De ballen van de koopman

Dorothee Sturkenboom

Mannelijkheid en Nederlandse identiteit in de tijd van de Republiek

Wordt verwacht in april 2019

Als buitenlanders aan Nederlanders denken, luidt de favoriete conclusie: het zijn koopmannen.
Dorothee Sturkenboom duikt diep de Gouden Eeuw in om de oorsprong van dat beeld te achterhalen én de bijbehorende ideeën over de mannelijkheid van deze kooplieden. Daarbij stuit ze op fascinerende tegenstellingen: Nederlanders worden neergezet als solide in de wereld van het geld maar weinig weerbaar wanneer het op oorlog voeren aankomt. Als superieur in het handeldrijven maar onder de plak van hun echtgenotes. Als tolerant en zachtmoedig met klanten maar onbuigzaam en hardvochtig in de omgang met volkeren overzee. De Nederlandse handelsidentiteit wordt gekenmerkt door een combinatie van zachtere en hardere stijlen van mannelijkheid.Met De ballen van de koopman levert Sturkenboom een verrassende en vernieuwende bijdrage aan de discussie in Nederland over identiteit.

Dorothee Sturkenboom is historicus. Na een twintigjarige loopbaan aan de universiteiten van Nijmegen, Los Angeles en Amsterdam werkt zij nu als onafhankelijk onderzoeker.

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Op vrijdag 9 november 2018 vindt aan de Universiteit Gent het symposium ‘Gender en Emoties. Historische perspectieven’ plaats. Vijf sprekers presenteren hun onderzoek in sociale, culturele en politieke geschiedenis van gender en emoties. Het programma en het adres staan op de poster in bijlage. Voor verdere info en inschrijvingen: Laura.Nys@UGent.be

Odorama: Scent and Scentsuality

With Lauryn Mannigel, Astrid Groot, Klara Ravat, Roald de Boer, Ibo Bakker

29 November, Mediamatic Biotoop, Amsterdam

Why are we attracted to some people and not to others? Many answers that try to explain sexual attraction point towards pheromones as a biological explanation for strong bodily desire. Scent is often seen as the lowest amongst the senses. It is the one that makes no sense, but that often causes the most immediate bodily response. Before you know it, you are drawn to somebody. During this edition of Odorama, we explore the scentsual aspect of scent.

Photo: Anisa Xhomaqi

For more information: Mediamatic

Early modern emotions: two new book publications

Two exciting new books on early emotions have recently been published, both with connections to ACCESS.

Early Modern Emotions: An Introduction, edited by Susan Broomhall, is a student-friendly introduction to the concepts, approaches and sources used to study emotions in early modern Europe, and to the perspectives that analysis of the history of emotions can offer early modern studies more broadly. The book contains chapters by ACCESS members Erika Kuijpers, Inger Leemans, and Herman Roodenburg. For more information, the table of contents – and to order the book for your university library –  please visit the Routledge catalogue.

Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by ACCESS members Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, was published in Palgrave’s Studies in the History of Emotions series. The collection, resulting from the international workshops on battlefield emotions, explores changes in emotional cultures of the early modern battlefield. Integrating psychological, social and cultural perspectives, it explores emotional behaviour, expression and representation in a great variety of primary source material.

 

Smell: The Neglected Sense

SYMPOSIUM & EXHIBITION

Though unnoticed, our sense of smell is a major mood determiner. Scents evoke vivid childhood memories. They are part of our identity: we each have a scent that is as unique as our fingerprints.

Even cities have their own specific scent profiles. Still, we tend not to be aware of the profound effects of smell. VU Amsterdam is organizing a symposium on 24 February during which an art and fragrance historian, a psychologist and an artist will elucidate the importance of smell as part of culture. A new VU exhibition will also open that will let you observe that which is invisible, indefinable, elusive and often neglected: smell! Both activities are related to scent historian Caro Verbeek’s PhD dissertation, ‘Aromatic Art (Re-)reconstructed: In Search of Lost Scents’.

A century ago, surrealists like Duchamp and futurists like Marinetti used scents to accentuate their images, exhibition spaces, poetry readings and toys. They used Brazilian coffee beans, erotic perfumes, sulfuric acid, ozone, incense and industrial fumes as means to influence the public. Most of these ‘aromatic interventions’ were intended to provoke, to confuse, to alter people’s mood or to add a sensory dimension. Unfortunately, many of these ‘artistic aromas’ have been lost. These days, artists all over the world are once again working with scents and aromas. The exhibition provides an overview of how international artists and perfumers incorporate scents into their art as they explore the boundaries of ‘visual’ expression.

What does the countryside smell like? The Battle of Waterloo? The moon? The planet Earth? These and other lost and rare scents have been reconstructed thanks to the joint efforts of perfumers, chemists and historians.
Indulge your olfactory sense and give your nose something to sniff at. Register for the symposium and come see the exhibition.

Photo: Copyright Gayil Nalls, People sniffing World Sensorium at midnight 01-01-2000, Time Square, New York

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Lectures on emotions at Universiteit van Nederland

On 9 November, the Universiteit van Nederland will record four 15-minute lectures on the emotions in Amsterdam. The lectures (in Dutch) are on Schadenfreude (leedvermaak), repentance/regret (spijt), anger, pride, and envy (afgunst).

For more information and registration, visit the Universiteit van Nederland.