About
I am a Dutch writer and historian at the University of St Andrews. I am interested in cultural and political history, especially that of the early modern period (c. 1500-1800). My research focusses on the history of news, books, libraries, communication and politics.
I arrived at St Andrews by way of Amsterdam, Jerusalem, Nairobi and Exeter. I defended my PhD in Modern History at St Andrews in 2018, after which I took up a position as a postdoctoral researcher at the same university, associated with the Universal Short Title Catalogue project. I am currently the Deputy Director of the project.
In 2017 I published my first monograph, the first complete survey of all seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish newspapers. In March 2019, my second major work, a study of the book culture of the Dutch Golden Age, co-written with Andrew Pettegree, appeared simultaneously in Dutch and English. My interest in newspapers was taken up again in two studies of early newspaper advertising, published in February and March 2020, co-authored with Andrew Pettegree.
In 2020 I was awarded a three-year British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at St Andrews, and I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
My latest major project to appear in print is a history of libraries and book collecting, from Ancient Alexandria to Google. The Library, a Fragile History, co-written with Andrew Pettegree, was published by Profile in October 2021 (in the UK) and by Basic Books in November 2021 (in the USA).
I am represented by Catherine Clarke of Felicity Bryan Associates.
Other professional activities
Editorial board member, Brill’s The Library of the Written Word series (2017-present)
Editorial board member, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis (Dutch Yearbook for Book History, 2020-present)
Consultant for ProQuest’s Early European Books project (2016-present)
Consultant for the digitisation of seventeenth-century Dutch newspapers at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague (2016-present)
Peer review for multiple international journals, monograph series and funding bodies (2016-present)
Manager of the summer volunteer programme of the Universal Short Title Catalogue project (2018-2021)
Organisation of the annual book history conference, St Andrews, 20-22 June 2019