University Historian, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Ab (Abraham) Flipse is University Historian of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is based in the Cultural History research group within the Faculty of Humanities, where he conducts and coordinates research on the history of universities (especially the history of the VU Amsterdam), of science, of medicine, of science and religion, as well as teaches on a variety of subjects. Having a university-wide position, he also performs functions such as public outreach and advising administrators, faculty, and students on matters dealing with the history of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Contact Information

Dr. A.C. Flipse | Universiteitshistoricus VU
Email a.c.flipse@vu.nl
Telephone +31 (0)20 59 87977 / (0)6-51210291
POSTAL ADRESSS: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam

Researche profile: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/ac-flipse
Project website: www.geheugenvandevu.nl
Twitter: @VUhistoricus

Expertise:

• History of modern universities in general and of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in particular
• History of science and religion
• History of Dutch neo-Calvinists
• Public history
• History of physics
• History of life sciences

Research and valorisation projects

• History of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: aspects of its transformation since the 1950s
• Spatial dimensions of knowledge institutions: university campuses since the 1950s
• War memorials at Dutch universities
• Religious diversity at modern universities
• History of science and religion in the Netherlands: late-nineteenth-century debates, and the twentieth-century creation-evolution debate
• Biography of the biologist Jan Lever (1922-2010)
• History of academic publishing (scientific journals, university newspapers, student press)
• GeheugenvandeVU.nl

Supervision of PhD projects

• Beyond Conflict: An Assessment of the Contribution of historian of science Reijer Hooykaas to the science-religion debate (Jelmer Heeren)
• Understanding the rise of New Public Management in Dutch and Flemish university governance, 1980-2020 (Floris van Berckel Smit)
• Divine Attributes and Suffering Animals in Historical Perspective, 1600-1961 (Piet Slootweg), defended November 17, 2022

Selected Publications (articles)

• 2023: 'Understanding organizational identity in universities: Unraveling autonomy, governance and leadership in the case of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam', with F. van Berckel Smit and Jeroen Huisman, Higher Education Quarterly.
• 2023: 'Shared Principles, Diverging Paths: Neo-Calvinism, neo-Thomism and the Natural Sciences, 1880–1960', in: J. Eglinton, & G. Harinck (eds.), Neo-Calvinism and Roman Catholicismp (Brill), 67-92.
• 2021: 'Religious Controversy in Comparative Context: Ulster, the Netherlands and South Africa in the 1920s', with Stuart Mathieson, History, May 2021
• 2017: ‘Jan Lever: Challenging the Role of Typological Thinking in Reformational Views of Biology’, with Harry Cook, Philosophia Reformata 82:1, 3-25.
• 2014: ‘The Low Countries’, with Stefaan Blancke & Johan Braeckman, in S. Blancke, H.H. Hjermitslev and P.C. Kjærgaard (eds.), The History of Creationism in Europe, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), 65-84.
• 2012: ‘The Origins of Creationism in the Netherlands: The Evolution Debate among Twentieth-Century Dutch Neo-Calvinists’, Church History 81:1, 104-147.

Selected Publications (books)

• 2022: Edited: Jan Lever - Honderd: Terugblikken op leven en werk van VU-bioloog Jan Lever (1922-2010) (Amsterdam: HDC, 2022)
• 2021: Co-edited: VU Objects and Their Stories: 140 years of heritage at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Amsterdam: Clue+, 2021); also in Dutch.
• 2020: Co-edited: De universitaire campus. Ruimtelijke transformaties van de Nederlandse universiteiten sedert 1945 (Hilversum: Verloren 2020).
• 2016: Edited: Verder kijken. Honderdvijfendertig jaar Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in de samenleving - zesentwintig portretten (Amsterdam: VU University Press 2016).
• 2014: Christelijke wetenschap. Nederlandse rooms-katholieken en gereformeerden over de natuurwetenschap, 1880-1940 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2014).
• 2005: 'Hier leert de natuur ons zelf den weg'. Een geschiedenis van Natuurkunde en Sterrenkunde aan de VU, (Meinema Zoetermeer 2005).

Since 2015 I have developed and coordinated several courses and contributed lectures to other coures in the curriculum, including:

• Science and Religion: Views from History (VU Honours Programme - Coordinator of the course)
• History of knowledge for humanities students (Ba)
• Science and Society in Historal Perspective (Ma)
• Honours program Humanities (Ba)
• Medical and Health Humanities, mastertrack History, course coordinator
• Medicine and Society (MA)
• Medische geschiedenis voor Geneeskundestudenten, cursus Arts en Patient (Ba) [Medical History]
• Guest lecture Historisch Seminar (Ba)
• Guest lecture Civil Society (Ba; minor History of Religion)
• Pre-University Course Science and Religion (VWO)

Certificates

• University Teaching Qualification (BKO)
• English Language Proficiency Assessment C1
• Supervising PhD students

• ForumC | Amersfoort | Adviseur | 2011-03-01 - present

Ancillary activities are updated daily