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Arianne Baggerman's work focuses on the changing role of books in a broad historical context during the 1650-1900 period. In addition to authors, publishers and booksellers, she also devotes a great deal of attention to the role of the reader, reading behaviour and the consumption and appreciation of reading materials. Another key theme of Baggerman's research is the development of first-person writing from the sixteenth century onwards. She is currently writing a condensed study linking the rise of autobiographical documents to the emergence of a new conception of time, changes in historical awareness and the commercialisation of the book market during the 1750-1930 period.

Baggerman is editor of various publications, including Quaerendo and the international series of publications entitled Egodocuments and History. She is also involved in the development of the European research project ‘Egodocuments in European context. First-person writings in Europe from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the twentieth century'. The project will see Baggerman coordinate research on the production, distribution and consumption of printed autobiographies and memoires from an international comparative perspective, as well as reading behaviour, reading preferences and the appreciation of literature in autobiographical documents. She is also seeking to devote attention to the theme of (self) censorship in the early modern period and first decades of the nineteenth century.

Baggerman has been with Rotterdam Erasmus University since 2001. Prior to this time, she worked for Utrecht University and was involved in various projects for the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Baggerman wrote a historical study in collaboration with Rudolf Dekker on the daily life of a boy in the eighteenth century: Kind van de toekomst. De wondere wereld van Otto van Eck (1780-1798). The two authors were subsequently nominated for the AKO Literature Prize in 2005. The book received the Dr Wijnandt Francken award from the Society of Dutch Literature and was recently awarded the Martinus J. Langeveld prize for best research project in the area of historical pedagogy.

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