Leiden’s Austria Centre supports Dr. Jonathan Singerton at the Central European History Convention in Vienna
The Austria Centre Leiden was thrilled to receive an application from our colleague Dr. Jonathan Singerton (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) to support his participation in the first-ever Central European History Convention in Vienna in July 2025. We asked Dr. Singerton to reflect on the event and how support from the Austria Centre Leiden advanced his career in The Netherlands. He offered us the following words.
A Report from the Central European History Convention in Vienna
By Jonathan Singerton - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Last summer a staggering five hundred scholars of Habsburg Central Europe descended on Vienna for a multiday conference in Vienna. The Central European History Convention was the first of its kind to be held in Europe thanks largely to the herculean efforts of its organizers Peter Becker (University of Vienna) and Dominique Reil (Wirth Institute, University of Alberta). What resulted from this success felt less like a conference as usual and more like a temporary city of ideas given its scale and scope. As an interim citizen of the CEHC, I contributed to the panel “The Habsburg Monarchy and the Global Web of Empire” with a paper that called for acknowledgement of the Habsburg empire’s longstanding efforts to emulate other European powers overseas throughout its history. Rather than being an imperial later-comer (as other European states such as Germany or Italy have been called), the Habsburg lands were intrinsically tied to Europe’s emerging colonial and imperial nexus from the early modern period onwards. I was fortunate to be in good company with similar appeals made by fellow panelists Zihao Song (University of Vienna) and Marks Wurzer (University of Graz). At the conference overall, the global dynamics of Habsburg history featured prominently as the theme of several other panels and in the keynote roundtables that hallmarked the event. It remains one of my strongest impressions from the conference that the Habsburg field is taking the global turn seriously.
Such impressions are fundamental to good scholarship. It goes without saying that the humanities, and especially history, are never written in isolation. So much of what we do comes from the rich exchange of ideas with others. We can take stock of our internal thoughts in tandem with the pluralism of perspectives at such gatherings. We can see proof of the wide range of intellectual digestion that went on at the CEHC in the twenty blogs composed by participants organized after the conclusion of the conference. As a participant of this first (but not the last) monumental meeting ground for Central Europeanists in Europe, I am deeply thankful to the Austrian Studies Fund at Leiden for making my participation and presentation possible.
Returning from the CEHC to the Netherlands brings home many of the parallels between my discussions at the conference and Dutch academic life. In many ways, Central European studies matters for the Netherlands. The questions raised at the event reflect the same debates we have here today: from empire and nationalism to migration, identity and belonging, and the rise and fall of globalism. Whether we approach them from a Central European or a Dutch historical perspective is moot when we are grappling in essence with the same underlying forces that have underpinned European (and non-European) history for centuries. By having the institutional backing of Leiden and in having the Austrian Studies Fund at Leiden, we are all enriched by the possibility of thinking across boundaries at a time when political divisions between nations cut deep. We are a relatively small community of Central Europeanists in the Netherlands but the Austian Studies Fund and the initiatives it supports (at home and abroad) provides us all with an intellectual home, a steady base in the fast-moving currents of present times and the shifting advances in our respective fields.
