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Suze Zijlstra is a PhD candidate at the early modern history department. She conducts research into the development of power relations between the ethnic groups that inhabited the colony of Suriname in the seventeenth century. Her research is funded by the programme 'Promoties in the Geesteswetenschappen' of the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

 

Research Interests

 

• Atlantic history
• Dutch early modern colonial enterprises
• Plantation societies
• Anglo-Dutch relations
• Sailing letters

 

Education

 

• MA History and Culture of the Dutch Golden Age, University College London, 2010 (with distinction), dissertation: Business and Correspondence. The Role of Letters within Dutch Seventeenth-Century Trading Networks
• Research MA History, University of Amsterdam, 2009 (cum laude), dissertation: 'Om te sien of ick een wijf kan krijge, want hebbe deselve seer nootsaeckelijck vandoen'. Migratie, kolonisatie en genderverhoudingen tijdens de Zeeuwse overheersing van Suriname (1667-1682)
• BA Religious Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2009 (cum laude), dissertation: Polemist en pragmaticus. De representatie van moslims in Valentijns Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën
• BA History, University of Amsterdam, 2007 (cum laude), dissertation: Handel en hongersnood. De inspectiereis van gouverneur Stephanus Versluys naar de kust van Madura (31 januari - 27 februari 1731)

 

Fellowship and Award

 

• J.R. Bruijn-prijs 2011 of the Dutch Association for Maritime History (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Zeegeschiedenis), awarded for my Research MA dissertation on migration, colonisation and gender relations in Suriname during the province of Zeeland's rule (1667-1682)
• Prof. J.C.M. Warnsinck Fellow, National Maritime Museum Amsterdam, 2008-2009. Research topic: Slaafse vrouwen in Suriname. De representatie van de verhouding tussen man en vrouw in vroegmoderne reisteksten.

Other activities  
 

• Board member of the Dutch Association for Maritime History (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Zeegeschiedenis)
• Organized with Karwan Fatah-Black (Leiden University) the Research Seminar Inter-Imperial Encounters in the Dutch Caribbean on 18 November 2011 at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam (for program see the link below)

Program Research Seminar Inter-Imperial Encounters

Suze Zijlstra on LinkedIn