Grant Halliday, who has been with the team as a research intern since September 2021, will start his PhD near the end of the month. It will be a History PhD at the University of Michigan, with the current plan focusing on early medieval economic and environmental history. He’ll likely be working on some aspect of institutions surrounding agriculture and peasant organizations in the Merovingian period. It will be a interdisciplinary project, as he is hoping to bring in some archaeobotanical research in along with institutional theory. He is also thinking of ways to analyze collective action in the period, something that a few other researchers have begun to explore in the last couple years.

A word from Grant: “I certainly hope to continue fishing collective research on the side as well and will certainly keep up with the team. Working with this group has put me on a good footing for graduate study, I believe, and I can’t thank everyone enough for their kindness and support!”

We are happy to announce that dr. Thomas Bauwens, assistant professor at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development (Utrecht University) has aligned with the research group Social Enterprise and Institutions for Collective action as an affiliate researcher. His research focuses on economy, community enterprises and sustainability transitions. Welcome! See for more information his profile page.