WEARING TWO HATS: AN INTERVIEW WITH LEON WESSELS

By Melissa Hamelink & Rosanne Vreugdenhil

PhD-candidate Leon Wessels greets us with a jug of tea – Turkish apple – and an open attitude. Leon is currently occupied as both a programme manager for CLARIN ERIC and his own PhD research on the conceptual history of elites in the Netherlands. CLARIN is an organization that aims to increase accessibility of digital collections and knowledge on the use of digital tools. This happens within the framework of ERIC, a legal entity established by the European Commission, set up to improve the infrastructure of these digital methods and sources. Although he only just came back from a conference in Leipzig, he has cleared his busy schedule to sit down with us and talk about how he experiences his PhD-position, how he got his position and where he might want to end up.

Leon did not originally start as a History student, but studied to become a History teacher at the University for Applied Sciences. He soon realized that working with adolescents was not his dream job, and that he was missing the intellectual challenge of research. He therefore continued with a pre-Master’s in order to start the History Master’s at the VU, where he developed an interest in the history of elites and ideas. Because Leon became interested in obtaining a PhD position, he switched to the Research Master instead. During and after the last phase of this Master’s, Leon took up two student assistant jobs. One of these was in Digital Humanities, where he shared an office with someone from Computer Science, and in their exchange of thoughts and insights he became more interested in digital research, leading to his own ‘Digital Turn’. After his Master, Leon applied for a junior researcher position at the UvA. He did not succeed in getting the job, but thanks to a recommendation by one of the members of the committee, he eventually became a programme manager at CLARIN ERIC. Owing to the fact that he was clear about his research ambition, Leon eventually was offered the opportunity to realize his own PhD research funded by CLARIN ERIC, on which he has been working for the past two years.

Because of this collaboration, Leon was able to combine his own historical interest in elites with a digital humanities dimension. He is researching the development of the concept of elites over a longer time period, using computational approaches such as text mining. Working with digital tools, Leon has not abandoned his traditional roots in History, and he is convinced that traditional historical research will not disappear. In his opinion Digital Humanities can give insight into subjects across longer periods, yet hermeneutic research remains essential with more specific research on smaller topics.

Besides being able to pursue his personal research interest, the freedom of a PhD position enables him to plan his days in a way that suits him best. The aspect of PhD life he appreciates the most is the possibility to interact with other intellectuals, which inspires him and, in turn contributes to his own research. He is however, unsure if he wants to continue with a career in academic research, which demands an extreme level of dedication. Leon does enjoy his current – as he puts it – ‘privileged’ position. Based on his own experience and that of his fellow alumni, he is convinced that most History students will end up somewhere great, provided they are committed, creative and (most importantly) kind.