This past June, a dozen PhD students from he Department of History at Stockholm University made their way up to Umeå to attend the Swedish Historical Meetings. In great part thanks to the financial support of the faculty, a week of intense conferencing and mingling, right as the summer started.

There were many conferences and panels, something for everyone, from the medieval to the modern, from religious to medical history. Hard decisions had to be made on which panel to visit as many fascinating ones would run parallel to one another. Despite the summer heat and the sometimes-long walks between the convention centre (in the beautiful university campus) and the hotels, or the not-so-comfy and long night train trip that many of the students used to reach the city, the experience was to be incredibly rewarding and productive; a lot of ideas being exchanged, a lot of research shared, and a lot of connections maintained or initiated.

PhD candidates visiting Umeå 2023. Photo: Private.

In between meals and post-seminar hangouts, one of the fundamental aspects of the meetings was the chance to network. The visiting PhDs not only interacted with other doctoral students from across Sweden, but also had the opportunity of engaging with professors who shared similar research interests, not only broadening their own historical horizons, but, hopefully, also serving as an inspiration with their new and exciting projects in the making.

In summary, the week in Umeå was a success, and living proof of the value of faculty support to PhDs activities. The event not only broadened the academic horizons of the PhDs in the faculty, but also positioned them within the Swedish historical research community.

Text by: Ricardo Fernández González, PhD student at the Department of History, Stockholm University