Research Internships 2014-2015

The 'Institutions for Collective Action' Research Team offers Master students research internship opportunities within several projects that are currently running. In all cases students will be working closely with the project coordinator Tine De Moor and o-ther team members who actively work on the topics mentioned. In all projects the activities will be divided between hands-on practice of a specific methodology – whereby students work with historical datasets of various kinds –, literature study directly related to the topic, and the writing of short texts.

	1. Coding and analysing regulation of Spanish commons and composing case studies
In the project ‘Common Rules’, the research team analyzes the regulations of historical commons in several European countries. By registering, translating, and coding bodies of rules we are comparing regulations of commons from England, The Low Countries, and Spain, in order to discover the mechanisms behind and effects of such regulations on the functioning of a common. How did users of commons prevented overexploitation and / or ‘free-riding’ of their collective resources? Which sanctioning methods proved to be the most effective in the long run to achieve this? How did users of commons cope with changes in external factors such as population growth? In the current phase of the project, the focus is mainly on the Spanish commons. The students will be participating in the analysis of the regulations of several Spanish commons, by coding the rules (that have already been translated into English) using a predetermined coding system and they will be asked to deliver case-study descriptions, based on secondary literature. Requirements The work will be performed in English Good knowledge of Spanish of course is an additional advantage but not a necessity Besides helping out with the coding, students will get the opportunity to use the data that has been coded by them and by others – which amounts already to a very large dataset for many cases in three different countries – and develop papers on the material. More info For more info on the project, click here For examples of case studies, click here
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	2. Controlling transcribed data collected by volunteers and writing short texts about marriage patterns in early modern Europe
The project ‘Ja, ik wil!’ (Yes, I do!) is being carried out by our research team in co-operation with the City Archives of Amsterdam, the webcompany of Picturae, and a group of nearly 300 volunteers, using the websource platform ‘Vele Handen’. The aim of this project is to make the contents of the entire Amsterdam premarriage registers (1581-1811) available for scientific research. Students will be mainly involved in entering data as a participant, checking data already entered by volunteers, and by composing useful background information for volunteers on topics related to marriage in early modern Europe. Requirements Given the nature of the source, good knowledge of Dutch is required Students will have to have some basic paleographic knowledge More info, For more info on the project, click here For examples of the texts that will have to be written, click here
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	3. Collecting data on marriage patterns in Early Modern Europe
In the ERC-project ‘United we stand’, we study the emergence of various types of institutions in Northwestern-Europe, of which one is the European Marriage Pattern. As part of this research, we are gathering data that will enable us to investigate this much deeper. Students will be involved in gathering data and entering those data into datasets according to predefined guidelines. Requirements Most of the secondary literature will be in English, and hence good passive knowledge of English is a plus. More info For more info on the project 'United we stand', click here
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