University of Tübingen (DE), 18–20 June 2026

The “Political Economy of Natural Resources and Environmental Change in History” summer school brings together scholars working on the historical relationships between natural resources, institutions, and socio-environmental change in an explicitly interdisciplinary setting.
The program combines two and a half days of academic paper sessions and keynote lectures with two hands-on workshops. One workshop introduces participants to machine learning and natural language processing tools for analysing historical data on resource conflict and institutional change. The second focuses on communicating research to broader audiences, with a particular emphasis on Science Slams and public engagement. Together, these sessions aim to equip participants with both conceptual and practical tools for studying and communicating the political economy of natural resources over time.
The summer school welcomes contributions from economic and social historians, environmental historians, political economists, and scholars of institutions and development. While each of these perspectives has yielded important insights, none alone provides a complete picture. In the context of rapid environmental change, a fuller historical understanding of these dynamics is increasingly urgent. The event therefore seeks to bring together complementary approaches in an interdisciplinary forum.

We invite paper proposals that examine the political economy of natural resources across different periods and regions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Governance, property rights, and institutions of resource management
Conflict, coercion, and extraction
Labour, technology, and resource regimes
Colonialism, slavery, war, and natural resources
Indigenous peoples’ rights, sovereignty, and systems of resource governance
Energy transitions and environmental change
Common-pool resources and sustainability
Historical perspectives on environmental justice and inequality
Contributions engaging with global and underrepresented geographies, alongside diverse sources and methodologies, are particularly encouraged.

Keynote Speakers
Ann Carlos (University of Colorado Boulder)
Stefania Galli (University of Gothenburg)
Submissions and Funding

We invite submissions from PhD students, early career and senior scholars. Approximately 20 participants will be selected. Please submit a 500-word abstract and a two-page CV to ehtuebingen@gmail.com by the 23rd of February.

For more details about the summer school, see the complete call at this link.