NWO awarded Tina van der Vlies with the Rubicon grant for her research project ‘Why school history matters: public debates on history education, 1920-2020’. Out of all the applications submitted in the Social Sciences and Humanities Domain, her application was ranked number 1 and received the final qualification ‘very good’.
In the coming two years, Van der Vlies will examine why purposes attributed to history education in English and Dutch mass media change over time. The outcomes enlighten present-day debates about school history’s role in society. She will work on this project in collaboration with the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Education).
Tina van der Vlies: “I am very happy, honoured and grateful for this wonderful opportunity. Until now, no systematic and longitudinal research into public discourses on school history’s purposes exists. It is highly necessary to fill this gap: a comparative, historicized and source-based research on this topic has potential to defuse the current explosive debates about school history by providing insight into patterns and developments.”
The Rubicon programme is part of the NWO Talent Programme and allows talented scientists, who recently obtained their PhD, to gain experience at a foreign top institute for a period of 1 to 2 years.