Merlijn Olnon

At NIAS, my mission is to help develop, network and promote the work of our fellows as well as the institute’s core values and policies. I do this through policy advice and development, fellows selection and counseling, maintaining and extending the institute’s partner network, and creating internal and external programs and publications for general, academic and policy partners and audiences.

I hold both an BA and an MA in Turkish languages and cultures (cum laude, Leiden University), with minors in diplomatic history and international relations, an advanced master’s degree in Asian, African, and Amerindian studies (cum laude, Research School CNWS, Leiden University) and a PhD in the history of relations between Europe and the Ottoman Near and Middle East (Leiden University). I have taught History of the Middle East and Modern Kurdish History (Utrecht University) and conducted extensive archival research in Amsterdam, Cambridge, The Hague, London, and Istanbul. My international publications are on early modern Dutch, English, French and Ottoman history, with an emphasis on diplomacy and international relations, inter- and crosscultural relations, law and state formation, and maritime, urban and social history.

In addition to my academic work, I have been active as an academic and PR manager for Athenaeum Booksellers, as the founder, editor and publisher of several magazines for literary and cultural criticism, and as an acquiring editor for a number of book publishers.