Prof. M.E. Monteiro (Marit)
Professor - Department of History, Art History and Classics
Professor - Radboud Institute for Culture and History
Erasmusplein 1
6525 HT NIJMEGEN
Postbus 9103
6500 HD NIJMEGEN
Marit Monteiro was trained as a cultural historian; since 2004, she is professor of Cultural and Religious History. She is director of studies of the Research Master Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies.
Her research focuses on religious heritage and collective memory, with an emphasis on ‘unwanted’ or problematic heritage. Since 2014, she has been working on the biography of the Catholic psychotherapist Anna Terruwe (1911-2004) in which issues of gender, scientific and religious authority are addressed in the pillorized mental health care system of the post-war Netherlands.
Parallel to this, she investigates care arrangements for children in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia who grew up in homes under the care of Catholic missionaries and Protestant missionaries. Which children were separated from their parents to be raised in such colonial institutes, and why exactly? These questions were explored by a NWO-funded international research network, Children as objects and agents of Change (COAC), which Monteiro coordinated with Prof. Geertje Mak (Cluster Humanities KNAW/UvA) and Prof. Lies Wesseling (UM) (2018-2022). With Mak she is developing follow-up research aimed at mapping policies and practices of non-kin child support in (post)colonial Indonesia.
With Dr. Maaike Derksen (Catholic Documentation Center) and Marleen Reichgelt MA (dept. GKO), Monteiro received the Radboud Science Award 22 September 2021. This allows them to translate their research on the impact of civilizing policies and practices on children in former Dutch colonies into educational activities for primary education. To this end, they are collaborating with teachers from De Borgwal elementary school in Bemmel.
Together with Dr. Clara Ajiksumo (Atma Jaya University) and Dr. Maaike Derksen, Monteiro reconstructs life stories of former pupils of the Catholic Saint Vincent Orphanage in Batavia/Jakarta. This project is funded by the Frans Seda Foundation (2021-2022).