Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

Sciences and the Trevelyan Fund. The fi rst volume of articles to come out this year is now in the (Austrian)
press. Since 2003 UCMS has an exchange with the York Centre for Medieval Studies, for the benefi t of MA
and PhD students.
A 4. Academic Reputation
The interdisciplinary in the programme really works out, and the researchers are well integrated in international
and national networks. Positive is the integration of ancient history researchers, and the unique
position of Celtic studies. Medievists of the programme collaborate with medievists in the social-economic
programme. Since 1997 the group has been remarkably successful in attracting research funding from
non-university sources, especially NWO. During the period under review, this entailed within the prestigious
NWO Innovational Research Incentives Schema a VICI stipend (Blok), a VIDI stipend (dr Rob Meens) and
four VENI stipends (dr Marike Teeuwen, dr Els Rose, dr Wolfert van Egmond, dr Jose van Aelst). Besides that
NWO funded three programmatic research projects, an Aspasia stipend, six Postdocs, and an international
exchange project.
Members of the group are prominent participants in numerous national and international organizations
and institutions in their fi eld of expertise. Blok is on the board of the European Network for the History of
Ancient Greece, that she helped to set up, while dr Emily Hemelrijk is editor-in-chief of Lampas, the Dutch
journal for Ancient Studies. Brandsma is editor of the Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian
Society, whose president is Besamusca. Kooper is editor of the Series `Medieval Chronicles’, published by
Boydell Press in the UK, as well as editor-in-chief of The Medieval Chronicle. He is also president of the
International Courtly Literature Society. Wackers is editor of Reinardus: Yearbook of the I.R.S. De Jong is a
Corresponding Editor of Early Medieval Europe since 1992, and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical
Society since 1999. She was also a Visiting Fellow Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge (1998-99);
Meens was a Fellow of the Davis Seminar in Princeton (second semester, 1997-98) and a Visiting Professor
at the Institut für Mittelalterliche Geschichte in Vienna (fi rst semester, 2001-2). Mostert taught courses at the
University of Florence (17-21 February 1997) and at the Central European University at Budapest (27 April
- 22 May 1998).
An important aspect of the project group’s reputation is the ability of former research students and
postdocs to compete in what is increasingly an international job market. Some examples: dr Maaike van der Lugt
(cum laude doctorate, 1998) has a tenured teaching appointment at Paris-VII. Dr Albrecht Diem (cum laude
doctorate, 2000) held various research appointments, and is presently employed by the Austrian Academy of
Sciences. Dr John Nawas (postdoc, 1994-1999) became Professor of Islamic Studies at the Catholic University
of Leuven. Dr Mary Garrison, postdoc in the Pioneer Project on literacy, is presently a lecturer at the University
of York (UK), while her colleage, dr Karl Heidecker, acquired a tenured appointment as a medieval historian in
Groningen.
During the period under review, the programme hosted numerous international conferences: To name
a few: Organizing the Written Word, 1 st Utrecht Symposium on Medieval Literacy (1997), Women in the
Celtic World: Ideology and Reality (1998), and The Bobbio Missal reconsidered (2001). See for a complete
list appendix 2. Project members also organised conferences that met outside Utrecht. E.g. ‘Topographies of
Power in the Early Middle Ages’ (Bellagio Study Centre, 1998), and ‘Carolingian Legal Culture. The Evidence
of Leiden BPL 114 and Paris BNF 4629’ (Leiden UL, 2004).
A 5. External validation
Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg, professor of Ancient History († 2000), was very active in bringing the fruits of
her discipline to the attention of a wider audience. This resulted in numerous publications, lectures for nonacademics,
as well as active involvement in the development of new programmes for the teaching of Ancient
History at secondary schools. Under her impetus the Ancient historians have also actively participated in
Studium Generale programmes, as well as in HOVO, a lecture series for senior citizens. Her successor Blok
has continued this tradition. The medievalists were likewise engaged in out-reach activities. Kees Vellekoop,
professor of Medieval Music († 2002), was one of the initiators of the highly acclaimed Utrecht Festival
of Ancient Music. Utrecht medievalists regularly publish popularizing studies, as well as give lectures for a
OGC Ancient and Medieval Cultures
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