Prof. M.E. Monteiro (Marit)

Marit Monteiro is a cultural historian and Professor of Cultural and Religious History since 2004.

She is Principal Investigator of the NWO-funded research project Child Separation: Politics and practices of children's upbringing by faith-based organisations in (post)colonial Indonesia (1808-1984). Her team investigates (groups of) children who were brought up separated from their parent(s) and communities in institutions run by Christian and Islamic organisations. How was this practice entangled with colonial and national politics in the Dutch East Indies? Has it been continued by these organisations in independent Indonesia? The research team traces voices and perspectives of concerned children and descendants. Children's homes are digitally mapped, to help former pupils and their families trace broken family lines.

As winners of the Radboud Science Award (2021), Monteiro, Dr Maaike Derksen (Catholic Documentation Centre) and Marleen Reichgelt MA (dept GKO) have developed the history module "Saving the children?" in collaboration with the Science Hub Radboud University (WKRU). This module, which also includes a theatre activity, allows upper primary school children to learn about the impact of 'civilisation offensives' on children in former Dutch colonies and worked through thinking and acting in terms of difference (colour, gender, class) that children learned in upbringing and education.

Monteiro's biography of Catholic psychotherapist Anna Terruwe (1911-2004) is expected to be published by Amsterdam University Press in late 2024. Monteiro explores Terruwe's life and position within post-war mental health care in the Netherlands from questions of gender, scientific and religious authority.

• Colonial Relations and Structures