Research profile

Marjet Brolsma is Assistant Professor in European Intellectual, Cultural and Literary History at the European Studies department of the University of Amsterdam. She studied Cultural History and Journalism at the University of Groningen and the Humboldt University of Berlin and completed her PhD on ‘”The humanitarian moment”. Dutch intellectuals and the crisis of European civilization (1914-1930)’  at the University of Amsterdam in 2015. She has been involved at the Study Platform on Interlocking Nationalisms (SPIN) as a research assistant and took part in the international research project ‘Getting the Big Picture on Small States. Towards a New Research Agenda for Small State Studies, 1814-present day’ (2017-2021) of the Universities of Aarhus, Iceland and Amsterdam which examined connections between shifting ideas about a state’s (relative) size, national identity discourses, and concrete foreign policy actions. Brolsma is a board member of De Moderne Tijd, which promotes the study of the Low Countries in the era 1780-1940.

Her research has focused on: intellectuals and the Great War, the concept of cultural transfer, literary internationalism, national identity discourses and ideas of Europe, and the interplay between cultural criticism and political engagement.

Current research projects:

-In 2021-2022, I am a research fellow at the Dutch Institute of Sound and Vision in the context of the ‘Media War’ digital history project on propaganda in Dutch-language media during the Second World War. My research aims to explore the ways in which ideas of Europe and European unity were used for propaganda purposes in both pro-Allied and pro-Nazi newspapers and radio broadcasts, with a special focus on the interaction between these conflicting propaganda discourses.

-Antiliberal internationalism (International conference in January 2023)

-Literary internationalism of European writers and intellectuals in the inter years

Teaching

I am a co-coordinator of the BA Programme in European Studies/Europese studies and have taught BA courses (in Dutch and English) in the European Studies’ Culture and History majors on a wide range of topics, such as the intellectual history of Modern Europe, cultural criticism and utopian thought, transnational European history, national thought in Europe, European identity, and teaching ‘Europe’ in secondary education. I also supervise BA- and MA-theses in the field of European (cultural) history.

Publications

Academic monograph

‘Het humanitaire moment’. Nederlandse intellectuelen, de Eerste Wereldoorlog en het verlangen naar een regeneratie van de Europese cultuur, 1914-1930 (Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2016).

Edited Volume

Marjet Brolsma, Robin de Bruin and Matthijs Lok (eds.) Eurocentrism in European History and Memory (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019).

Special issue

Guest-editor with Lies Wijnterp of: ‘‘Just Read my Magazine!’ Periodicals as European Spaces in the Twentieth Century’, Journal of European Periodical Studies, 3(2) (2018), 1-6. DOI:   https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.v3i2.9714.

Articles and book chapters (selection):

-“In search of an ardent neutrality. Dutch intellectuals, the Great War and the call for a cultural regeneration.” First World War Studies (October 2021), DOI: 10.1080/19475020.2021.1986416

-(with Robin de Bruin and Matthijs Lok). “Introduction.” In Eurocentrism in History and Memory, edited by Brolsma, De Bruin and Lok, 11-21. Amsterdam: AUP, 2019.

-(with Lies Wijnterp). “‘Just Read my Magazine!’ Periodicals as European Spaces in the Twentieth Century.” Journal of European Periodical Studies 3, no.2 (2018): 1-6, DOI:   https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.v3i2.9714.

- ‘Making Sense of the War (The Netherlands)’, in: Ute Daniel e.a. eds., 1914-1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War (2017). DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.11125

-“’In the long run the spirit will prevail’: The political activism of Dutch Hegelians for peace and intellectual fraternity.” In The Intellectual Response to the First World War. How the Conflict Impacted on Ideas, Methods and Fields of Enquiry, edited by Marysa Demoor, Sarah Posman and Cedric van Dijck, 29-43. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2017.

-“Utopia through art. Building bridges and curing culture in war-torn Europe.” In Utopia: The Avant-garde, Modernism and (Im)possible life. European Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (4), edited by David Ayers, Benedikt Hjartarson, Tomi Huttunen and Harri Veivo, 49-57. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015.

- “Dostoevsky: a Russian panacea for Europe.” In European encounters. Intellectual exchange and the rethinking of Europe, edited by Carlos Reijnen and Marleen Rensen, 189-203. Amsterdam and New York: Brill, 2014.

- “Ein Akrobat im Zirkus oder der Philosoph des heroischen Untergangs? Die Rezeption Oswald Spenglers in den Niederlanden.” In Oswald Spengler als europäisches Phänomen. Der Transfer der Kultur- und Geschichtsmorphologie im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit, 1919-1939, edited by Zaur Gasimov and Carl Antonius Lemke Duque, 83-102. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2013.

- “Frederik van Eeden. Zelfbenoemde vredesapostel.”’ In Na de catastrofe. De Eerste Wereldoorlog en de zoektocht naar een nieuw Europa, edited by Frits Boterman, Arnold Labrie and Willem Melching, 213-225. Amsterdam: Nieuw Amsterdam, 2014.

-(with Lies Wijnterp) “Inleiding: Editing Europe. Het tijdschrift als Europese ruimte.” TS. Tijdschrift voor Tijdschriftstudies, no. 30 (2011): 67-69.

- “Cultuurtransfer en het tijdschriftonderzoek.” Contextes. Revue de Sociologie de la Literature, no. 4 (October 2008), DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/contextes.3823.

- “Bespiegelingen over de ondergang van het Avondland. Een casestudy naar cultuurtransfer in Nederlandse tijdschriften.” TS. Tijdschrift voor tijdschriftstudies, no. 24 (2008): 38-61.