English
Dr A.A.M. de Jong (1947) is Professor by Special Appointment of the History of Dutch Culture, in particular the study of objects, in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The chair was established in 1990 on behalf of the Royal Antiquarian Society (Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, KOG), and has been previously held by Prof. Wim Vroom, Prof. Peter Sigmond and Prof. Susan Legêne. The chair is part of the History of European Culture chair group in the Department of Art, Religion and Cultural Sciences.
Research and teaching activities
As professor by special appointment, Ad de Jong focuses on the cultural history of the Netherlands, in which images and objects play a central role as fully fledged historical sources. He explores the cultural and historical meaning of objects by studying the function and meaning (which shift over time) of historical moveable and immovable objects. In particular, he looks at those which have been incorporated in national museum collections and which are explicitly being used to build a national identity. Questions of current relevance include what meaning these objects have for new population groups and how the selection of national heritage takes place.
These themes also form the focus of Dr de Jong's teaching activities in the Master's programmes in Cultural Studies and Art History. He is furthermore involved in the UvA's Professional Master's programmes in Museum Studies, Museum Curator and Heritage Studies. Practical research in museums and analyses of museum presentations form an important component of his seminars.
Curriculum Vitae
Dr de Jong studied History and Museum Studies at Leiden University and worked at The Netherlands Open Air Museum from 1981 till 2010, first as Head of Research and Acquisitions and then as Board Scientific Policy Officer from 1991. In 2001 he received his doctorate with honours from VU University Amsterdam for the dissertation De dirigenten van de herinnering. Musealisering en nationalisering van de volkscultuur in Nederland 1815-1940 (‘The conductors of memory: Museumisation and nationalisation of folk culture in the Netherlands 1815-1940').
Prior to this he also worked as Head of the Museums Policy Development Department in the then Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social Work. Dr de Jong holds various advisory and board positions, including as an expert member in the field of Dutch ethnology on the Council for Culture's Preservation of Cultural Heritage Act Committee (Commissie Wet Behoud Cultuurbezit), and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Germany.
Selective list of publications by Ad de Jong
Existing English/ French/German versions of Dutch publications are mentioned after the Dutch title and specifications.
(ed.) Naar een nieuw museumbeleid. Beleidsnota Ministerie van CRM (Rijswijk 1976)
[and Mette Skougaard] ‘De Hindeloper en de Amager kamer. Twee voorbeelden van een historisch museumfenomeen’, De Vrije Fries 72 (1992) p. 88-108 [English version: ‘The Hindeloopen and the Amager Rooms. Two examples of an historical museum phenomenon’, Journal of the History of Collections 5 (1993) 2, p. 165-178; Version en français: ‘Les intérieurs de Hindeloopen et d'Amager. Deux exemples d'un phénomène muséographique', Publics & Musées 9 (janv.-juillet 1996) p.17-35]
‘Dracht en eendracht. De politieke dimensie van klederdrachten, 1850-1920’, in: Klederdracht en kleedgedrag. Het kostuum Harer Majesteits onderdanen, 1889-1998 (Nijmegen, 1998) p. 67-82 [English version:‘Roots and Rituals on display. Dutch traditional costumes in new settings 1850-1920’, in: Ton Dekker, John Helsloot and Carla Wijers (ed.), Roots & Rituals. The construction of ethnic identities (Amsterdam 2000) p. 761-770]
‘ “You are lucky, the farmer has just returned!”The role of the open-air museum in interpreting life of individuals as opposed to the history of architecture’, in: ICOM Study series 6. ICOM's International Committee for Regional Museums (Paris 1999) p. 15-18
[and Carla Wijers] (ed.) Brieven aan de Toekomst. Een dag uit het leven van.... (Utrecht 1999)
De dirigenten van de herinnering. Musealisering en nationalisering van de volkscultuur in Nederland 1815-1940 (proefschrift VU, Nijmegen/Arnhem 2001, tweede druk Amsterdam 2006) [Deutsche Übersetzung: Die Dirigenten der Erinnerung. Musealisierung und Nationalisierung der Volkskultur in den Niederlanden 1815-1940 (Münster 2007)]
Gesloten wegen bewoning. Arnhemse oorlogsevacués in het Openluchtmuseum, september 1944 – januari 1945 (tweede geheel herziene druk Arnhem 2004) [English version: War evacuees in the Open Air Museum. A sequel to the battle of Arnhem september 1944 – January 1945 (Arnhem 2004)]
‘Volkskultur und Nationalimaginationen in den Niederlanden 1815-1940’ , in: Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 28 (2005) S. 7-26
‘Aubade voor de eenentwintigste eeuw. Nieuwe trends inhistorische en etnologische musea’,in: Bert de Munck & Werner van Hoof (ed.), De poppen aan het dansen. Honderd jaar Antwerps Volkskundemuseum. Nieuwe visies op erfgoed en musea (Nijmegen 2007) p. 161-182
‘Het Zeeuwse meisje: icoon van herrijzend Nederland’, in: Joris van Eijnatten, Fred van Lieburg and Hans de Waardt (ed.), Heiligen of helden. Opstellen voor Willem Frijhoff (Amsterdam 2007) p. 325-336
[and Jan Vaessen, Willemien Beurskens] NationaalHistorisch Museum Arnhem (Arnhem, 2007)
‘Canon en competitie. De museologische achtergronden van het NHM’, in: Museumvisie 31 (2007) 4 (dec.) p. 24-26
‘Gegenstand oder Vorstellung? Erfahrungen mit Living History, vor allem am Beispiel niederländischer Freilichtmuseen’, in: Jan Carstensen, Uwe Meiners und Ruth-E. Mohrmann (ed.), Living history im Museum. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer populären Vermittlungsform (Münster 2008), S. 61-78
Warmegevoelens en koude rillingen. Over musea en odes aan de saamhorigheid.
Reinwardt Memorial Lecture (Amsterdam 2008)
‘Le folklore engagé: les militants de l’ethnologie nationale aux Pays-Bas dans les années 1936-1940’ in: Jacqueline Christophe, Denis-Michel Boëll & Régis Meyran (ed.), Du folklore à l’ethnologie (Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris 2009), p. 361 – 368
[and Pieter–Mattthijs Gijsbers] ‘Boulevard van de Nederlandse geschiedenis’, in: Hester Dibbits e.a. (ed.), Splitsen of knopen? Over volkscultuur in Nederland (NAi Uitgevers, Rotterdam 2009), p. 60-68 [interview by Paul Depondt]
Vitrines vol verhalen. Museumcollecties als bron voor cultuurgeschiedenis. Vossiuspers UvA, Amsterdam 2010 [Inaugural speech University of Amsterdam 27 Nov. 2009]
' New initiatives in the Netherlands Open Air Museum: How an early open air museum keeps up with the times’, Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 55 (2010), 2, p. 333-356 [special volume Open Air Museums in Europe in the 21 st century, published by Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest]
