Prof. dr. Peter van Dam is professor of Dutch history at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the history of civic initiative and activism as well as the history of historiography. His current research revolves around the question how people have tried to make the world more sustainable: Which problems did they identify? And how have they translated their hopes and fears initiatives to shape their societies? He explores these questions in the histories of civic initiatives such as the labour movement, religious reform, fair trade, activism for the environment and climate, and sustainable consumption.
Peter van Dam is the academic director of the Research Master in History. He coordinates the research group 'Environment & Society: contestation & governance', which explores how we have thought about the relations between humans and nature, and how people campaigned and negotiated around environmental issues and climate change.
Selected publications
- 'The Age of Interdependence: Varieties of Sustainability in the Low Countries during the Twentieth Century' (2022) [special issue BMGN/LCHR].
- 'Trajectories of Global Solidarity: Fair Trade Activism Since the 1960s' (2019) [forum Contemporary European History]
- Wereldverbeteraars: een geschiedenis van fair trade (Amsterdam 2018)
- Een calvinistisch land? Religie in Nederland (Amsterdam 2018)
- “In search of the citizen-consumer: fair trade activism in the Netherlands since the 1960s”, BMGN – Low Countries Review 132 (2017) 3, 139-166
- 'The Rise of Consumer Society' (2017) [met Joost Jonker, special issue BMGN/LCHR]
- Achter de zuilen. Op zoek naar religie in naoorlogs Nederland (Amsterdam 2014) [uitgegeven met James Kennedy en Friso Wielenga]
- Onbehagen in de polder. Nederland in conflict sinds 1795 (Amsterdam 2014) [uitgegeven met Bram Mellink en Jouke Turpijn].
- "Vervlochten geschiedenis. Hoe histoire croisée de natiestaat bedwingt", Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 125 (2012) 1, 97-109.
- Staat van verzuiling. Over een Nederlandse mythe (Amsterdam 2011).
- Religion und Zivilgesellschaft. Christliche Traditionen in der niederländischen und deutschen Arbeiterbewegung (Münster 2010).
(See 'Publications' for a complete overview of published work)
Research and Education
Main topics:
- Sustainabilty and Sustainable Consumption
- Environmental history
- Civic initiative and activism
- Religion in Western Europe since 1789
- Theory and methods of history