Jasper van der Steen
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. J.A. van der Steen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 1492
- j.a.van.der.steen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0003-4989-5290
Jasper van der Steen is assistant professor at the Institute for History.
More information about Jasper van der Steen
Research
As a historian of early modern Europe, I am fascinated by two major research areas that have challenged and enriched our historical understanding of power and politics.
The first is dynastic politics and culture and my latest project, 'The Nassaus and the Family Business of Power in Early Modern Europe', has taken a fresh approach to this subject. Scholars focusing on primogeniture and the rise of the modern state have long assumed that family is an irrational social system for governance. Yet, I turn this assumption on its head and argue that the wider family, in fact, plays a vital and often overlooked role in the exercise and transmission of power. Using a conceptual framework developed in business studies, I explored the 'corporate culture' of the Nassau family during the period 1550-1815. By doing so, I developed a new model for writing dynastic history that challenges existing assumptions about family and power. My project, which was supported by the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Veni) of the Dutch Research Council, ran from 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2023. My second monograph De Nassaus. Een vorstelijk familiebedrijf 1500-1800 is currently under contract at Prometheus and I published ‘Dynastic Scenario Thinking in the Holy Roman Empire’ in Past & Present (2022). The forthcoming volume Dynastischer Nachwuchs als Hoffnungsträger und Argument in der Frühen Neuzeit, which I co-edited with Irena Kozmanová, will be published by De Gruyter in 2023 and my chapter in the edited volume Dynasties and State Formation in Early Modern Europe (Amsterdam University Press, 2023) will appear in 2023 as well.
My second research interest is in the political potency of the past in early modern Europe. In my first monograph, Memory Wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700 (Brill, 2015), I investigated the divergence of public memories of the Revolt in the Habsburg Netherlands in the South and the Dutch Republic in the North. I explained how these memories became the objects of fierce contestation in domestic political struggles, on both sides of the border and throughout the seventeenth century. Through this work, I challenged widespread assumptions about the supposed modernity of cultural memory, arguing that early modern public memory did not require the presence of state actors, nationalism, or modern mass media in order to play a role of political importance in both North and South. I have also co-edited and published in open access Memory before Modernity: Practices of Memory in Early Modern Europe with colleagues. Additionally, I have published my research results in The Sixteenth Century Journal, Early Modern Low Countries, and De Zeventiende Eeuw, as well as book chapters on memory and politics in A Cultural History of Memory in the Early Modern Age (Bloomsbury, 2020) and Early Modern War Narratives and the Revolt in the Low Countries (Manchester University Press, 2020).
In addition to my research, I engage with a diverse range of scholars, building networks and fostering collaborations that are essential for advancing our understanding of early modern Europe. I serve as treasurer of the Werkgroep Zeventiende Eeuw, secretary of the Vlaams-Nederlandse Vereniging voor Nieuwe Geschiedenis, and secretary of the foundation Early Modern Low Countries.
Curriculum vitae
Employment history
2022-present: assistant professor, Leiden University
2018-2022: postdoctoral researcher, Leiden University
2016-2018: wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
2013-2014: lecturer, University of Amsterdam
2008-2016: respectively PhD candidate, lecturer, university lecturer (UD) and postdoctoral researcher, Leiden University
Education
PhD (2014): Leiden University
MA (2009): University of Durham
BA (2007): University College Roosevelt
Grants
2017: Veni, Dutch Research Council (NWO)
2015: Rubicon, NWO
Fellowships
2016: Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz
2015: Leiden University Library
Assistant professor
- Faculty of Humanities
- Institute for History
- Nederlandse geschiedenis
- Steen J.A. van der (2022), Dynastic scenario thinking in the Holy Roman Empire, Past and Present: a Journal of Historical Studies 256(1): 87-128.
- Steen J.A. van der (2020), North and South: A Comparison of Episodic War Narratives During the Revolt in the Low Countries. In: Fagel R., Álvarez Francés L. & Santiago Belmonte B. (Eds.), Early Modern War Narratives and the Revolt in the Low Countries. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 146-166.
- Steen J.A. van der (2018), Remembering the Revolt of the Low Countries: Historical Canon Formation in the Dutch Republic and Habsburg Netherlands, 1566–1621, Sixteenth Century Journal 49(3): 713-741.
- Steen J.A. van der (2018), Erinnerung an den Niederländischen Aufstand. Gemeinschaftskultur und dynastische Erinnerungspolitik im Haus Nassau. [other].
- Steen J.A. van der (2017), Dynastic Power as a Family Business: The Nassaus in Early Modern Europe. Paper presented at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
- Steen J.A. van der (2017), Review of: Broomhall Susan & Van Gent Jacqueline (2016), Gender, Power and Identity in the Early Modern House of Orange-Nassau. London: Routledge. Renaissance Quarterly 70(4): 1568-1570.
- Steen J.A. van der (2017), Review of: O’Malley John W. (2015), Art, controversy and the Jesuits. The Imago Primi Saeculi (1640). Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 130(3): 504-506.
- Steen J.A. van der (13 October 2017), Vorstelijke macht als familiebedrijf. Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde. Leiden. [blog entry].
- Steen J.A. van der (2017), Corporate culture and religious problems in the wider Nassau family (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)).
- Steen J.A. van der (2017), A Divided Dynasty? Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Corporate Culture in the House of Nassau, 1550–1750 (University of Oxford).
- Steen J.A. van der (2017), Review of: Jensen Lotte (2016), Vieren van vrede. Het ontstaan van de Nederlandse identiteit, 1648-1815. Nijmegen: Vantilt. BMGN: Low Countries Historical Review .
- Steen J.A. van der (2015), Memory Wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions no. 190. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
- Steen J.A. van der (3 February 2015), Met die wereldvreemdheid van Walings collega’s is het echt niet zo erg gesteld. De Volkskrant, Opinie.
- Steen J.A. van der (26 January 2015), Wat blijft over van de lessen die we uit de geschiedenis kunnen trekken?. Het Parool, Opinie.
- Eekhout M.F.D. & Steen J.A. van der (2015), Jubilea van de Nederlandse Opstand. Zeventiende-eeuwse eeuwfeesten en hun politieke context, TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR GESCHIEDENIS 128(4): 555-577.
- Steen J.A. van der (2014), Willem van Oranje: geen vanzelfsprekende held, Geschiedenis Magazine (7): 12-17.
- Steen J.A. van der (2014), Review of: Canova-Green Marie-Claude, Andrews Jean & Wagner Marie-France (2013), Writing Royal Entries in Early Modern Europe. Turnhout: Brepols. Sixteenth Century Journal XLV(2): 564-565.
- Steen J.A. van der (24 June 2014), Memory wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700 (Dissertatie. Institute for History, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University): Brill. Supervisor(s): Pollmann J.S.
- Kuijpers E., Pollmann J., Müller J. & Steen J. van der (Eds.) (2013), Memory Before Modernity. Practices of Memory in Early Modern Europe no. 176. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
- Steen J.A. van der (2013), The Trap of History: The States Party and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1650–1660, Archai: Revista de Estudos sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental 29(2): 189-205.
- Kuijpers H.M.E.P., Pollmann J.S., Müller J.M. & Steen J.A. van der (2013), Memory before Modernity: Practices of Memory in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
- Steen J.A. van der (2013), A Contested Past: Memory Wars during the Twelve Years' Truce, 1609-1621. In: Kuijpers E., Pollmann J., Müller J. & Steen J.A. van der (Eds.), Memory before Modernity: Practices of Memory in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 45-61.
- Steen J.A. van der (2012), Review of: (2012), Luc Duerloo, Dynasty and Piety: Archduke Albert (1598-1621) and Habsburg Political Culture in an Age of Religious Wars, 15. Farnham: Ashgate. Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis = The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History 9: 91-93.
- Steen J.A. van der (2012), Review of: , Jesse Spohnholz, The Tactics of Toleration: A Refugee Community in the Age of Religious Wars. Newark: University of Delaware Press. Sixteenth Century Journal 43-2: 619-620.
- Steen J.A. van der (2012) 'Een tegenstrijdige vrede'. Review of: Manzano Baena Laura (2011), Conflicting Words: The Peace Treaty of Münster (1648) and the Political Culture of the Spanish Monarchy. Leuven: Leuven University Press. TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR GESCHIEDENIS 125: 131-132.
- Steen J.A. van der (2011), Goed en Fout in de Nederlandse Opstand, Holland: historisch tijdschrift 43(2): .
- Steen J.A. van der (2010), Ranglijsten dicteren overheidsbeleid kennismigranten, Vakblad Transfer : .
- Steen J.A. van der (2010) Book review of Jill Stern, Orangism in the Dutch Republic in Word and Image, 1650–1675. Review of: Stern Jill (2010), Orangism in the Dutch Republic in Word and Image no. 2. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Seventeenth Century 25: 385-386.
- Steen J.A. van der (2010), Graaf Hendrik van den Bergh en het verraad van edelen in 1632. In: , Hendrik, graaf van den Bergh (1573-1638): van Spanje naar Oranje. ’s-Heerenberg: Stichting Huis Bergh. 65-70.
- Steen J.A. van der (2009), ‘This Nation Was not Made for Me’: William III’s Introduction to Etiquette, Ritual and Ceremony at the English Court, 1688-1691, Dutch Crossing 33(2): 121-134.
- secretaris
- penningmeester
- bestuurslid