Dr P. Puschmann (Paul)
Assistant professor - Economical, Social and Demographic History
Member - Representative Council Faculty of Arts
Assistant professor - Radboud Institute for Culture and History
Erasmusplein 1
6525 HT NIJMEGEN
Postbus 9103
6500 HD NIJMEGEN
Paul Puschmann is assistant professor of economic, social and demographic history at Radboud University Nijmegen. He has published widely in the fields of migration history, historical demography and family history. His research centers around the interplay between vulnerability and life chances. More specifically, he investigates how unequal opportunities shape life histories in terms of marriage, reproduction, migration, social mobility, health and mortality.
In 2009 Paul obtained his research master (cum laude) in history from Radboud University. During his studies he has been twice a trainee at the Dutch Institute in Morocco (NIMAR), working on the demographic transition and on rural-to-urban migrants that ended up in the shantytowns of Casablanca. After his studies, Paul wrote a PhD thesis at KU Leuven on the social inclusion and exclusion of migrants in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Stockholm (1850-1930) from a life course perspective.
Paul has been a guest researcher at the Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research of Umeå University, the statistical department Paolo Fortunati of the University of Bologna, the Berkeley Population Center and the Centre for Demographic Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Paul is co-founder and co-editor in chief of Historical Life Course Studies and scientific coordinator of HiDo, the International Network of Historical Demography. From 2017 to 2024 he served as research director of the Life Courses, Family and Labour Network of the N.W. Posthumus Institute.
With Auke Rijpma, Eva van der Heijden, Rick Schouten (Utrecht University) and a team of research assistants, Paul is building a Historical Income Panel for the Netherlands (HIP-NL) based on tax registers, thanks to a PDI-SSH grant.
Presently, he has four main research lines: (1) income inequality, (2) the quest for a partner, (3) the healthy migrant effect, and (4) the demographic history of the Middle East and North Africa.