History Student Iris van Vlimmeren Named Young Historian of the Year 2023

16 November 2023 News item

On Saturday, 11 November, Iris van Vlimmeren, a history student at Radboud University's Faculty of Arts, was named Young Historian of the Year 2023. The jury was charmed by her experiences and ideas. In the coming year, Van Vlimmeren will work to develop new teaching materials that make the colonial past tangible for high school students.

Iris van Vlimmeren is 20 years old and in her third year of the History Bachelor's degree programme at Radboud University. She specialises in Social and Colonial History, with a particular focus on the history of slavery in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. She is therefore involved as a student assistant in a research project on slavery registers, as well as in the Department of Political History and the Marketing and Communications Department at the Faculty of Arts. She is also active as Vice-Chair of the History Programme Committee, sits on two committees at the study association GSV Excalibur and works on the editorial board of the academic journal Ex Tempore.

Radboud University was well represented in this year's Young Historian of the Year election. The other finalists this year were fellow Radboud student Veronique Lagerweg, who specialises in Cultural History, and Sven Gins, PhD student and education coordinator at the University of Groningen. Winner Van Vlimmeren says: ‘My nomination for the election actually came a bit out of the blue, and the fact that I was a finalist was already a big surprise for me. During the announcement, I suddenly heard my name. I hadn't seen it coming. It really feels like a huge honour.'

Jonge Historicus Prijsuitreiking — Finalists Young Historian of the Year 2023 (Photographer: Jan van Daal)

History is more than just learning historical facts

The Young Historian of the Year will focus on making their own project plan concrete and implement it. With her project, Van Vlimmeren will make colonial archival material accessible in the classroom. Her inspiration for this project, as well as her choice of study, comes from her own high school days. There, in a project called Faces to Graves, she learned that history is much more than just learning historical facts and how to connect history with a wider audience. She was first introduced to the value of archival material during her profile project, where she interviewed relatives of soldiers. She says: 'By linking topics from history with the present, I saw how interesting and valuable history actually is. So I didn't have to hesitate for long about my choice of study after the project!'

From Archive to Classroom

Together with the Young Historians Foundation, Van Vlimmeren will consider how best to guide her own project plan, titled 'From Archive to Classroom' (‘Van Archief tot Klaslokaal'), and how the plans can be made even more concrete. In her project, she and other young historians will put together a teaching package that teachers can use to supplement the existing curriculum. By actively working with archive material, pupils will gain a unique insight into the national colonial past. In these ways, Van Vlimmeren tries to give the dark sides and awkwardness a place in history education. She emphasises the importance of archive material from her own experience: 'As a pupil myself, I learned what an enrichment archive material can be in the classroom. History came alive for me, and I started linking contemporary issues to past events.' Finally, Van Vlimmeren hopes to involve many other young historians in this project, especially students from Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, to bring different perspectives to the project.

About Young Historians

The Young Historians Foundation (Stichting Jonge Historici) is an organisation dedicated to raising the profile of young historians in the Netherlands and Flanders. For example, it organises workshops for young historians to bring them into contact with various organisations and scholars. In addition, every year, the foundation awards the title 'Young Historian of the Year' to put historians aged up to about 30 in the spotlight. Each Young Historian of the Year carries out a year-long project that contributes to the visibility and representation of young historians in the Netherlands and Flanders. Van Vlimmeren follows in the footsteps of Stef Coenen, also a History student at Radboud University, as the new Young Historian of the Year. Over the past year, he has championed accessible public history with his project 'The past belongs to everyone' (‘Het verleden is van iedereen’).

Contact information

Would you like to keep up to date with the project? You can do so via the LinkedIn page 'Van Archief tot Klaslokaal'.

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Organizational unit: Faculty of Arts