Eliza Steinbock, Sophie Withaeckx and Pieter du Plessis receive funding from NWO PhD in the Humanities
PhD supervisors Eliza Steinbock and Sophie Withaeckx and their PhD candidate Pieter du Plessis have received funding from the NWO PhD in the Humanities scheme for the research project titled ‘Belonging and Unbelonging in Amsterdam’s Het Zuid-Afrikahuis: A Decolonial Study of Dutch Whiteness in Relation to Afrikaner Whiteness’.
While Eliza Steinbock is the applicant for the project and will be supervising it with Sophie and also Margriet van der Waal (Groningen and Amsterdam Universities), Pieter du Plessis will carry out the research into the relation between Dutch whiteness and other forms of whiteness.
About the project
Dutch cultural heritage institutions have faced calls for decolonisation in recent years. Issues of belonging in these institutions and how they are informed by Dutch whiteness have come to be interrogated. Dutch whiteness is mainly understood in relation to racialised and colonised subjectivities, yet, how Dutch whiteness has been constructed in relation to other forms of whiteness still requires exploration.
Through decolonial theory, a critical biography of “Het Zuid-Afrikahuis”, a cultural and knowledge centre about South Africa, will be produced, illustrating how Dutch whiteness is informed relationally by Afrikaner whiteness. This will be examined through ethnographic and archival research.
Also read
-
Maastricht Montesquieu Institute (MMI) to be discontinued as of 1 September 2025
MMI to be discontinued as of 1 September 2025; research continues elsewhere.
-
UM stands firm for academic freedom and international law
The world is going through turbulent times. The horrific violence in places like Gaza and Ukraine, as well as anti-academic trends in countries such as the United States, have also sparked discussion within our university community. These discussions range from the role universities should play in...
-
More green, more life: how FS is working on biodiversity on campus
Facility Services (FS) at Maastricht University is actively working to create a greener, more vibrant, and more sustainable university campus, in line with the ambitions of the new UM Sustainability Roadmap. Through initiatives such as Bioblitz – in which students and staff can spot and register...
