P.R. Reef (Paul) MA

Paul Reef works as a lecturer in political and international history at the Department of History, Art History, and Ancient Studies at Radboud University. He specializes in the history of sports and politics, international organizations and European integration, and protest and social movements. In addition, he engages with the history of Russia.

Reef is currently completing his dissertation on the history of protest surrounding the Olympic Games and the World Cup. He has been featured frequently in Dutch and Belgian media on this topic and the relationship between sport and politics, including the two main daily news broadcasts in the Netherlands, NOS Journaal and RTL Nieuws. In 2023, he received the Hermesdorf Talent Award from Radboud University for his media appearances and role in the public debate on human rights and sportswashing.

Together with colleagues, Reef wrote a revised handbook on the history of European integration, The Unfinished History of European Integration. Second, Revised Edition (Amsterdam: AUP, 2024). He was also a visiting lecturer at Károli Gáspár University in Budapest in 2024. Reef previously completed his research master's degree in History (cum laude) at Radboud University and Aarhus University, where he was a visiting researcher on the project ‘The Invention of International Bureaucracy’ in 2018. In addition, he conducted research in Russia in 2017 on the internationalization of higher education with a focus on the Netherlands, and in 2016 he conducted field research in North Macedonia on Macedonian memory culture. Finally, Reef has a keen interest in the history and politics of science fiction and wrote a chapter on climate politics in Dune and Frank Herbert's philosophy of nature.