I am a historian of political history working on the impact of colonialism on Dutch and British political practice. Whereas most political historians deal with change and innovation, I am interested in how the political elite (re)claimed power after experiencing disruption. I cross historiographical boundaries between periods and subdisciplines to properly answer this question.

More information about Lauren Lauret

I am a historian of political history working on the impact of colonialism on Dutch and British political practice. Whereas most political historians deal with change and innovation, I am interested in how the political elite (re)claimed power after experiencing disruption. I cross historiographical boundaries between periods and subdisciplines to properly answer this question.

My current book project adds a new category for analysing the political elite involved with domestic politics: returning expats who imported a colonial style into metropolitan politics and should therefore be part of the history of Dutch government culture. This project received support from NWO Rubicon (University College London, 2022-2024) and Leiden University Fund (2021).

In 2023, I became co-PI of a research project on colonial citizenship funded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). This project studies why 19th-century Dutch politicians believed colonial subjects were not entitled to full citizenship and the current legacies of this notion.

My undergraduate studies in early modern history (Radboud University Nijmegen, 2009-2015) prepared me to apply a new perspective on the early 19th-century Dutch parliament for my PhD thesis at Leiden University (2015-2020). I argued there was more continuity between the government culture of the 18th-century States General and 19th-century Dutch parliament than hitherto assumed. The Royal Holland Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded me the Dirk Jacob Veegens dissertation prize (2022).

(Editorial) board memberships:

International Association for Political History (secretary)
Early Modern Low Countries (editor)
Virtus. Journal of Nobility Studies (editor)
Zeven Provinciën Reeks (secretary)

Publications