Rob van der Laarse, born in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, in 1956. Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Professor of War Heritage, VU University Amsterdam and Professor of Heritage Studies, University of Amsterdam.
Fellow (1 September 2012 – 31 January 2013)
Mediatized Memory. Transnational Crossings of Europe’s Terrorscapes
During my stay at NIAS I will coordinate, with Georgi Verbeeck, the theme group “Terrorscapes”, which will reveal how Europe’s topography of memory has expanded since the fall of the Wall (1989) and, particularly, the Yugoslav Wars (1991-1998), and how it has completely been transformed by the European political integration of countries like Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, and former Eastern Germany. Focusing on transnational memory and terrorscapes our project will offer insight into the dynamics of memory through a comparative approach, analysing the way governments and citizens of various European nations have been dealing with conflicting pasts at heritage and memory sites. Within this context I will focus my own research on the understanding of the European process of memory making, which includes forgetting and the negotiation of contested memories, by looking at the musealization and mediatization of terror, occupation, and trauma in different European countries during the last decades.
Selected Publications
R. van der Laarse (1999). Masking the other: Max Nordau’s representation of hidden Jewishness. Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historique, 25(1), 1-31.
R. van der Laarse (2000). A Nation of Notables: Class, Politics and Religion in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century. (Occasional Papers in the Contemporary History and Politics, 3). Salford: European Studies Research Institute.
R. van der Laarse (2011). De oorlog als beleving: over de musealisering en enscenering van Holocaust-erfgoed. (Reinwardt Memorial Lecture, 3). Amsterdam: Reinwardt Academie.