prof. dr. Rob van der Laarse
Research and professional interests
Rob van der Laarse is professor of War Heritage and Memory at VU University Amsterdam (Westerbork Chair), and associate professor in European history and heritage at the department of Art, Religion & Cultural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. He studied history and anthropology at the same university where he graduated cum laude in humanities in 1985 and earned his PhD cum laude in1989. His thesis on the crucial role of religion in the modernization and symbolic construction of political communities in the 19th C. Netherlands was awarded with a Praemium Erasmianum Study Prize. After being granted an NWO Veni proposal on Dutch elite history in a European context Van der Laarse was coordinator of the UvA's Cultural History stream at the History department and of the research group European Intellectual Culture of the Huizinga Institute for Cultural History (1992-1998). From 2002-2010 he was founding director of Cultural Heritage Studies at the UvA. And from 2010 he holds the first chair in War Heritage and Memory in the Netherlands, launched by Memorial Centre Camp Westerbork as a half-time professorship at the interdisciplinary heritage research institute CLUE at the VUA, where he conducts with Dienke Hondius the research group Heritage and Memory of Conflict and War.
Rob van der Laarse has been for 2011 one of the top three research suppliers of the UvA (dare.uva.nl). His publications include Bevoogding en Bevinding. Heren enkerkvolkin een Hollandse provinciestad 1780-1930 (Paternalism and Piety 1989), De hang naar zuiverheid: de moderne cultuur van Europa (withArnold Labrie and Willem Melching, 1998), A Nation of Notables. Class, Religion and Politics (1999), ‘Masking the Other:Max Nordau’s Representation of Jewishness’, Historical Reflections (1999),Van goeden huize (2001), Beelden van de buitenplaats. Elitevorming en notabelencultuur in Nederland in de negentiende eeuw (with Yme Kuiper, 2005), Bezeten van vroeger. Erfgoed, musealisering en identiteit (2005), De dynamiek van de herinnering. Nederland en de Tweede Wereldoorlog in een internationale context (with Frank van Vree, 2009), and his Reinwardt Memorial Lecture 2010, recently published as De Oorlog als beleving. Over de musealisering enenscenering van Holocaust-erfgoed (2011). He also attributed to media programs, such as the AVRO radio serial Dadererfgoed (perpetrator's heritage) on Radio 1 in 2008, and edited a special issue on the architectural history and heritage of Dutch Royal Palaces of Bulletin KNOB (2010/5). Recently he published a critical essay on the essentialist assumption of UNESCO's Intangible heritage convention: 'De terugkeer van het eigene' in Boekman 88 (2011). (See the list of pdf publications below).
Van der Laarse's research focuses on (early) modern European elite cultures, cultural landscape, heritage and identity politics, and the intellectual roots and postwar memory of the Holocaust. In close collaboration with experts of different disciplines he also organized tens of conferences on these topics. He is currently granted a research sabbatical (Sept.2011-Febr.2012) for writing a book on the court and elite cultures of the Dutch Republic, to be published by Bert Bakker under the title of Arcadiërs van de Republiek. Adel, hof en buitenplaats 1500-1800. He is also working on the completion of a reader for Amsterdam UP Landscape and Heritage. Theoretical Perspectives, co-edited with Jan Kolen. Van der Laarse is series editor of AUP's Landscape and Heritage Studies (LHS), and member of the advisory boards of several historical and heritage journals, organizations and museums, such as Virtus. Yearbook of the History of Nobility, the Heritage of War program of the Ministry of VWS, Theme Year 2012 of the Historical Country House Foundation, Amsterdam Museum, Dutch Castle Foundation (NKS), Rijksgebouwendienst (VROM), UvA Heritage Division, Memorial Centres Camp Westerbork and Vught, and trustee of Paradox Foundation and Ydoc (lens-based documentaries and new media productions). As from December 2011 he also presides the scientific advisory board of the Westerbork Archaeological Research Project, a cooperative project of MC Camp Westerbork, CLUE and RAAP which will become part of a European collaboration.
For several years Rob van der Laarse directs with Frank van Vree the ICH-UvA research program War, Heritage and Memory - a dynamic perspective on the future of World War II (2007-), and the NWOresearch line The Dynamics of Memory. The Netherlands and the Second World War in an international context (2010-2015), granted with eleven postdoc and PhD projects at UvA,VUA and NIOD, co-sponsored by the ministry of VWS and about ten private funds, which resultedthus far in a volume, three monographs, and tens of articles in books and journals. Currently he also runs with Georgi Verbeeck (Maastricht-Leuven) an international NWO project Terrorscapes in Postwar Europe. Transnational Memory of Terror and Genocide, co-funded by the memorial camps Westerbork and Vught and hosted at CLUE. For 2012-2013 he will be co-leader of the theme group Terrorscapes at the Netherland's Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS), which granted him also a fellowship for research on the mediatization of memory. This international research team had its kick off with ITF Conference Uses, Abuses and Misuses of the Holocaust Paradigm at the Peace Palace, The Hague, 27-28 November 2011, and a NIAS exploratory workshop at November 29th. Van der Laarse will held his inaugural lecture as Westerbork professor at the aula of the VUA on Tuesday 24 January 2012 3.45 pm, titled Nooit meer Auschwitz? Erfgoed van de oorlog in Europa's eeuw van de kampen.
ProfVan der Laarse (co)supervises/d the following postdoctoral and PhD projects:
- Cultural Promotion and Imperialism. The Dante Alighieri Society and the British Council: Contesting the Mediterreanean in the 1930s. Dr Tamara van Kessel (with Prof Pim den Boer, UvA PhD June 2011)
- Cultural Property Protection: A Military Necessity? Dr Joris Kila (with Prof Bram Kempers, UvA PhD February 2012)
- Oorlog, erfgoed en herinnering. Een dynamisch perspectief op de Tweede wereldoorlog (projectleader 2007-2010); NWO programme executed at UvA, VU and NIOD, co-sponsered by the Ministry of VWS. Books published: Dr Esther Captain and Dr Guno Jones, Oorlogserfgoed overzee. De erfenis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Aruba, Curacao, Indonesiëen Suriname (Bert Bakker 2010), Dr Dienke Hondius, Oorlogslessen.Onderwijs over de Oorlog sinds 1945 (Bert Bakker 2010), en Dr Rob van Ginkel, Rondom de Stilte. Herdenkingscultuur in Nederland (Bert Bakker 2011).
- Artists of the Kultuurkamer: History and Collective Memory 1922-2012. UvA PhD Claartje Wesselink (with Prof Frank van Vree, 2007-2012)
- The Future of War Heritage (supervisor, NWO-VWS-project 2009-2011), completed with Dr Kees Ribbens and Dr Esther Captain Tonen van de Oorlog. Toekomst voor hetmuseale erfgoed van de Tweede Wereldoorlog (NIOD 2011)
- Bezetting en Verzet in een museale context / War and Resistance in a museological context. UvA PhD Erik Somers (with Prof Frank van Vree, 2009-2012)
- The Hollandsche Schouwburg as a Lieux de Mémoire. UvA PhD David Duindam (with Prof Frank van Vree, 2010-2014)
- Heritage of Absence. Memorial Camps as Contested Spaces. VU PhD Iris van Ooijen (with Prof Jan Kolen, 2010-2014)
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My VU homepage
UvA DARE
NARCIS Academic Research
UvA Heritage Studies
Leergang erfgoedstudies
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Paradox Photography and Media
Huizinga Projectgroup Erfgoed, Toerisme en Identiteit
Virtus: Yearbook of the Nobility
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Research Programmes:
NWO-VWS War, Heritage and Memory (2007-2010)
NWO Dynamics of Memory. The Netherlands in the Second World War (2009-2014)
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Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork
Interview Westerbork leerstoel_Getekend Nieuws 2011
CLUE-VU (2011) click Mission statement/Researchclusters/Heritage&Memory of War&Conflict
Interview CLUE Yearly 2010 (2011)
Erfgoedtermen: oorlogserfgoed (Reinwardt Academie 2011)
Erfgoed van de Oorlog VWS
Theme Year Historical Country Estates 2012
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Huizinga Dynamics of memory andTerrorscapes research groups: conferences ITF and NIAS, 27-29/11/2011
CLUE folder of the Heritage and Memory War and Conflict research cluster, 2011
NWO Dynamics of memory Nieuws en kalenderberichten
Press & seminars
WW II Traumascapes - Cambridge Heritage Conference Packaging the Past2008
Holocaust and Memory - Jewish Historical Museum 2008
Dynamiekvan de herinnering2009
Bedreigend erfgoed - Verslag Erfgoedarena Reinwardt Academie 2008
------discussie RML Kandigol's Weblog 14-7-2010
Zimmer mit Einsicht-Jüdische Allgemeine (23-11-2008)
Villa van de kampcommdant (Westerbork) - Trouw (2-11-2007)
Anne Frankboom - Trouw (21-11-2007)
Tijdmachine van ingelegd hout - NRC-H(10-10-2008)
Amsterdams interieur als stille getuige -Trouw(9-09-2008)
Holocaust terrorscapes_Heritage reinvents Europe, 12th EAC symposium 2011
Spui 25: Intangible heritage debate, 27-4-2011
ITF Conference The Holocaust and other genocides, Vredespaleis Den Haag 27-28 November 2011
NIAS workshop Terrorscapes 29 November 2011
Historie in laagjes_Interview Leeuwarder Courant 21-01-2012
VU Holocaust Memorial Day 24-01-2012
Oratie Westerborkleerstoel VU: Nooit meer Auschwitz? January 24 2012
Laat Auschwitz beginpunt nieuwe toekomst zijn_artikel RD 25-01-2012
Interview Joods op zondag 29-1-2012
Studium Generale lezing Leeuwarden: De verbeelding aan de macht, 15-2-2012
Some publications:
Heritage, Identity and Musealisation
Universeel museum als identiteitsfabriek(2004)
Iconisch erfgoed (2005)
Erfgoeden de constructie vanvroeger (2005)
Erfgoedpolitiek - in gesprek met Van Rappard(2004)
Bezeten van vroeger. Erfgoed, identiteit en musealisering (Complete volume, 2005)
De Oorlog als beleving. Over de musealisering en enscenering van Holocaust-erfgoed (2011)
De terugkeer van het eigene (a critique on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage Declaration, Boekman2011)
De terugkeer van het eigene (extensive webversion Boekman.nl 2011)
UvA Erfgoedlab: Voorbij Wilders en WikiLeaks 2011
Landscape and Heritage
Panorama's op vroeger.Dynamiek van het landschap(2008)
Gazing at places we've never been (2010)
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In Print! Reader Landscape&Heritage
Elites and Elite Cultures
Beelden van de buitenplaats (2005)
Burgers als buitenlui (2007)
Beleving van de buitenplaats(2005)
Virtus en distinctie - Ridders van de Republiek (2007)
Twee eeuwen koninklijke paleizen -Bulletin KNOB 2010-5
recensieKasteelkatern KNOB paleizennr
European Culture and War Heritage
Inleiding - De hang naar zuiverheid. Inleiding (1998)
Masking the Other- On Max Nordau (HR 1999)
De hang naar zuiverheid (Google)
Dadererfgoed - Kunst, kampen en landschappen (2009)
Westerbork-Erfgoed van het verlies (2010)
Dutch Political Culture and History
An Élitist Route to Democracy (2000)
A Nation of Notables. Class, Politics and Religionin the Netherlands (1999)
De Deugd en het Kwaad. Conservatisme, liberalisme en Verlichting (2000)
Digging in Westerbork (2011)
Op het terrein van Kamp Westerbork wordt deze weken archeologisch onderzoek verricht. Ook het huis waar kampcommandant Gemmecker woonde wordt onderzocht. Wat betekent dit huis voor het Herinneringscentrum Westerbork? In de studio is te gast Rob van der Laarse , hoogleraar Erfgoed van de oorlog. Hij leidt het onderzoeksprogramma Terrorscapes en het Westerbork Archaeological Research Project, waarin Europese oorlogsonderzoekers en herinneringscentra samenwerken.
Labyrint radio (NTS/VPRO): zondagavond 11 dec 2011 20:00-21:00 uur op Radio 1.
Wetenschap24_Graven in Westerbork
Utoya - What about the afterlife of terrorsites? (2011)
Rob van der Laarse interviewed by NCRC radio on Utoya and the question of what might happen at sites of terror after the catastrophe. (Radio 1, Het nieuws van alle kanten, July 29 2011)
Wat gebeurter met rampplekken na de ramp? (29-6-2011)
Erfgoedstudies Oostwaarts (2009)
Volume of essays on World Heritage Sites in East Germany and Poland, UvA 2008
ErfgoedstudiesOostwaarts
Lake District (2009)
Anyone who thinks he just goes on holliday for the beautiful weather or the fine food, is mistaken. As with our clothes and musical taste our vacation destinations show to others who we are. The story of a tourist hotspot is therefore also a cultural story of symbolic representation and identification. Thisis shown by the making and consumption of the English Lake District, one of Europe's iconic picturesque landscapes.
Vakantiebestemmingen worden gemaakt. Kennislink.nl
Erfgoedproject (2009)
Research report of UvAHeritage Studies on the historical sources of Groeneveld Castle in Baarn for a country house museum,in co-operation with Heemst Consultancy under the Board's authority(Ministry of LNV).
Rapport Groeneveld. Studentenwebsiteerfgoedstudies
Sites of Signification
Thoughts on spatial processes of meaningand signification, musealization and medialization, heritage and memory, digital access and tourist experience, at Significant Sights / Sites of Signification (2010)
If then is now. Locatie+beleving lab