Dr R. Ensel (Remco)

As an associate professor in cultural history I teach and conduct research in the field of modern history. I studied (cultural) history and anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, where I also obtained my PhD (Saints and Servants in Southern Morocco, Brill, 1999). Both disciplines are expressed in a long-term interest in the history of culture, of ideas, in historiography and science.

Much of recent research can be classified under Memory Studies and Holocaust Studies. I recently published a monograph, 'Anne Frank on the Postwar Dutch Stage', a stage history of the play that once again brought attention to the Holocaust in the 1950s and initiated an international culture of remembrance around Anne Frank. In 2022 I will continue my research into the stage history of this play. In addition, I will coordinate a multi-year research and publication project on 'science in the shadow of war and (colonial) oppression' for the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Some other research areas of interest about which I published and co-edited a number of collections are: antisemitism (for which I was affiliated with the NIOD in 2010-2015) and racism, bystander studies, the history of anthropology and folklore studies, nationalism and Heimat photography in the interwar period and WWII.

My research has been based variously on fieldwork, oral history, archival research and the study of the visual arts and literature. For example, I wrote 'Only during office hours', a socio- and cultural-historical monograph about the office in modern times, based on films, visual arts and literature, and I also published on the photography of Eva Besnyö and Emmy Andriesse.

The above themes are reflected in my teaching. I have a new interest in the implementation of big history and the historiography of the Anthropocene in the curriculum.