Research Profile

Dr. Matthijs Lok is an assistant professor (universitair docent or tenured lecturer) of Modern (Western) European History at the European Studies Department of the University of Amsterdam. He studied European history at the Universities of Liverpool, Leiden and Yale. In 2009 he received his Ph.D from the History Department of the University of Amsterdam. Lok is specialised in the comparative political and intellectual history of Europe (in a global context) from 1500 to the present, with a special interest in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Lok has published and has organised several international conferences on a variety of topics such as Memory and Forgetting, Conservatism, Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment, Historiography, Civil Administration and State Formation, Nationalism and the Discourse and Practice of Moderation. (For the list of publications see under 'publicaties' and https://uva.academia.edu/MattthijsLok).

Currently Lok is writing a monograph on the history of the idea of European pluralism and the role of the past in shaping European identities from the eighteenth century onwards. A second research theme is the European/ global Counter-Enlightenment and transnational conservatism. 

Activities 

Lok is a member of the board of the Negentiende eeuw (National Society for Nineteenth century Studies: www.negentiende-eeuw.nl), The Dutch-French academic network (Radboud University:http://www.ru.nl/frankrijk), the board of ARTES Research School (Theme leader 'European Identities and ideas': http://artes.uva.nl), ISECS 2015 scientific committee (isecs2015.wordpress.com) and editor of the journal De achttiende eeuw (The Eighteenth century). 

In the academic year 2014-2015 Lok is organising an international lecture series on Global Intellectual History (with Annelien de Dijn): see http://www.globalintellectualhistory.org or www.uva.nl/disciplines/europese-studies. In 2012-2014 Lok organised an international lecture series on the topic of 'European Memory' (with Luiza Bialasiewicz).

Teaching: 

Matthijs Lok enjoys teaching BA and MA courses (in English and Dutch) on subjects such as Political Memories, Modern Intellectual History (inter-departmental course), Turning points in Modern European History (for a review see Folia:  http://issuu.com/foliacivitatis/docs/folia_magazine_6_jaargang_2014-2015), European Conservatism, European Liberalism, and Nineteenth century Ideas of Europe (MA).

Lok supervises  BA and MA theses (in English, German, French and Dutch) on political and intellectual (West- European/ global) history from the Renaissance up to the present. [For my courses see the UvA Course catalogue: http://studiegids.uva.nl]; On my teaching experience see the following interview (in Dutch): http://www.athenaeum.nl/nieuws/7096/docent-europese-studies-matthijs-lok.

For my lecture on the French Revolution (part of the first year course 'Keerpunten') see (with Firefox web browser): http://webcolleges.uva.nl/Mediasite/Play/e14a3608a5804d589f7c48d82ff73c0b1d

Recent publications (selection):

• '"Un oubli total du passé". The Political and Social Construction of Silence in Restoration Europe' (History and Memory 2014)

• « Renouer la chaîne des temps » ou « repartir à zéro » ? Passé, présent, futur en France et aux Pays-Bas (1814-1815) (Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle 2014)

• 'Vijanden van de Verlichting. Antiverlichting en Verlichting in de Europese intellectuele geschiedenis' (TvG 2014)

• 'The Dutch Case' in: Broers e.a. (ed.), The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture (2012)

• '"The return of the Loving Father". Masculinity, Legitimacy and the French and Dutch Restoration Monarchies' (1813-1815) (BMGN 2012)

• 'L'extrême centre est-il exportable? Une comparaison entre la France et les Pays-Bas' (AHRF 2009)

Nationalisme  (1848-1914)

Book: Nationalisme, naties en staten (Vantilt 2012/2015): Matthijs Lok, deel IV: 'IJzer en bloed. Staatsvorming en nationalisme, 1848-1914' (p. 282-411). ["Iron and Blood": Stateformation and Nationalism, 1848-1914 (p. 282-411]

'Dit is een prachtig boek (...) Lok weet in zijn centrale overgangshoofdstuk een bewonderenswaardige balans aan te brengen tussen de intellectueel - en de politiek-historische toonzetting.'

          Joep Leerssen, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 

Windvanen

My book Windvanen ('[Political] Weathervanes') is a comparative study of the political transition of 1813-1815 (from the Napoleonic Empire to the Restoration) in France and the Low Countries from the understudied perspective of the Napoleonic administrative elites that survived the regime change. It argues that the so-called Restoration monarchies were to a large extent constructed by Napoleonic officials who adapted very well to the new political situation. As well as (quantitatively) studying the institutional and personal continuity after 1814, the contemporary critical discourses and attitudes towards these political survivors (nicknamed 'girouette' in French or 'windvaan' in Dutch) as well their apologies ('they were serving their nation in difficult times') are analysed. Also ample attention is paid to the administrative rites of passages, the survival strategies and the mentalities of these political girouettes. I conclude that, although the French case was more politicised, there are important resemblances between the French and Dutch experience of 1814 and that this transition forms a crucial moment in the development of a modern civil administration. According to NRC Handelsblad, Windvanen was one of the best historical books published in the Netherlands in 2009.

• Book: Windvanen. Napoleontische bestuurders in de Nederlandse en Franse Restauratie, 1813-1820 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker 2009) (full text: with a summary in French and English)

• OVT Radio interview 'Windvanen' (VPRO 2009) [in Dutch]

• NTR Television Documentary De IJzeren Eeuw (The Industrial Age) episode I: De Allereerste koning (NPO 2015) [in Dutch]

De achttiende eeuw 

Member of the editorial board (since 2007) of the scholarly Journal/ Wetenschappelijk tijdschrift 'De Achttiende eeuw' ("The Eighteenth century"). Special editor (with Alicia C. Montoya) for issue 2012.2 ('Centre and Periphery in the Enlightenment') and 2014.2 (Historical Thought in the Eighteenth century)

• Website De achttiende eeuw

• Media: articles in Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad

• No ancillary activities