Below you will find a selection of UvA researchers with expertise on various countries and regions. If you looking for an expertise on a country that is not listed or if you want to get in touch with a researcher who is not mentioned, please contact the UvA's press officers. This can be done via 020 525 2695 or persvoorlichting@uva.nl.
Netherlands Antilles / Caribbean
Dr Francio Guadeloupe examines how popular notions of national belonging, cultural diversity, religious identity and the 'truth' according to the mass media continue to be influenced by colonial racism and global capital. He focuses on Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin, Curaçao, Aruba, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Brazil and the Netherlands. He is currently working on a study of climate-related challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean from the perspective of popular culture and cultural heritage. Guadeloupe is a cultural anthropologist and development sociologist at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). He is also a senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV).
China
Dr Julia Bader focuses on China's foreign policy and influence beyond its own national borders. Other themes within her research are authoritarianism and development cooperation. Bader is a researcher and assistant professor in the Political Science Department.
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Political Economy and Transnational Governance
Germany
Dr Hanco Jürgens specialises in modern German history, Germany's position in Europe and the functioning of the EU. He is currently researching the history of united Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. He focuses on the major processes of change since the end of the Cold War.
Europe
Dr Matthijs Lok specialises in the political, cultural and intellectual history of contemporary and modern Europe. He is particularly interested in topics at the intersection of history, philosophy, politics and memory. Keywords: Europe (especially identity), conservatism, anti-liberalism, political centrism, Eurocentrism, French politics and history. Lok is a researcher and assistant professor in Modern European History in the Department of European Studies.
France
Dr Niek Pas is a historian, novelist and assistant professor. His expertise lies in the field of French politics and culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. His research currently concerns developments in France under President Emmanuel Macron, and the (post)colonial history of Algeria.
Greece
Dr Tatiana Markaki is an expert Greek language and culture. Her focus lies in the fields of Modern Greek language acquisition and lexicography, and Greek cultural history, especially that of Crete. She is also interested in current events in Greece. Markaki is a researcher and lecturer in Cultural Studies and Language Skills in Modern Greek at the Faculty of Humanities. She is also head of the Modern Greek Language and Culture programme at the UvA.
Israel / Palestine
Dr Erella Grassiani is an anthropologist working on issues of militarisation and security in Israel/Palestine. She is concerned with militarised and privatised security practices, especially those of Israeli companies. She has conducted extensive research into Israeli soldiers and their 'moralities' in the Palestinian occupied territories. She is also looks at the anthropology of violence and conflict in general.
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas
Latin America
Prof. Barbara Hogenboom is a professor of Latin American Studies. Her research focuses on the conflicting values and interests surrounding the use of natural resources in Latin America. She focuses on local opposition to mining and oil and gas projects, national political debates and policies on natural resources (including nationalism versus liberalisation), and international influences, especially those of Chinese and American actors.
Middle East / South Africa
Dr Anne de Jong's research focuses on various locations in the Middle East: Palestine, Syria and Bahrain. She studies violence and nonviolence, (radical) activism and social movements, human rights violations and resistance, anti-racism and anti-colonial struggles. De Jong has done extensive fieldwork in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Syria and Bahrain. Her current research extends to South Africa and Nepal. De Jong is a researcher and assistant professor of Anthropology of Conflict at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).
Eastern Europe / Russia
Prof. Ellen Rutten is a professor of Slavic Literatures and Cultures. Her research focuses on literature, imaging and social media in/about Eastern Europe.
Eastern Europe
Dr László Marácz is a lecturer in Eastern European Studies and specialises in current affairs in Eastern Europe. Marácz also focuses on the relationship between the Eastern European countries and the EU, and the enlargement of the EU to Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Russia / Eurasia
Prof. Michael Kemper is interested in contemporary Russian politics and the history of Russia and Eurasia. In his research, he combines Russian history with the study of Islam in Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The also looks at the history of orientalism in Europe. Kemper is a professor of Eastern European Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and director of the Amsterdam Research School for Regional, Transregional and European Studies (ARTES).
Scandinavia
Prof. Henk van der Liet is an expert on the culture and literature of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Greenland. His expertise is very broad, from literary history and popular TV programmes to history, politics and the way of life in the Scandinavian countries. Van der Liets is especially interested in Denmark. He is a professor of Scandinavian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities.
Suriname and the Caribbean
Prof. Rosemarijn Höfte specialises in the colonial and postcolonial history of the Dutch (former) colonies in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, in particular Suriname. Her main areas of interest are the history of Suriname in the post-slavery period, migration and unfree labour, and contemporary social and political Caribbean history. Höfte is a professor of the History of Suriname since 1873 in a comparative perspective at the Faculty of Humanities. She is also a senior researcher at Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV).
Turkey
Dr Beste Isleyen is an assistant professor of Political Science. She conducts research on the day-to-day governance of migration and borders in Turkey. Her research interests are in the fields of international relations, critical security studies and international political sociology.
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Transnational Configurations, Conflict and Governance
USA
Dr George Blaustein is an expert in American Studies. He focuses on the history, politics, culture and literature of the United States. Blaustein is a researcher and assistant professor of American Studies and History at the Faculty of Humanities.
Dr Jonathan Gill is a lecturer at Amsterdam University College. He specialises in American Studies, in particular post-World War II art, film and literature, African-American history and culture, experimental and vernacular musics, the counterculture of the 1960s, the literature of immigration and cultures of intolerance. He has also taught Yiddish at the University of Amsterdam and has written and lectured widely on Judaism and Jewish culture.