Dr S.J. Ploeg (Solange)

I work as an assistant professor at the Political History department and my research focuses on modern political and media history. Currently, I am researching the interplay between democracy and public order in the Netherlands in the 20th century, as part of the project 'Room for protest' (KNAW Fonds Staatsman Thorbecke). I am working on a case study which focuses on the ways in which local police, administrators and peace activists negotiated what was and was not allowed during demonstrations at the Volkel Airbase in North-Brabant in the 1980s.

My PhD research was part of the international research project ‘The Voice of the People. Popular Expectations of Democracy in Postwar Europe’, led by Prof. Harm Kaal. In my thesis, entitled 'Citizens in the spotlight', I researched how changes in the media landscape and the emergence of new media practices, such as opinion polling and television shows, influenced contemporary ideas on democracy and political representation in the Netherlands between 1945 and the 1980s.

I was trained at Leiden University (BA and MPhil in History, Program: 'Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789-present') and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. During my studies, I worked as a research trainee at Leiden University (project: ‘An Anthology and History of Dutch Political Eloquence') and interned at the Research Department of the Dutch House of Representatives.

From 2021-2024, I have been a coordinator of the research group 'Patterns of Political Interaction' at the Radboud Institute for Culture and History (RICH). In Fall 2022, I was a guest researcher at the Media History department at Lund University, Sweden. Since September 2024 I coordinate the Masters programme Politiek en Parlement (Politics and Parliament).