Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

colonial and multi-ethnic part of the world, implies that the group also investigates the implications of being
white. The programme concentrates its research in three areas:
• History, where it investigates the historical dimensions of inclusion and exclusion, as well as the
representation of ethnicity in various (inter)national contexts.
• Literature and Cultural Artefacts, where it investigates the power of representation in relation to the
construction of identity and subjectivity in post-colonial literature and other cultural expressions, both in
the classical and the new media.
• Philosophy and Social Theory, where it aims, through critical surveys of theories of gender and ethnicity,
to deconstruct the traditional divisions between representation and reality, between theory and practice.
A 3. Processes in research, internal and external collaboration
The group plays a leading role in national organisation of Gender Studies, the NOV, or national research
school for Women’s Studies. The NOV is based in Utrecht, in the OGC building, and Braidotti has been its
scientifi c director throughout the period under review. Linked to the NOV organisation is the International
Offi ce, that manages a variety of European programmes in Gender Studies, notably the ATHENA network,
that encompasses more then 100 institutes in Europe in the fi eld of Women’s Studies and Gender Research.
In 2004 the EU awarded a large Marie Curie subsidy to a Gender Studies programme that had been submitted
through the Utrecht offi ce. This pivotal position has put the Utrecht group very much in the spotlight
and helps attract a steady stream of international visitors to Utrecht. The group also maintains strong ties with
several South-African universities and is involved in the SANPAD Research Capacity Initiative, to help train
South-African PhD-students; this is funded by the Dutch Ministry of International Development.
The Gender Studies group is also involved in the exploration of the challenges of new technology,
both practical and intellectual. It participates in the ‘Missing Link’ programme, fi nanced by NWO, that also
includes the universities of UC Santa Barbara, Odense (Denmark), Nijmegen (the Netherlands), and
Lancaster (UK). This programme aims to expand the possibilities of new media in teaching and in research. It
has resulted in a special issue of Gender Studies (2003) on digital culture.
The programme scores well in governmental, non-university funding and in the non-governmental
funding. Much of these latter funds acquired by the programme are, moreover, invisible in the personnel
fi gures (and thus Table 5), as EU-funding cannot be spent on hiring faculty. Women’s Studies has been one of
the few fi elds in the Humanities to apply successfully for EU (5 th Framework Programme) funds, and Utrecht
has played a leading role in this. It also coordinates the ATHENA network, one of 32 thematic programmes
in the EU’s Socrates mobility programme. As a result, many graduate students and PhD’s participate in the
programmes, coordinated and taught by the Utrecht group.
The researchers in this programme published on average 12.06 articles and books per tenured fte
research time, signifi cantly above the OGC average (of 8.9). Of these publications, 57 percent was international.
It is therefore no exaggeration to say that this group has been remarkably productive. Braidotti makes
an important contribution to the productivity, as well as international visibility of the group. Its success is,
however, also the result of a strong group dynamic, which allows this group to play a leading role in Dutch
Gender Studies, but also in Europe as a whole. The Utrecht programme is no doubt one of Europe’s most
prestigious in this fi eld and though smaller than the leading groups in the United States is in the same league
as the American counterparts. The appointment as professor of Berteke Waaldijk in 2004 has reinforced the
top-structure of the programme.
A 4. Academic reputation
Since 1998 members of the group were visiting professors at the London School of Economics (2001)
and Birkbeck College (2004) in London, and the European University Institute in Florence (2002-03), at
Harvard (2000) and Wellesley College (2002), and at UC Santa Barbara (2002). Members of the group are on
numerous national and international editorial boards, as for instance of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
Society (University of Chicago, Braidotti), Journal of Gender Studies (SWP, dr Rosemarie Buikema), European
Journal of Women’s Studies (Sage, dr Kathy Davis), and Journal of Lesbian Studies (Haworth Press San Francisco,
prof. Gloria Wekker). During the period under review, members of the group have published in these, as well
335 Gender Studies OGC
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