Amsterdam School of Historical Studies

Dear all,
 
As the Covid crisis continues, we at ASH are very conscious of the impact it has on all research projects and initiatives, and of course on all other aspects of our work and lives. We are organizing a meeting for all ASH PhDs in early December, to hear about their experiences and discuss how ASH can be of some assistance; we will organize something similar for postdocs as well. As ASH director, I have to admit that I wish I could do more, but realize that, in the face of a global crisis, ASH’s options are fairly limited. I do want to urge all colleagues with funded projects involving postdocs and PhD students to keep track of any delays and communicate them to the Research Support Office, because extensions of temporary contracts are possible.
 
With best wishes,
Maartje van Gelder

Lia van Gemert will become emeritus professor on 1 December. Unfortunately, due to the current COVID restrictions, her valedictory speech is postponed until further notice. Lia will stay affiliated with the UvA as guest researcher, but she will hand over the directorship of the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age. Frans Grijzenhout and Geert Janssen will take over temporarily as the Centre’s directors.
 
ASH wants to thank Lia for her extraordinary commitment to the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age, a crucial research group for ICG and later ASH. We are also very grateful for her generous and ongoing care for junior researchers.

Dr. Judith Noorman has been awarded a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for the project 'Golden Women'. This project measures the impact of women on the Dutch art market in the seventeenth century by studying household consumption. Drawing on various sources, the project studies how women manifested themselves as important patrons and professionals, thus challenging the persistent assumption that the art market was dominated by men. Read more

Dr. Janna Coomans has been awarded a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for the project '(In)flammable Cities: How fire risks and prevention transformed the Low Countries (1200-1650)'. Fire plagued pre-industrial cities due to widespread presence of combustible materials and use of open fire. This VENI-project investigates how Netherlandish cities adapted their socio-political organization and built environment to mitigate these risks. This provides insight into both the impact of environmental hazards themselves and preventative practices to reduce them. 

ASH PhD candidate George Muishout has been awarded a finishing fellowship from the Faculty of Humanities for his project Muslims and palliative care in a Western context: a qualitative study, supervised by Gerard Wiegers and Hanneke van Laarhoven. 

Anne-Lot is awarded the prize for her work on the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia and the decolonization of Indonesia. Anne-Lot is an self-funded PhD candidate at ASH and a historian/journalist. As a historian and journalist she regularly publishes in written media, such as Vrij Nederland, NRC and De Groene Amsterdammer, and she has also appeared on radio and TV (Buitenhof, Nieuwsuur). She was a journalist-in-residence at the NIAS and held a research fellowship at the KITLV 2016. Since 2018, she is a PhD candidate at ASH. Under the supervision of Peter Romijn (NIOD/UvA) and Remco Raben (Utrecht University/UvA), Anne-Lot is working on a study on the anticolonial struggle on the island of Bali between 1849-1949, with a particular focus on the Indonesian independence war (1945-1949). Her dissertation is planned to be published as a book by De Bezige Bij in 2021. Read more 

Josephine van den Bent is awarded the prize for her dissertation Mongols in Mamluk Eyes, written under the supervision of professor Guy Geltner and professor Maaike van Berkel (Radboud Universiteit). In her thesis she investigates the representation of the Mongols in the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria, and the ways in which contemporary scholars were involved in processes of ethnic identification, categorisation and othering and the ways in which such representations of the Mongols were used for various purposes in response to, and in interaction with, the sultanate’s complex ethnic and political contexts.
The Advisory Board deems her dissertation to be a study of international importance, and Van den Bent is to be commended for achieving to present her arguments on a complex and big topic in such a succinct and clear way. Moreover, she shows considerable expertise and impressive research skills in mastering the primary evidence and her philological approaches. In short, she has written an exemplary dissertation which fully deserves the ASH dissertation prize.

Sander Govaerts receives the prize for his dissertation Mosasaurs: interactions between armies and ecosystems in the Meuse region, 1250-1850, written under the supervision of professor Guy Geltner, professor Mieke Aerts and dr. Mario Damen. Govaerts argues that armies' conscious and concerted protection and conservation of ecosystems long predates the rise of modern environmentalism, and that this supposedly modern behaviour is just one element in a complex web of interconnections between armed forces and their surrounding world. The focus on the Meuse region avoids the common emphasis on political structures, and the study reflects the emphasis on continuity between the High Middle Ages and the Early Modern period.
The Advisory Board praises Govaerts’ study as very innovative, original and multidisciplinary. A work of great ambition and creativity, it brings together two subjects that have rarely (if ever) been studied in tandem, and covers no less than 600 years of history. For this impressive intellectual achievement Govaerts is equally worthy winner of the ASH dissertation prize.

Three researchers at the faculty of Humanities have joined the academic staff of ASH in September. Melvin Wevers joined the UvA from the KNAW Humanities Cluster in August, whereas Nicholas Carr and Maaike Voorhoeve were already based at the UvA and joined ASH in September following their appointment to permanent positions. We welcome them and their expertise in the field of modern languages and culture (Maaike, Nicholas) and digital humanities (Melvin). Read more

Maroesjka will work on a project titled 'Feeding the city: A bird’s-eye view of Amsterdam’s food supply from its hinterlands, c. 1550-1800', supervised by Danielle van den Heuvel and Djoeke van Netten. The position is funded through the ongoing agenda of Sustainable Humanities and Maroesjka has started in September.

The Dutch Republic’s economic success was propelled by the ‘symbiotic relationship’ between city and periphery. How did food provision function and develop in light of the period’s urbanisation and rural transformations? Taking Amsterdam as a case study, Feeding the city explores the city’s food supply from its hinterlands c. 1550-1800. The domestically produced food is put centre stage in this project, allowing for a holistic approach in which a variety of actors (both human and non-human) receive immediate attention.

An Academy Early Career Partnership enables early career researchers to organise a meeting with participants from different scientific disciplines to jointly explore unconventional, innovative ideas or methods for fundamental research.

A maximum of ten Partnerships are allocated annually. The allocation consists of a maximum of € 10,000 for organising a meeting at the Academy or at a location of choice.

Since we all might not be able to travel in the near future because of COVID-19, we ask all applicants to describe an alternative meeting, such as an online or hybrid gathering, next to the original meeting. Read more