Updates on projects from the University of Groningen
Photo: From the symposium at Middachten estates.
Dear colleagues,
At the University of Groningen we look forward to some promising conferences, collaborations and a new book project. In November 2015 we organised a symposium on hunting on landed estates in the Netherlands, 1600-2000. The symposium took place at Middachten estate (near Arnhem) , one of our partners in this research. Various researchers in the fields of anthropology, ecology, elite history and historical geography, curators, estate owners and estate managers presented new insights into the history of hunting, but also reflected on current debates. Based on this well received symposium we are now preparing a publication, which we hope to publish next year.
The University of Groningen is also working on various collaborations, for instance with the Cultural Heritage Agency, the Dutch Castle Foundation and the Digital Portal for Dutch Castles, Historic Country Houses and Rural Estates Foundation (sKBL). Together these partners have planned an innovative conference on heritage ensembles, particularly of country houses, in which all heritage aspects are taken into account: the house, interiors, gardens and parks, the wider landscape and so forth. It is linked to the introduction of a new law in the Netherlands, the so-called Heritage Law. The conference will be attended by more than 200 country house owners, government employees, representatives of heritage organisations and academic scholars.
As we stated in the previous Encounter newsletter, we will be attending the 2016 ESSHC conference in Valencia, presenting both a paper at the session ‘Landed Elites and Life Styles in Modern Europe’ on Thursday 31 March. Professor Yme Kuiper is giving a paper on ‘Traditional Landed Elites in Twentieth-Century Europe’ and dr. Elyze Storms on ‘Transfer and Transformation of Dutch Landed Estates, 1880-1950’. We do hope to meet some Encounter colleagues in Valencia!
With best wishes from the Netherlands,
Yme Kuiper and Elyze Storms