Dr Theo Thomassen (1950) has been appointed Professor of Archival Science at the University of Amsterdam's (UvA) Faculty of Humanities, effective 1 February 2010.

Theo Thomassen will be devoting his tenure to teaching and research in the area of archival science. During the past decade Archival Science has developed into a broadly-oriented discipline. The current scientific focus is on the creation and maintenance of records as evidence of business functions, on the archival construction of collective memory, and on the social, cultural and political circumstances by which these processes of creation and construction are determined. In his capacity as lecturer, Thomassen will be mainly involved in the Cultural Information Studies programme and Archival Science Professional Master's programme. He will play an important role in harmonising the contents and organisational structure of the Archival Science programmes at the University of Amsterdam (Archivistics A) and Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences (Archivistics B), improving cooperation between the two institutions and harmonising the Archival Science programme with the training requirements of the professional field.

From 2002 onwards, Thomassen served as Director of the Reinwardt Academy, Faculty of Cultural Heritage of the Amsterdam School of The Arts offering a higher professional education level Bachelor's programme in Cultural Heritage and an international Master's programme in Museum Studies. Prior to this time, he spent fifteen years working at the (Rijks)Archiefschool (Dutch Archives School), nine of which he served as Director. He also served as lecturer at the UvA and HvA between 1998 and 2002. In 2009, Thomassen obtained his doctorate with honours at the University of Amsterdam on the basis of his thesis Instruments of Power. The States-General and their archives 1576-1796. He also served as (vice) president of the International Council on Archives' Section on Archival Education and Training and member of the Council for Culture's archival committee, which provided recommendations on issues such as heritage selection.