The document discusses the research and publications of an assistant professor of Modern History at the University of Groningen. Their work examines processes of inclusion and exclusion during times of political tension and violence. This includes a PhD thesis on German domestic servants in the Netherlands during National Socialism, and a book on the construction of Dutch national identity through folklore studies between 1918-1948. Current research explores dynamics of transnational, political, and cultural identities of Dutch migrants in South Africa in the 20th century. Since 2014, they have worked on a project mapping traces of Dutch involvement in the slave trade and slavery, both within Europe and internationally.

1. I am assistant professor/senior lecturer Modern History at the University of Groningen (NL).
The intertwinement of personal memories (Oral History and Life Writing) and collective
representations of the past is central to my examining processes of in- and exclusion in times
of rising political tension and violence. My PhD-thesis Heimat in Holland, 1920-1950 on the
changing positions of German domestic servants who stayed in the Netherlands under
pressure of national socialism was published in Dutch (1995) and German (1998).
In 2005 my post-doc research on the construction of national identities through folklore-
studies in the Netherlands resulted in the book Uit liefde voor het volk. Volkskundigen op zoek
naar de Nederlandse identiteit, 1918-1948 (Out of love for the people. Folklorists in search
for Dutch identity).
In my current research on post-war Dutch migrants in South Africa I explore the dynamics of
(trans) national, political and cultural identifications within personal and institutional
networks spanning the orbit between the Netherlands and South-Africa in the 20th century.
Publications relating to this research were published in the South African Historical Journal,
het Tijdschrift voor sociale en economische Geschiedenis, het Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis,
het Maandblad voor Zuid-Afrika, de bundel ‘Maar we wisten ons door de Heer geroepen’.
Kerk en Apartheid in transnational perspectief, and the book Good Hope. South Africa and
The Netherlands from 1600, published simultaneously with the eponymous exhibition at the
Rijksmuseum.
Since 2014, my college Margriet Fokken and I started a research project ‘Mapping Slavery in
the North’. This project is embedded in national and international networks of researchers
involved in Mapping Slavery. (See: www.mappingslavery.nl) We aim to reveal traces of
Dutch involvement in the slave trade and slavery and to integrate the results into the local and
national historiography. Simultaneously we are looking for entanglements of colonial
practices in and outside Europe together with colleagues from Great Britain, Germany, France
and the USA. In September 2016 we published a regional walking and cycling guide Sporen
van het slavernijverleden in Groningen. Gids voor Stad en Ommeland that takes readers along
traces referring to the slavery past.
Amsterdam/Groningen 2017 February