One of the protagonists in my doctoral thesis is port entrepreneur Jan Backx. For the yearbook of Roterodamum, the historical society of Rotterdam, I wrote an article about this versatile and progressive “harbor baron”.
With my colleague Paolo de Martino from TU Delft, I wrote a peer-reviewed article on the newest trends in Urban History based on the EAUH conference in Helsinki, 2016.
In 2014 and 2015, I did the research and wrote texts for the readers of the Stadsmakerscongres (city makers congress) in Rotterdam. In two books, we covered eight transforming urban areas in the city, focusing on the actors – policymakers and politicians, but also activists and neighborhood initiatives.
For SteenhuisMeurs, I wrote the history of a group of young men who wanted to preserve the typical regional wooden houses and therefore created a heritage village where people could actually live: Zaanse Schans.
In 2012, I coordinated a project for the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure. It dealt with the future of the city and brought together researchers and designers to analyze suburbanization, the skills economy, and metropolises in the Netherlands.
This is where my curiosity about the involvement of Rotterdam port entrepreneurs in the urban development of Rotterdam began: my Master’s thesis on the ideals of architect Van den Broek and his commissioner Jan Backx. In Dutch.
