Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

h. Dutch Language and Culture
OGC also participates in a ninth programme:
i. Historical and Comparative Studies of the Sciences and Humanities
These programmes have been formally accredited by the NVAO (the Dutch and Flemish Accreditation
Organization). They have started offi cially in September 2004. What is more, the Board of Utrecht University
has designated the Medieval Studies Research MA the status of ‘International Prestige Master’, and provided
substantial extra funding for this programme.
B 7. Academic reputation
OGC’s academic reputation is fi rst and foremost a function of the reputation of its faculty and their research,
which are discussed in part A. At a secondary level the institute as a whole tries to maintain a reputation,
mainly within the Netherlands, as a constructive and reliable partner for the national research schools. This
entails administrative commitments by OGC scholars in the operations of the national research schools, as
well as regular and substantial fi nancial investments in the programmes that OGC researchers participate in
In 1998, as part of the national VSNU Visitatie, OGC programmes or combinations of its programmes
have been evaluated for the period 1992-1996. The review was positive on the institute as a whole. Reviews
have also taken place in the context of research schools.
During the period under review, remarkable results, in terms of visibility, include:
• The publication of works by OGC faculty with prestigious international publishers, such as Cambridge
University Press (Duindam, Meens, Rigney, Van Zanden), Polity Press (Braidotti), Princeton University
Press (Van Zanden), and Routledge (Bertens, Duyvesteyn, Prak).
• In 2003 Van Zanden was awarded the Spinoza-prize by NWO, Blok was awarded a VICI research grant by
NWO in 2003.
• The hosting of international scholarly journals, most notably EJOS (Oriental Studies) and Simiolus (Art
History)
• The publication of nationally signifi cant, multi-volume works by OGC scholars, on the history of Dutch
Music (Grijp c.s., 2001), Dutch female authors (Van Gemert c.s., 1997), Dutch multi-culturalism (Buikema
c.s., 2004), the history of Amsterdam (Prak) and, most signifi cantly, the results of the NWO-project Dutch
Culture in a European Context (Van Buuren, Kloek, Mijnhardt).
• The hosting of international conferences, such as Level-Up: international Digital Games Research
Conference in 2003, attended by 200 scholars from all over the world.
• The prominent role played by OGC scholars in international organizations: Van Zanden is secretary
general of the International Economic History Association; Van den Akker is a member of the Board of
the Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centers CHCI, and a member of the Standing Committee
of the Humanities of the European Science Foundation; Bertens had a seat in the Evaluation Committee
of a Research Visitation of Commonwealth Universities, South Africa.
• The OGC Gender Studies programme obtained grants from the European Union in 2004
• OGC was commissioned to write the histories of, for instance, Schiphol Airport, ABN-Amro Bank, and
Shell.
• The Utrecht University Board appointed Van Oostrom University professor in 2001, which implies an
autonomous position within Utrecht University. Van Oostrom choose to make the OGC his home base.
• The Utrecht University Board selected the Research MA in Medieval Studies as one of Utrecht’s fi ve
International Prestige Masters in 2003.
B 8. External validation
“Reaching out” to the audience outside academia is a core aspect of the mission of the Humanities and thus
of OGC. To be sure, the borderline between strictly academic and more general publications is often diffi cult
to draw. This is especially true for books published in Dutch. These are usually published in numbers that
equal, or indeed outnumber, print-runs for academic books published by established international academic
publishers. Four different forms of reaching out to the non-academic audience may be distinguished: (1)
OGC Research Institute for History and Culture
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