Since 2014, the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (Department of History) and the Maritime Museum Rotterdam have been collaborating within the Rotterdam Centre for Modern Maritime History. The aim is to promote synergy between academia and museums in the field of maritime heritage. The Centre coordinates and promotes academic research into the history of Dutch shipping after 1800. The collaboration enhances the valorization of the scientific research carried out at the Erasmus University by applying the results to the management of the collections and to the public products of the Maritime Museum.
From research and education to exhibitions
Through the involvement of Prof. Paul van de Laar, professor of the history of Rotterdam, the Centre is able to take on PhD students to research diverse dimensions of the role, work and life in the port of Rotterdam, including its links with the hinterland, Dutch shipbuilding and the Dutch offshore industry. These topics are also incorporated in the history curriculum at Erasmus University. As curator-in-residence, maritime historian Dr Els Jacobs is the connecting link between university researchers and teachers, and museum curators. She brings people together in the field of maritime history to develop and disseminate scholarship and other activities that would not be possible without a collaborative approach or would be much slower or more difficult to achieve. Students can use the Maritime Museum's collection as a source for their thesis research and attend tutorials on the history of Dutch shipping in the museum. The Centre strongly encourages the use of museum objects as a primary source of knowledge about the past.
Thanks!
Doctoral research under the auspices of the Rotterdam Centre for Modern Maritime History is made possible by the support of a number of external funds, each of which has made a significant contribution, in particular the Van der Weele Schipper Fund and the Samenwerkende Maritieme Fondsen.
More information
For more information, please contact Els Jacobs, the curator-in-residence of the academic program.
Tel.nr.: +31 6 1822 6592
E-mail: e.m.jacobs@eshcc.eur.nl