A Small Glimpse in Academic Life: An Interview with Prof.dr. Ido de Haan 

By Hannah de Korte & Melissa Hamelink

Throughout the years, Prof. dr. Ido de Haan has become a renowned figure within Utrecht’s history department. He specializes in the effects of changing regimes, revolutions and large-scale violence with a focus on the persecution of Jews. Furthermore, his work focuses on the history of political thought, the development of citizenship, the state and civil society in Western Europe and Dutch political history in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Since he has a lot of different responsibilities and agendas to deal with, we decided to talk to him about the changes in the academic world, the value of history and the busy life of a scholar.

Over the course of the years, quite a few things have changed in the field of History. When Ido first became familiar with History as a student in Amsterdam, the field was generally speaking limited to Dutch national history with Dutch as the official language. Nowadays the scope of historical research reaches beyond the national borders and a comparative analysis with other countries is often included to put the Dutch narrative in context. The scholarly language changed to English and this, Ido tells us, enables the scholars to interact with each other, which enriches the field. This does not mean that national history has no place in society anymore, but a distinction can be made between public and academic historical research. In Ido’s opinion, both forms are valuable as long as academia is not forced to reduce the complexity of historical phenomena for a general audience.

That is also one of the reasons why ‘valorisation’ is such a questionable word to him. Historical research has value on its own and therefore doesn’t need additional value by making it more accessible to the bigger public. As funding bodies increase emphasis on valorisation, researchers are put in a position that is not their key role. According to de Haan, the public is also responsible for being receptive and engaging with academic output. He however agrees that research should have societal relevance and admits that the word ‘valorisation’ should be included in research proposals in order to receive necessary funding. Take, for example, his current project on the influence of neoliberal ideas on policy in the Netherlands in an international context in the postwar period. The project reaches beyond academic borders  through the publication of articles on the subject by him and his research team in de Correspondent, a journalism platform, and organizing conferences with people from various fields, such as trade union members, policy makers and journalists.

Ido has also taken up numerous other duties and positions. For instance, he is the scientific director of the research school of political history, he is Chair of the Board of Examiners, he teaches as many as seven courses and also participates in various projects. So how does Ido keep this tricky balance in check?  According to Ido, it is about hard work and intrinsic motivation: ‘je moet het leuk vinden’. Although much of his functions involve administrative tasks and managing different agendas simultaneously, it also energizes him to be sharing ideas with students and professors alike and to contribute to wider academia.