This past September, several members of the INEQKILL team participated in the 6th Conference of the European Society of Historical Demography (ESHD), hosted by the University of Bologna from September 10 to 13, 2025.
The conference theme, “Minorities and Majorities in Historical Populations,” brought together scholars from across Europe to exchange ideas on population history, mortality, migration, and inequality.
INEQKILL was strongly represented across multiple sessions and the Great Leap workshop, reflecting the project’s growing contribution to the study of long-term social and spatial mortality inequalities.
GREATLEAP Workshop – Causes of Death Databases (9 September)
The week began with the GREATLEAP pre-conference workshop on Sources and Databases on Causes of Death in Historical Societies (1800–1950). Two presentations showcased the work of INEQKILL members:
- Mélanie Bourguignon and Audrey Plavsic presented the richness and complexity of Belgian mortality data, as well as the methodological hurdles in harmonizing historical sources in the presentation “Mortality by cause-of-death (1851–1950): the potential and challenges of the Belgian sources.”
- Later that day, Sarah Heynssens introduced S.O.S. Antwerp as an innovative example of citizen science collaboration to digitize and analyze historical cause-of-death records during the presentation “S.O.S. Antwerp: How 750 citizen scientists and 4 researchers unraveled the cause-of-death register (1820–1946),”
Inequalities in Health and Mortality (11 September)
INEQKILL researchers also contributed to sessions on health inequalities:
- In the session “Unravelling Inequalities in Health Using Individual-Level Causes of Death” (11 September), Tom Hacha presented “Social Differences in Cause-Specific Child Mortality in Antwerp (1824–1923),” revealing that social inequalities in child mortality were already present in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with children from lower social classes experiencing higher mortality risks across various cause-of-death groups.
- Lise Bevernaegie contributed to a related session with “The social gradient in cardiovascular disease mortality: Evidence from the city of Antwerp, 1820–1946,” using historical data from the S.O.S. Antwerp project to trace persistent health inequalities. The results showed that while overall CVD mortality peaked among elites, infection-related CVD was concentrated in lower socio-economic groups. This pattern likely reflects lifestyle-related risk accumulation among elites, whereas lower socio-economic groups faced earlier exposure to infections linked to poor living conditions and hygiene.
Spatial and Geospatial Perspectives (11 September)
- In the session “Geospatial Approaches in Historical Demography,” Valentin Charlier presented how spatial methods can reveal changing patterns in the spread of epidemics and health inequalities.
Cause-Specific Mortality Studies (12 September)
The INEQKILL team also featured prominently in the thematic session, “Cause-Specific Approaches of Mortality in Historical Populations.”
- Isabelle Devos discussed “Medical confidentiality and its effect on cause-of-death registration in early twentieth-century Belgium,” addressing the institutional and ethical constraints that shaped the country’s mortality records.
- Philippe Paeps presented new insights into the historical evolution of cancer mortality and its social dimensions in his presentation “The cancer transition in Antwerp (1820–1947)”. He detected a gradual shift from infectious to non-infectious-related cancers, starting at the end of the nineteenth century. In Antwerp, non-infectious cancers became dominant in the late 1930s, slightly earlier among women and the population aged 45–65 years old.
Spatial Perspectives of Past Epidemics (13 September)
- To close the conference, Mélanie Bourguignon presented a paper co-written by INEQKILL members Isabelle Devos, Jean-Paul Sanderson, and Sven Vrielinck, “Determinants of spatial disparities concerning respiratory diseases such as Spanish flu and Covid-19: A comparative approach at the level of Belgian municipalities,” connecting historical and contemporary data to explore enduring spatial inequalities in epidemic impacts.
Across sessions, INEQKILL’s contributions highlighted the project’s interdisciplinary approach, combining demography, geography, history, and data science, and its role in advancing European research on mortality inequalities.
Presentations
- Mélanie Bourguignon, Isabelle Devos, Yoann Doignon, Thierry Eggerickx, Tom Hacha, Sarah Heynssens, Audrey Plavsic, Jean-Paul Sanderson, Sven Vrielinck. “Mortality by cause-of-death (1851-1950): the potential and challenges of the Belgian sources”.
- Tom Hacha, Sarah Heynssens, Sven Vrielinck, Isabelle Devos. “S.O.S. Antwerp. How 750 citizen scientists and 4 researchers unraveled the cause-of-death register (1820-1946)“.
- Lise Bevernaegie. “The Social Gradient in CVD Mortality: Evidence from Antwerp, 1820-1946″.
- Tom Hacha, Isabelle Devos, Hilde Greefs. “Social differences in cause-specific infant and child mortality in Antwerp (1820-1939)”.
- Valentin Charlier, Thierry Eggerickx, Sophie Vanwambeke. “Comparison of spatiotemporal evolution of infectious diseases in Belgium (1890-1950)“.
- Lise Bevernaegie, Isabelle Devos, Sylvie Gadeyne. “The Social Gradient in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality: Evidence from the city of Antwerp, Belgium, 1820–1946“.
- Philippe Paeps, Isabelle Devos, Sylvie Gadeyne. “The cancer transition in Antwerp (1820-1947)”.
- Isabelle Devos. “Medical confidentiality and its effect on cause-of-death registration in early twentieth-century Belgium”.
- Mélanie Bourguignon, Philippe Bocquier, Thierry Eggerickx. “The contribution of competitive risk models to understand the spatial patterns of fertility decline in Belgium”.
- Mélanie Bourguignon, Isabelle Devos, Yoann Doignon, Thierry Eggerickx, Hilde Greefs, Jean-Paul Sanderson, Tim Soens, Sven Vrielinck. “Determinants of spatial disparities concerning respiratory diseases such as Spanish flu and Covid-19. Comparative approach at the level of Belgian municipalities.”
