We are pleased to announce the upcoming international workshop “Lifting the Burden of Disease: Mortality Decline and the Epidemiological Transition in Historical Perspective,” which will take place on 28 – 29 August 2025 at Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands). The workshop is organized by Radboud University in collaboration with the COST-Action network GREATLEAP (CA22116), the HiDo network, and the IUSSP Panel Epidemics and Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past.

This event will explore the complex drivers behind the improvements in life expectancy since the 19th century, focusing on the interplay of public health measures, socio-economic change, and epidemiological dynamics across different countries and regions.

Bringing together historians, demographers, and public health scholars, the workshop invites debate on the varying trajectories of mortality decline and the factors that fueled them.

Serving both as the closing event of the NWO-funded project Lifting the burden of disease. The modernisation of health in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, 1854-1926 and as the farewell symposium for Professor Angélique Janssens, the conference will conclude with a special reception in her honor.

Find the full programme here