Keynote Speaker

Jan Lucassen

Jan Lucassen

Jan Lucassen studied history at Leiden University (BA 1970, MA 1973) and obtained his PhD at Utrecht University in 1984 with Migrant Labour in Europe 1600-1900.
He taught history at a teacher training college in The Hague (1972-1974) and at the Universities of Utrecht (1972-1984, 1985-1988), Hull (GB, 1984-1985), and the Free University of Amsterdam (1990-2012).

In 1988 he joined the International Institute of Social History where until 2000 he acted as Research Director, and since he is Senior Research Fellow and from 2012 Honorary Fellow. Here he founded the European Social Science History Conference (1996).

His main research interests are comparative global labour history, including labour migrations, craftsmen’s and journeymen’s guilds, labour relations (in particular in the brick industry) and the monetization of remunerations. His empirical research concerns Europe and India.

Jan Lucassen is considered, together with Marcel van der Linden, as the founder of the Global Labour History approach, which advocates a worldwide perspective on the history of work and labour relations.

Last publication:
Jan Lucassen, The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2021). ISBN: 978-0-300-25679-6.