Research profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in European Cultural History at the European Studies department of the University of Amsterdam. I studied Cultural History and Journalism at the University of Groningen and the Humboldt University of Berlin and completed my PhD on ‘”The humanitarian moment”. Dutch intellectuals and the crisis of European civilization (1914-1930)’  at the University of Amsterdam in 2015. My specialisation is the cultural and intellectual history of Europe in the first half of 20th century, with a special focus on (transnational) processes of cultural mobilization and cultural demobilization, national identity narratives and ideas of Europe. I have published on topics such as intellectuals and the Great War, the concept of cultural transfer, notions of Europe and nationhood in times of conflict and crisis, Dutch cultural history, literary internationalism and periodicals, and the interplay between politics and the discontent with liberal modernity. In 2015-2018, I have been involved at the Study Platform on Interlocking Nationalisms (SPIN) and in 2017-2021 I participated in the international research project ‘Getting the Big Picture on Small States. Towards a New Research Agenda for Small State Studies, 1814-present day’ of the Universities of Aarhus, Iceland and Amsterdam (which examined connections between shifting ideas about a state’s (relative) size, national identity discourses, and concrete foreign policy actions). I am a board member of De Moderne Tijd, which promotes the study of the Low Countries in the era 1780-1940, and part of the editorial team of the book series European Studies: An Interdisciplinary Series in European Culture, History and Politics (Brill Publishers). 

Current research projects:

In the past three years, my research has mainly focused on First and Second World War propaganda from a transnational perspective. In 2021-2023, I have held two research fellowships at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in the context of the ‘Media War’ digital history project on propaganda in Dutch-language media during 1940-1945. This project, which was funded by the Mondriaan Fund and coordinated by Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, has among others resulted in a special issue of Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, the exhibition 'Media as wapen' at Beeld and Geluid Den Haag, two podcasts, and various academic publications. The latter include my TVG-article on the propaganda battle for Europe between pro-Nazi and pro-Allied media, and a co-authored piece in View reflecting on the merits and pitfalls of the Dutch digitized war media archive in the CLARIAH Media Suite digital humanities portal for studying propaganda dynamics. Currently, my research focuses on the use of identity narratives in war propaganda, and on the enduring postwar impact of 'propaganda memories'. 

Teaching

I have taught a wide range of courses in the BA Programme in European Studies/Europese studies (in Dutch and English) on topics such as as the political and intellectual history of Modern Europe, cultural criticism and utopian thought, transnational history, nationalism and national thought in Europe, European identity, European Integration, and teaching ‘Europe’ in secondary education. In 2014-2022, I have been bachelor coordinator of the European Studies programme. This academic year, 2024-2025, I teach the BA Modules 'The Ordering of Europe in the 20th and 21st century' (block 2), 'Major Workshop European History', and   the Interdisciplinary Research Seminar 'Transnational European History', as well as an MA Methods Workshop on archival research.  I also supervise BA- and MA-theses in the field of European (cultural) history and propaganda studies.

Publications

Academic monograph

Edited volumes

Special issue

Guest-editor with Lies Wijnterp of: ‘‘Just Read my Magazine!’ Periodicals as European Spaces in the Twentieth Century’, Journal of European Periodical Studies, 3(2) (2018), 1-6. DOI:   https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.v3i2.9714.

Articles and book chapters (selection):

-(with Vincent Kuitenbrouwer) "Audio on Paper: The Merits and Pitfalls of the Dutch Digital Media Archive for Studying Transnational Entanglements during the Second World War," VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture, 12(24), 39-53.

-(with Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, Mari Wigham, and Rana Klein), "Onderzoek naar gedigitaliseerde kranten uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog", CLARIAH data story.

-(with Diederik Smit) "Oorlog op afstand: Nederland tussen neutraliteit en betrokkenheid, 1800-1940," De Moderne Tijd. De Lage Landen, 1780-1940, 7:4 (2023), 289-298. 

-"Propagandaslag om Europa: Wisselwerkingen tussen de Nederlandse genazificeerde en antinazistische pers na Operatie Barbarossa," Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 135: 2/3 (2022), 216-236.

-(with Samuël Kruizinga) "Poor Little Belgium’. Food aid and the image of Belgian victimhood in the United States." In The Politics of Smallness in Modern Europe: Size, Identity and International Relations since 1800 , edited by Kruizinga, 73-96. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.

-(with Francis Mus) "A failed cultural transfer? Literary internationalism after the First Wold War and the transnational construction of ‘Europe’." Interférences litteraires/literaire interferenties, :1 (2022),153-174. 

-“In search of an ardent neutrality. Dutch intellectuals, the Great War and the call for a cultural regeneration.” First World War Studies, 12:1 (2021). 1-16.

- "Making Sense of the War (The Netherlands)", in: Ute Daniel e.a. eds., 1914-1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War (2017). 

-“’In the long run the spirit will prevail’: The political activism of Dutch Hegelians for peace and intellectual fraternity.” In The Intellectual Response to the First World War. How the Conflict Impacted on Ideas, Methods and Fields of Enquiry, edited by Marysa Demoor, Sarah Posman and Cedric van Dijck, 29-43. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2017.

-“Utopia through art. Building bridges and curing culture in war-torn Europe.” In Utopia: The Avant-garde, Modernism and (Im)possible life. European Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (4), edited by David Ayers, Benedikt Hjartarson, Tomi Huttunen and Harri Veivo, 49-57. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015.

- “Dostoevsky: a Russian panacea for Europe.” In European encounters. Intellectual exchange and the rethinking of Europe, edited by Carlos Reijnen and Marleen Rensen, 189-203. Amsterdam and New York: Brill, 2014.

- “Ein Akrobat im Zirkus oder der Philosoph des heroischen Untergangs? Die Rezeption Oswald Spenglers in den Niederlanden.” In Oswald Spengler als europäisches Phänomen. Der Transfer der Kultur- und Geschichtsmorphologie im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit, 1919-1939, edited by Zaur Gasimov and Carl Antonius Lemke Duque, 83-102. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2013.

-(with Lies Wijnterp) “Inleiding: Editing Europe. Het tijdschrift als Europese ruimte.” TS. Tijdschrift voor Tijdschriftstudies, no. 30 (2011): 67-69.

- “Cultuurtransfer en het tijdschriftonderzoek.” Contextes. Revue de Sociologie de la Literature, no. 4 (October 2008).

- “Bespiegelingen over de ondergang van het Avondland. Een casestudy naar cultuurtransfer in Nederlandse tijdschriften.” TS. Tijdschrift voor tijdschriftstudies, no. 24 (2008): 38-61.