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 manages with Dienke Hondius the research group Heritage and Memory of Conflict and War.
His publications include Bevoogding en Bevinding. Heren en kerkvolk in een Hollandse provinciestad 1780-1930 (Paternalism and Piety 1989), De hang naar zuiverheid: de moderne cultuur van Europa (with Arnold Labrie and Willem Melching, 1998), A Nation ofNotables. 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) and held his inaugural lecture as Westerbork professor at VU University under the title Nooit meer Auschwitz? Erfgoed van de oorlog in Europa's eeuw van de kampen (24 January 2012, to be published this Spring) In 2011 Rob van der Laarse was one of the 'Top-3 suppliers' of UvA-DARE, the academic output registration of the UvA. (See the links and pdf publications below).
Van derLaarse'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 conferenceson 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 resulted thus 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 the 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. And recently Van der Laarse has been awarded together with Gilly Carr of Cambridge University with a new AHRC-NWO joint program grant for an Anglo-Dutch network initiative in the humanities Landscapes of War, Trauma and Occupation (2012-2013), valued internationally excellent inscholarship, originality, quality and significance.
Prof Van der Laarse (co)supervises/d the following internal postdoctoral and PhD projects:
- Cultural Promotion and Imperialism. The Dante Alighieri Society and the British Council: Contesting the Mediterreanean in the 1930s. DrTamara van Kessel (icw. Prof Pim den Boer, UvA PhD June 2011)
- Cultural Property Protection: A Military Necessity? Dr Joris Kila (icw. 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, Indonesië en Suriname (Bert Bakker 2010), Dr Dienke Hondius, Oorlogslessen.Onderwijs over de Oorlog sinds 1945 (Bert Bakker 2010), and 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 (icw. 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 het museale 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 (icw. Prof Frank van Vree, 2009-2012)
- The Hollandsche Schouwburg as a Lieux de Mémoire. UvA PhD David Duindam (icw. Prof Frank van Vree, 2010-2014)
- Heritage of Absence. Memorial Camps as Contested Spaces. VU PhD Iris van Ooijen (icw. 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 PhotographyandMedia
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
AHRC-NWO Grand Award British-Dutch co-operation in the humanities
Press & seminars
Holocaust and Memory - Jewish Historical Museum 2008
Dynamiek van de herinnering_Trouw 2009
Reinwardt Memorial Lecture_publicatie 2011
Een beertje kan al topvondst zijn (Volkskrant 10-12-2011)
Zimmer mit Einsicht-Jüdische Allgemeine (23-11-2008)
Villavan 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
Podcast radio interview Joods op zondag, 29-1-2012
Wat zoekt deejay Ruud de Wild in Auschwitz? FD 16-2-2012
Archaeology and Memory. Former WWII Camps in Europe 23-3-2012
Naar een Europese herinnering?Debat Spui 25 4-4-2012
Herinneren gaat ook over nu (5-5-2012)
Some publications:
Heritage, Identity and Musealisation
Universeel museum als identiteitsfabriek(2004)
Iconisch erfgoed (2005)
Erfgoeden deconstructie 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 HeritageDeclaration, Boekman2011)
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
---recensie Kasteelkatern KNOB paleizennr
Ontdekking van de oudheid. Adellijke identiteitspolitiek Bourgondisch-Habsburgse Nederlanden (Virtus 2011)
European Culture and Conflict Heritage
Inleiding - De hang naar zuiverheid. Inleiding (1998)
Masking the Other- Max Nordau's representation of hidden Jewishness (HR 1999)
Dehang naar zuiverheid. De cultuur van het moderne Europa (Google)
Dadererfgoed - Kunst, kampen en landschappen (2009)
Westerbork-Erfgoed vanhet verlies (2010)
De terugkeer van het eigene (Boekman 2011, extensive web version)
Laat Auschwitz geen nulpunt maar eindpunt zijn (2012)
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 afterthe 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 storyofsymbolic representation and identification. Thisis shown by the making and consumption of the English Lake District, one of Europe's iconicpicturesque 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 / SitesofSignification (2010)
If then is now. Locatie+beleving lab