is observed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but by 2023, the rate has decreased to about 197. This marks a 57% reduction compared to the rates in 1985. Annotations highlight key points, such as the spike during the pandemic and the significant decrease achieved by 2023. The data sources for this graph include the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, and UN DESA (2025). There is a note stating that the estimates aim to adjust for underreporting and misclassification. The image is credited with a Creative Commons attribution.

Global maternal mortality rates have fallen by almost 60% since 1985

C'est parti ! @eshistdemo.bsky.social

@eshistdemo.bsky.social @thegreatleap22116.bsky.social @ayhdemographers.bsky.social

#ESHD2025 is just 5 days away! Soon Bologna will become the hub of historical demography. We’re finalizing the last details and look forward to welcoming scholars from across the globe. Check out the most updated programme here: eshd2025.eshd.eu/programme/

We've done it: 60 blogs over our 60th Anniversary Year!
Check out all 60 #Campop blogs here www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/, and keep your eyes peeled for occasional blogs to follow in the same space!
@camunicampop.bsky.social
@camunigeography.bsky.social
@camhistory.bsky.social

It was a pleasure to teach our @thegreatleap22116.bsky.social cause-of-death coding course at @monashuniversity.bsky.social in Melbourne with colleagues joining from Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.

After a week in Brisbane for #IPC2025, I’m on my way to Melbourne for a research stay at @monashuniversity.bsky.social for coding historical causes of death and discussing AI and construction of historical databases. Pretty excited

In Cambridge, as part of the @thegreatleap22116.bsky.social -funded Training Course on Coding Historical Causes of Death, we spent two days—together with @amrcampop.bsky.social , M. Murkens, and E. Garrett—training participants from across Europe in the use of the ICD10h.

Fascinating story--loved learning that John Snow was also compelled to correct popular misconceptions of science! #episky

@timriswick.bsky.social @hggaddy.bsky.social @philippepaeps.bsky.social

In Zurich for the @thegreatleap22116.bsky.social workshop 'Analysing Historical Mortality and Cause of Death Data' – a very fruitful two days with researchers from diverse backgrounds and excellent ideas for future work.

Bottom line: Be cautious when interpreting historical convulsions mortality. Our study highlights the challenges and complexity of working with historical cause-of-death data.

We found that declines in convulsions mortality relate more to new registration rules and medical advances than to falling infant mortality itself. “Convulsions” as a cause is deeply tied to context and local medical culture.

Our findings: Deaths attributed to convulsions covered a range of underlying causes. Patterns differed significantly across locations, time periods, and age groups—even within the same country.

“Infantile convulsions” often described symptoms, not specific diseases. We combined qualitative analyses of historical medical thinking with quantitative data from Amsterdam, Hermoupolis, Maastricht & Rostock.

Excited to share our new paper w/ K. Wienholts, M. Murkens and M. Mühlichen, just published in Medical History! We explore “infantile convulsions” as a historical cause of death using data from four European cities, 1800–1955.

@thegreatleap22116.bsky.social
@eshistdemo.bsky.social
@camunicampop.bsky.social @amrcampop.bsky.social @timriswick.bsky.social
@populationeu.bsky.social

🚨 Call for Applications! 🚨

📅 22–23 July 2025
📍 Monash University, Melbourne 🇦🇺
💀 Historical mortality meets digital innovation!

🔹 ICD10h Training Course (22 Jul)
🔹 Digital History Symposium (23 Jul)
Apply by **11 June** ➡️ (docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...)

Campop blog #49: Levels of self-employment were low in mid-20th century UK: Bob Bennett explains how much higher they were in the 19th century, as well as who was self-employed and why
@camunicampop.bsky.social
www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...

Congratulations!

Exciting to see the seven little maps I made for this book about diseases and mortality in 19th and early 20th c Amsterdam in print ✨ (Book recommendation, too! Get your copy now: libris.nl/a/owen-lamme...)

Thanks a lot! FYI other interesting contributions from various scholars should come out on TB within the next year- i will keep you posted.

After sitting in the drawer for a few years, my paper on tuberculosis mortality in early 20th-century Greece has just been finally published in Social Science History. bit.ly/44CJIVL

📝 WORKSHOP: Writing Individual Grants on Inequalities in Health
📅 June 25 | ⏰ 14:00 – 15:30 CET | 💻 Online

Planning to apply for an individual research grant? Join our interactive workshop focused on crafting strong proposals in the field of health inequalities. 🧵⬇️

If you don’t know your Miss for your Mrs I strongly suggest you read our new @camunicampop.bsky.social blog by Amy Erickson on the history of these titles. www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...