History of Economics Society

11/02/2026

The ESHET Council is inviting nominations for the Awards that will be announced at the next annual Conference in Athens, Greece, 3-5 June 2027.

1/ The BEST MONOGRAPH AWARD is for the best book (not necessarily written in English) in the history of economic thought published during 2025 or 2026. The author can be from any part of the world. The winner will be invited to attend the Society Conference that follows the announcement of the prize to deliver the Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui Lecture. Note that, in supplement, the Council can also give a BEST SCHOLARLY EDITION AWARD.

2/ The HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AWARD is for the best article (not necessarily written in English) in the history of economic thought, published in the issue of a scientific journal during 2025 or 2026. Candidates can be from any part of the world. The winner will be invited to attend the Society Conference that follows the announcement of the prize and will receive an award of 500 euro.

3/ The ESHET YOUNG RESEARCHER AWARD. This prize recognizes scholarly achievements of historians of economic thought who are at an early stage of their career. The prize is awarded to scholars below the age of 40 at the time of the annual conference in recognition of outstanding publications in the history of economic thought. The winner will receive an award of 1,000 euro and have their conference fee waived in the year following the announcement of the prize.



4/ The GILLES DOSTALER AWARD is an award created in the memory of Gilles Dostaler, thanks to the generosity of his widow Marielle Cauchy. This prize recognizes scholarly achievements of young research fellows working on one of Gilles Dostaler’s many fields of interest — e.g., Marx and classical political economy; Keynes; Hayek; critical approaches to free market theories; and relationships between economics, politics, philosophy and ethics. It is awarded to scholars below the age of 35 at the time of the annual conference in recognition of an outstanding article not necessarily already published or published within the two previous years. The winner will receive an award of 500 euro and have their conference fee waived in the year following the announcement.

Nominations should be sent as soon as possible, but not later than 30 December 2026 to the Chair of the relevant panel:

1/ Best Book Award & Scholarly Edition Award: Erwin Dekker ([email protected]).
Committee members:

Johannes Smidt

Andrej Svorenčík

Francesco Sergi

Giandomenica Becchio



2/ Best Article Award: Nathalie Sigot ([email protected])
Committee members:

Michael Assous

Reinhard Shumacher

Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche

Verena Halsmayer



3/ Young Researcher Award: Renee Prendergast ([email protected])
Entire Council



4/ Gilles Dostaler Award: Michel Zouboulakis ([email protected])
Committee members:

Çinla Akdere

Tsvetelina Marinova

Claudia Rotondi

Raphaël Fèvre



Please note also the following points.

- Self-nominations are not accepted for any of the prizes.

- Nominations for the book and article prizes should include:
(i) Full bibliographic details of the book or article.
(ii) A short statement (in English) of why the book or article merits being considered for a prize.
(iii) An electronic copy of the book or article, if this is available.

- Nominations for the Young Researcher Award should include:
(i) A short resume stating the achievements of the candidate.
(ii) A CV including a list of publications.

Subsequently each nominee will be asked to submit to the Council three publications on which s/he wishes to be judged.

- The final decision on each of the prizes will be made by the Council of ESHET in Athens.

Rules for Awards
- No current member of the Council, Executive Committee or Senate is eligible for an academic prize or grant awarded by ESHET.
- Nobody can receive more than one award of the Society for the same work.
- Any member of an awarding committee needs to declare the extent of his/her institutional connections and/or extent of collaboration with the persons nominated for academic prizes.

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[email protected]
PhD, Professoressa Associata di Storia del Pensiero Economico
Delegata della Rettrice ai Programmi di Ateneo
Presidente dei Corsi di Studio di Area Politologica
General Secretary ESHET - European Society for the History of Economic Thought
Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali
Studium 5 - stanza 28
Via di Valesio, 73100 Lecce
web:

Claudia Sunna, dal gennaio 2005, è ricercatrice di Economia Politica presso l’Università del Salento. Ha conseguito nel 2003 il titolo di dottore di ricerca in Storia delle dottrine economiche presso la Facoltà di Economia dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze. I suoi principali interessi d...

10/31/2026

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10/31/2026

4th interview of the HES webinar series "Being Historians of Economic Thought: Past, Present and Future" is out! (with Rebeca Betancourt!)

In this episode, we interviewed Rebeca Gomez Betancourt, Full Professor of Economics at the University of Lyon-2, exploring her interdisciplinary experience as a historian of economic thought with a keen interest in gender issues and feminist economics, tracing her journey from Venezuela to France. The theme of travel was central to the interview, particularly in relation to the importance of participating in academic events and conferences. Having long been active in associations such as Charles Gide, ALAHPE, IAFFE, ESHET, and HES, to name just a few, Rebeca emphasized the vital importance of being part of research communities and building bridges between scholars. It is through these connections that scholars can grow and thrive, learning from one another and keeping the discipline alive, always adopting an empathetic perspective towards the others.

Link: https://lnkd.in/dWdmcwfB

Who will be the next one? 🤫🤐

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

10/30/2026

European Society for the History of Economic Thought newsletter by Claudia Sunna, ESHET General Secretary

"The Japanese Society for Political Economy (JSPE) has selected our colleague and past ESHET President, Bertram Schefold, as the winner of the 13th JSPE-Routledge International Prize in 2026. The prize aims to be a heterodox counterpart to the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which only recognizes mainstream subjects. Each year, the prize is awarded to a living political economist based on his or her lifetime achievement, as demonstrated through a notable book (or books) published in English.
Since its launch in 2014, the prize has been awarded to many established scholars in the field of heterodox political economy, including Sam Bowles, Robert Boyer, David Harvey, James Crotty, John Roemer, Duncan Foley, and Stephen Marglin.
Congratulations to Bertram Schefold on this great news!

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The Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University (USA) is now accepting applications for the 2027-28 Visiting Scholars program.
For a complete description of the program and how to apply, please visit the Visiting Scholar Page on the Center website. For full consideration, applicants should have their completed applications in by January 4, 2027. Application instruction may be found here.

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Call for papers
The Anti-Machiavellian Moment (16th–18th centuries) and the Birth of Political Economy
Strasbourg – Misha – 1 and 2 April 2027

While the origins of political economy are usually explored through mercantilist, liberal, or republican traditions, this conference proposes to investigate an alternative intellectual genealogy centred on anti-Machiavellian currents. The aim of the conference is indeed to explore a hypothesis and to assess the direct or indirect influence that anti-Machiavellian currents and anti-Machiavellianism may have had on the emergence of economics as a science of the government of wealth and people.
With this in mind, the presentations will seek to describe the economic analyses and concepts of authors who present themselves, or have been presented, as critics of Machiavelli. The contributions will examine the extent to which their analyses may have presented themselves, explicitly or implicitly, as an alternative to the methods of government promoted – or presumed to have been promoted – by Machiavelli, by emphasising new objectives of government: the growth of the body politic versus the preservation of the state, wealth versus power, economic power versus military power, trade versus diplomacy, economic interests versus political interests, unity through economic means versus political divisions, commercial alliances versus diplomatic alliances, the general interest versus particular interests, cooperation versus tactical alliances, universal peace against wars.
Contributions may also, though to a lesser extent, examine indirectly the economic analyses of Machiavelli or those of authors regarded as Machiavellian, by assessing the place and nature of economic thought in their writings. The conference will thus provide an opportunity to clarify the contours of anti-Machiavellianism and, by extension, Machiavellianism.
The conference will thus be a forum for reflection, seeking to explore whether there may have been an anti-Machiavellian phase in political economy in Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Dates and practical information:
- Deadline for submission of proposals: 1 November 2026. Proposals of approximately 500 words should be sent as a Word or PDF file to: [email protected]. An acknowledgement of receipt will be sent to confirm the submission.
- Notification to authors of the scientific committee’s decision: 15 November 2026.
- Conference dates: 1 and 2 April 2027, Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme – Alsace (MISHA), Strasbourg – France.

All on-site expenses will be covered (hotel accommodation and meals). Some of the speakers’ travel costs may be funded, subject to sufficient funds being available. In terms of funding, priority will be given to researchers without funding from their institutions.

This conference is supported and organised by the ITI MAKErS Chair ‘Wealth, Interests and Governments in Europe’ of the MAKErS Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute, as part of the ITI 2021-2028 program of the University of Strasbourg, CNRS and INSERM, was supported by IdEx Unistra (ANR-10-IDEX-0002), and by SFRI-STRAT'US project (ANR-20-SFRI-0012).

Jean-Daniel Boyer
Maître de conférences – Lecturer
Chaire Richesses, Intérêts et Gouvernements en Europe - ITI MAKErS
Faculté des Sciences sociales
Laboratoire interdisciplinaire en études culturelles - UMR 7069
Université de Strasbourg

Call for papers
Improving Mountain Agriculture? Debates and Reform Projects
(1750–1850)

Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi (LabiSAlp), USI-Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio, Switzerland
7-8 June 2027

In Europe, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, agriculture became an increasingly important political and intellectual concern across a range of institutional, social and geographical contexts. Administrators, economists and jurists, alongside parish priests, scientists and landowners, regarded agricultural practices and policies as essential to preventing famines, raising crop yields, boosting tax revenues, maintaining a viable demographic balance between town and country, and ensuring an abundant supply of high-quality raw materials for manufacturing.
In recent decades, the discourses and reform projects that grew out of this engagement with agriculture have attracted considerable scholarly interest. Historians of ideas and of economic knowledge have reconstructed not only theories of agricultural development, but also their organic connection with the practical expertise of the rural world, from agronomy and botany to taxation, law and land surveying.
Within this body of scholarship, however, a gap remains: mountain regions – despite the longstanding and continuing interest they have attracted in economic and social history – have received comparatively little attention as sites in which agricultural ideas and projects were devised. Yet a work such as Joseph-Alexis Costa de Beauregard’s Essai sur l’amélioration de l’agriculture dans les" pays montueux, et en particulier dans la Savoye (1774) testifies to the existence of such reflections and ambitions.
This workshop accordingly aims to foster dialogue among researchers studying how the challenges and opportunities of agriculture were addressed in these contexts from the mideighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, during the so-called Sattelzeit.
Sources such as the records of Economic and Agricultural Societies, local periodicals, printed works, correspondence and administrative reports offer a rich basis for investigating debates and reform proposals concerning mountain agriculture, including not only crop cultivation, but also livestock farming and forestry. Drawing on these and other sources, the workshop seeks to address several questions, including but not limited to:
• The perception of the environmental specificities of mountain areas
• The treatment of customary use rights and common lands in reformist thought, and its role in shaping conceptual and legal understandings of property
• The links between agricultural issues and broader political and social concerns
• The forms of agency and practices of negotiation through which local social and institutional actors protected and promoted their agrarian interests, and the ways in which these initiatives shaped the agendas and governance of political authorities
• The circulation, reception and adaptation of models of rural reform tailored to the morphological, economic and cultural specificities of mountain regions.

Organisation: Aris Della Fontana (Università della Svizzera Italiana – Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship). With the support of the Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi.
Accommodation costs will be covered for participants without institutional funding.
Proposals in English or French, including an abstract of 200-300 words and a short biography, should be sent to [email protected] by 31 December 2026.
Applicants will be notified about the outcome of their submission by 15 January 2027.

For further details please visit: https://www.labisalp.usi.ch/it/eventi-notizie/improving-mountain-agriculture-debates-and-reform--42816"

Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi (LabiSAlp), USI-Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio, Switzerland 7-8 June 2027 In Europe, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, agriculture became an increasi

10/30/2026

Article: Why Philosophical Components are Needed in Teaching Political Economy, by Rod O'Donnell
https://buff.ly/4URxzp7

10/30/2026

Article: Epistemic partitioning and the survival of heterodoxy: journal divergence in social economics, 1942–2025, by Casper Hendrik Claassen & Do-Hyun Han
https://buff.ly/Vgg5zeG

10/30/2026

A review of Arnaud Orain's book (Le monde confisqué: Essai sur le capitalisme de la finitude (XVIe–XXIe siècle)) and Ilias Alami and Adam D. Dixon's book (The Spectre of State Capitalism), by Teddy Paikin
https://buff.ly/uhhGKdC

10/30/2026

A new issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought is available online. This is a special issue on Varieties of doing History of Economic Thought
https://buff.ly/jcoLsO4

10/30/2026

JHET Special Issue on Eugenics
"Journal of the History of Economic Thought Special Issue on The economic foundations of the eugenics-immigration entanglement in the late nineteenth century and beyond edited by Guillaume Vallet and Marianne Johnson

For the special issue, the Journal of the History of Economic Thought invites contributions for two additional papers that explore the economic foundations of the entanglement of eugenics and immigration policy at the turn of the 20th century. The anti-immigration policies and accompanying rhetoric that emerged during this period provide important historical context for contemporary restrictionist arguments in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, and Australia. In the United States, between the 1890s and the early 1920s, organizations such as the Immigration Restriction League mobilized public concern over mass migration from Southern and Eastern Europe, arguing that unchecked immigration threatened American institutions, labor markets, and national cohesion. These arguments, often framed through the emerging authority of the social sciences and the language of eugenics, helped legitimize increasingly restrictive policies culminating in the Immigration Act of 1924. A similar story can be told for Great Britian, whose Aliens Order 1920 restricted the entry of individuals unable to support themselves, the medically unfit, and the criminal. Consider also the Canadian acts limiting immigration during this period: the Chinese Immigration Act (1885), the Immigration Acts (1906 and 1910), and the Gentlemen’s Agreement (1908).

Historicizing the first wave of immigration restrictionism reveals how demographic change, economic anxiety, racial prejudice, and claims of expert authority converge to shape policy. We argue that revisiting this earlier episode is particularly relevant given the reemergence of significant nativist and anti-immigrant sentiment across much of the world. While important preliminary work has been done on the topic, there is significant scope for both deeper and more wide-ranging explorations. The relation between eugenics and immigration that evolved during the Progressive Era in the United States, for example, impacted the dynamics of the growth of the American population, the functioning of the domestic labor market and raised questions about the need for new social policies and institutions. The accompanying social and economic regulations continue to influence American capitalism while the legacy of eugenics remains reflected in contemporary discussions of immigration. That this is not a solely North American phenomenon suggests a more globalized approach can deepen our understanding of the dynamics and impact of this key period in history.

We seek between two papers to complement and extend the following topics. Note that all papers will be subject to standard JHET review procedures and processes. A workshop for preliminary drafts is scheduled for Thursday, May 13, 2027 at the Universite Grenoble Alpes. We anticipate final papers should be submitted by late summer 2027.

Interested individuals should submit a title and half-page abstract to Guillaume Vallet ([email protected]) and Marianne Johnson ([email protected]) by December 1, 2026.

Topic/Papers
Eugenomics: Labor, Immigration, and Race in Latin America, Felipe Almeida (Federal University of Parana)
Eugenics from the Other Shore. Italian Economists on Population and the Economic Consequences of Emigration, Manuela Mosca and Claudia Sunna (University of Salento)
Beyond the Melting Pot: Madison Grant and the Eugenic Theory of Immigration Restriction, Giovanni Cerro (Fondazione Collegio San Carlo di Modena)
E. A. Ross: An emblematic scholar whose work encapsulates the key concerns and tensions on the eugenics-immigration entanglement”, Michel Rocca (U. Grenoble Alpes) and Guillaume Vallet (U. Grenoble Alpes)
The Gap Between Racism and Reality: Polish Immigrants in France, Hiroko Sadato (Hannan University)
The Science of the "Desirable Immigrant": Literacy Tests, Disability, Economic Practices and the Classification of Difference in the United States, 1900–1925, Arielle Concilio Parra (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York) and Rebeca Gomez Betancourt (University of Lyon 2)

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Amy Hardy
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