P.W. (Peter-Wim) Zuidhof is an Associate Professor in European Political Economy in the European Studies program of the Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Research

Zuidhof’s research focuses on studying liberal, neoliberal, or post-neoliberal techniques and rationalities of government, in the context of economic policymaking in the European Union. He is especially interested in examining the relationship between economic thought, the economics discipline, and the making of liberal, neoliberal, and post-neoliberal modes of government. In his research, Zuidhof brings together insights and approaches from economics, philosophy, the social sciences, and science and technology studies to form a unique cultural economic approach that highlights the performative nature of economic knowledge. In his current research projects, Zuidhof brings these tools to bear on addressing the question if one can witness a move away in recent EU policy, from neoliberal modes of policy making and if so, what processes of ‘de-economization’ this entails.

In recent publications, Zuidhof has addressed the rise of behavioral economics in EU policymaking (‘Behavioralizing Europe: Behavioral Economics Enters EU Policymaking,’ 2019), the rise of market thinking and market discourse at Dutch policy advisory councils (‘Wrestling with the Market: the Many Faces of Neoliberalism at Dutch Policy Advisory Councils, 1998-2005 (in Dutch), 2019), the uses of economics in EU port policy (‘Port Economics in Search of an Audience: The Public Life of Marginal Social Cost Pricing for Ports’ with Thomas Vanoutrive, 2019), and the role of economics in the history of emissions trading (‘A Study in Economization: The Performative History of Emissions Trading,’ in preparation).

Zuidhof’s paper titled ‘Thinking Like an Economist: The Neoliberal Politics of the Economics Textbook,’ received the Helen Potter Award for  best article in the Review of Social Economy in 2014.

Zuidhof's areas of specialization are: Political Economy of European Integration, History and Philosophy of Neoliberalism, Governmentality, Cultural Economy, Rhetoric of Economics, History and Methodology of Economics, Poststructuralism and Economics, Science and Technology Studies, Economic Sociology.

Departmental Service

Over the past eight years (2014-2022), Zuidhof acted as program director, first for the BA- and MA-programs in European Studies and since 2018 also for the BA- and MA in Religious Studies, and since 2021, the MA program in Latin American Studies. He has managed various curricula, led the introduction of an English language BA in European studies, directed program revisions, and has overseen program reaccreditation procedures. He has been a member and chair of numerous committees, working groups, and selection committees within the Faculty of the Humanities. He is a member of UvA’s Programmacommissie Onderwijskundig Leiderschap (POL).

Previously he has served as a member and vice-chair of the Board of Examiners of the Department of History, Archeology and Area Studies. From 2021, he has been the team leader of the Economics section, and in 2022 was acting chair for the chair group Modern European History within the Department of European Studies. Zuidhof has been a member of accreditation committees abroad and served as a member of the selection committee for the Fulbright Committee of the Netherlands.

Teaching

In the past fifteen years, Zuidhof has been teaching a wide variety of courses on economics and European integration at the MA and BA levels. In the BA. European Studies, he is currently responsible for the First-Year lectures for Economic and Legal Integration of Europe. In the MA, he teaches a specialized course on EU economic policy-making, titled The State of the European Economy. He is also teaching an honors course for the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, titled Material Europe: Networks and the Technopolitics of European Integration.  

Previously, Zuidhof has taught at a diverse set of institutions, ranging from Amsterdam University College (AUC), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Leiden University, Rotterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, to the Hogeschool voor Economische Studies (HES).

For a current listing of courses taught, follow the link below:

Short Bio

Zuidhof holds a Phd. from Erasmus University Rotterdam (School of History, Culture and Communication), the Netherlands. His dissertation titled Imagining Markets: The Discursive Politics of Neoliberalism (2012) studies the discourse of economics textbooks and the neoliberal discourse of US and Dutch policy think tanks. Revisiting existing theories on neoliberalism, the thesis shows that neoliberalism is a discursive type of politics that is marked by a variety of market performances that deconstruct existing liberal governmentalities.

Zuidhof received an MA. in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research, New York, USA (2003), and an MSc. in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands (1997). Zuidhof was awarded a Fulbright Graduate Student Grant (2001-2003) and a Vera List Scholarship from the New School for Social Research (2001-2003).

Earlier, Zuidhof has worked as research associate at Department of Art and Culture Studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, doing commissioned research on the economics of the arts and culture for the Getty Foundation, Los Angeles, The Social Committee, DG V, European Union, Brussels, Musuem Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and the City Council of 's-Hertogenbosch.

Zuidhof lives with his wife and three children in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.