Dr A. van Veen (Adriejan)

Adriejan van Veen (b. 1984) was appointed Assistant Professor in Political History at Radboud University Nijmegen in 2017. He specializes in the political history of the Netherlands and Western Europe in the modern age (c.1780-present). Specifically, he is interested in the history of political and societal organizations, protest movements, and the theory and practice of such concepts as political representation, (de)politicization and technocracy.

In 2025, Van Veen received a NWO XS grant to study the history of insemination fraud by fertility doctors in the Netherlands between the 1970s and 2004. This project, for the first time, seeks a structural answer to the question how this fraud could have emerged on such a large scale, focusing on cultural, medical, and political aspects.

His previous, three-year research project "Passive Citizenship" was financed by the Thorbecke Fund of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Focusing on depoliticization in modern Europe, Van Veen investigated the impact of civil society on the political culture in Dutch towns between about 1780 and 1860. An edited volume entitled "Depoliticisation before Neoliberalism: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political in Modern Europe" will appear soon at Palgrave.

Having studied History at Utrecht University (graduated with honour in 2009), he wrote his dissertation on independent regulatory authorities in telecom, energy, health and finance at the Department of Public Administration (defended 2014). Van Veen then worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the departments of History and International Studies of Utrecht University and Leiden University, before becoming Assistant Professor in Nijmegen.

His research has been published in BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, De Moderne Tijd, and Tijdschrift voor Toezicht, as well as various edited volumes. He has extensive experience in teaching at BA, (R)MA and Ph.D. level, as well as academic organizational work.