George Harinck (Professor of Neo-Calvinism History)

My interest is the history of neo-Calvinism in the Netherlands and abroad; international protestant relations, the position and role of the church in modern society, religion in politics, education and media; Current reserach projects: religion in World War II, A. Kuyper-H. Bavinck correspondence, handbook neo-Calvinism, history of religious academic institutions.

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Fred van Lieburg (Professor of Religious History & Director HDC)

I am interested in theoretical and methodological (in particular digital) approaches of long-term history of religion. My current research includes projects on pre-Reformation and Reformed clergy in the Netherlands (16th-19th centuries), international piety and revival movements (17th-21st centuries), and Dutch Protestant actions for rechristianization and reconfessionalization (19th-21st centuries).

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Jessica Roitman (Professor of Jewish Studies)

I am currently Professor of Jewish Studies at the Faculty of Religion and Theology at the VU. My work, broadly speaking, focuses on Jewish History, including the legacies of colonial experiences on historical and contemporary Jewish notions of identification, incorporation, and citizenship. I particularly look at the interaction of minority groups with each other in zones of cross-cultural and transnational interaction from the seventeenth century until the nineteenth centuries. My current research concentrates on the Jewish role in European colonialism, with an emphasis on the Dutch overseas colonies, particularly in the West Indies.

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Bas ter Haar Romeny (Professor of Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern History)

My major areas of interest are:

  • The interaction between the Greek-speaking world and users of oriental languages in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique periods.
  • The formation and identity of minority groups, in particular Jews and Syriac-speaking Christians.
  • Cultural memory and the selection of knowledge to be passed on to the following generations, including the canonization, interpretation, and reception of authoritative texts such as the collection of books now known as the Bible.
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    John Exalto (Honorary Researcher of History, Religion and Education)

    Educated as historian at the Vrije Universiteit, I received my PhD in early modern religious history. I was an assistant professor in the history of education at the VU-Faculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences, and the director of the Comenius Museum and Mausoleum in Naarden. In 2022 I accepted a position as inspector with the Dutch Inspectorate of Education. My research interests concern the relationship between religion, education and schooling. I have widely published on these topics from the Golden Age to the current Bible Belt.

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    Ab Flipse (Senior Researcher of University History)

    I am university historian of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and I am based in the Cultural History & Religious History research group within the Faculty of Humanities. My research areas include the history of universities in the 19th and 20th centuries (especially the history of the Vrije Universiteit), and the history of science & religion, including the development of the creation/evolution debate and the rise of young-earth creationism in the Netherlands. Having a university-wide position, I also perform functions such as public outreach and advising administrators, faculty, and students on matters dealing with the history of the university.

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    Edwina Hagen (Senior Researcher of Cultural History)

    As I accept religion as an integral part of (the early modern) history, religious topics are a natural part of my historical research projects. My PhD thesis on Dutch Enlightened and Protestant Anti-Papism around 1800, covers the changing role of religion under the influence of early forms of cultural nationalism. In studying the revolutionary Dutch period from a qualitative and biographical approach, religion comes into play as a practical and lived aspect of individual identities in their political and cultural contexts. Based on extensive archival research in New York, I am currently working on a case study on the Dutch revolutionary Adam Gerard Mappa (1754-1828), one of the founders of a local Unitarian church in the State of New York.

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    Hendrik E. Niemeijer (Senior Researcher of Indonesian Religious History)

    I specialized in European-Asian interactions in the Early Modern Period 1500-1800. After completing my PhD thesis (1996) at the Department of History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on church and society of Batavia (Jakarta) during the 17th century, I participated in several research and teaching projects (see my Curriculum Vitae). My current research focuses on the Reformed churches in Eastern Indonesia 17th and 18th centuries; the Protestant Church of the Netherlands Indies (PKNI, 1844-1950) and the Indonesian Community of Churches (PGI) and its members since 1950.

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