Amid great interest, the Association for Political History (APH) was launched during the Leiden international PhD Conference for Political History on September 7th 2014. The association aims to strengthen international cooperation in the field of education and research, thus promoting the quality of research. Furthermore, APH will provide high-quality training opportunities for PhD candidates and advanced students pursuing Masters’ degrees in Political History. While APH was inaugurated as a European initiative, it will develop an international profile. The association defines Political History broadly and wishes to be inclusive, incorporating, amongst others, the History of Institutions, Parties, Public Policies, Political Cultures and Political Ideas. APH welcomes historians working from different perspectives, such as, for instance, Transnational History or Gender Studies.

An important activity of the APH is the organization of annual conferences, starting in Bielefeld in 2015. In 2016, Aarhus University will accommodate the conference; in 2017 the host will be Jyväskylä, in 2018 SciencesPo. France, and in 2019 King’s College London. Joint educational initiatives will be taken as well as activities to facilitate the publication of the work of (young) historians.

President of the APH is prof. dr. Marc Lazar (SciencesPo. Paris). Other members of the board are prof. dr. Pasi Ihalainen (Jyväskylä University), dr. Hagen Schulz-Forberg (Aarhus University), prof. dr. Giovanni Orsina (LUISS University Roma), prof. dr. Henk te Velde (Leiden University), prof. dr. Richard Vinen (King’s College London) and prof. dr. Thomas Welskopp (Bielefeld University).
The APH’s Secretariat is headed by Dr. Margit van der Steen (Research School Political History, The Hague). Contact and information: info@researchschoolpoliticalhistory.eu