Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

A. Documentation regarding the level of the research programme
Title of the programme:
Cultural Infrastructure and Intellectual Culture in the Modern Age
Starting date:
1994/2002*
* From 1994 till 2002 the programme “Cultural History” included what since 2002 is labeled as “Cultural
Infrastructure and Intellectual Culture in the Modern Age”,
“The Cultural Construction of Media” and “Arts, Culture and their Contexts”. In 2002 a process was
initiated to split Cultural History in these three independent programmes.
Research area and mission:
History of Enlightenment, Infrastructure of Bourgeois Culture, Intellectual
History and History of the Sciences
Programme leader:
Prof. W.W. Mijnhardt
Affi liations outside the institute (e.g. research school) and other cooperations and
relations with national and international research groups:
Huizinga Instituut: Research Institute and Graduate School for Cultural
History
A 1. Leadership
With its 9,11 fte this is a small group within OGC. It comprises 1 full professor,
3 extra-ordinary professors, 8 associate professors, 5 assistant professors, 7 Postdocs
and researchers, and 4 PhD-students. This programme, coordinated by prof.
Wijnand Mijnhardt, seeks to promote excellence in individual scholarship and
small groups. The programme consists of several independent projects, some of
which combine a number of scholars, while others work more or less individually
and collaborate with others on an ad hoc basis. This situation is considered fruitful.
The members of this group are affi liated with the Huizinga Institute, national
research school for cultural history.
A 2. Strategy and policy
The group includes literary historians, cultural historians, art historians and theatre
historians. The group values individual efforts as much as collective work. There
is no overarching programme, and there never really was one. Nonetheless, the
group’s work has two clear and distinct focal points, with one part of the group
investigating the development of the scientifi c and cultural infrastructure of the
Netherlands after the Middle Ages, whilst others are preoccupied with the history
of Dutch science and intellectual culture itself. This research is undertaken in close
cooperation with colleagues outside OGC, in Utrecht as well as elsewhere.
For several years, the group’s research efforts were dominated by the work on the
NWO-project “IJkpunt 1800: Nederlandse cultuur in Europese context” (Benchmark
1800: Dutch Culture in a European Perspective). The responsibility for the
project was in the hands of Mijnhardt and prof. Joost Kloek.
This project has, to an important extent, shaped the current double focus of the
group. Several members of the group, notably dr Gert-Jan Johannes, dr José de Kruif,
and dr Joost Vijselaar (now extra-ordinary professor), who all entered the
programme on temporary contracts through this project, have continued their
affi liation with OGC.
OGC Cultural Infrastructure and Intellectual Culture in the Modern Age
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