Inger Leemans is Professor of Cultural History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and PI of NL-Lab, a new research group on Dutch Culture and Identity at the Humanities Cluster of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Her research focusses on early modern cultural history, the history of emotions and the senses, cultural economy, history of knowledge and digital humanities. She has published about the history of pornography, (radical) Enlightenment, cultural infrastructure, stock markets and financial crises. Her text book on eighteenth century literature Worm en donder. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse literatuur 1700-1800 (co-author Gert-Jan Johannes) was hailed in the press as ‘a masterpiece’. Often, her research triggers media attention, see e.g. the Financiële Dagblad about her inaugural lecture in 2011, journal Elsevier about her research on embodied emotions, NRC about Digital Humanities, Trouwon wind trade and speculation, and her TedX Talkon ‘Making Sense of Finance’.

Inger Leemans coordinates projects on the cultural history of finance, on early modern visual culture and the culture of violence, on the history of smell, olfactory heritage and sensory mining,and collaborates in digital humanities projects (e.g. Clariah+, Golden Agents). As coordinator of ACCESS - The Amsterdam Centre for Cross-Disciplinary Emotion and Sensory Studies Leemans organizes seminars and lectures on the history and workings of emotions and senses. As principal investigator of the Global Knowledge Societyproject, Leemans coordinated the working group Affective Economies - Knowledge and the Market. In 2020 the volume of this interdisciplinary project will be published by Routlegde. At this moment Leemans is researching the history of stock trade & the cultural imagination of financial crises.

Inger Leemans is a board member of: the European Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage, the Dutch National Research Council for Cultural Heritage, the Royal Netherlands Historical Society (KNHG), the Graduate School for Cultural History Huizinga Institute, the National Council for Dutch Language and Culture of the Nederlandse Taalunie, and a member of the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen.

See:Personal homepage

Office hours: Tuesday.

Expertise

Early modern cultural history
History of Knowledge
Cultural Economics
History of the body, emotions, senses, sexuality
Digital Humanities

Projects

• NWO Internationalization:Banking on Financial History, with University of Herfortshire - University of Tokyo - Utrecht University
• Odeuropa:Olfactory heritage and sensory mining,
• NWO Creative Industries: In Search of Scents Lost - Reconstructing the Volatile Heritage of the Avant-garde
• Affective Economies- A cultural history of Stock Trade. Cf. Inaugural Lecture & 3D-reconstruction of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, with Timothy De Paepe.
• NWO/FWO ‘ITEMP: Imagineering Violence: Techniques of Early Modern Performativity in the Northern and Southern Netherlands 1630-1690’, with Université Libre de Bruxelles - Gent University - University of Leiden
• Advisor for / collaborator in: Clariah+, Golden Agents, Republic
• Global Knowledge Societyproject,Affective Economies - Knowledge and the Market, with Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Descartes Center Utrecht, NIAS
• eScience project: Embodied Emotions - Mapping Bodily Expression of Emotions from a Historical Perspective
• QuPiD2: Quality & perspectives in deep data - AAA Data Science project, with UvA
• Visualising Uncertainty, with CLTL (Piek Vossen Computational Linguistics group -VU) & the Netherlands eScience Center
• INVENiT- Digital Humanities and Linked Data for Creatives Industries research, with VU Computer Science

Amsterdam Stock Exchange 3D MOdel by Timothy de Paepe (https://3dtheater.wordpress.com/)

Bachelor: Early modern history, Introduction to Culture and Power, BA-thesis advisory
Minors: course History of Emotions in minor European History and Culture, course Digital Hermeneutics and Visualizations in minor Digital Humanities
Master: Introduction "From Source to Public", Tutorials (e.g. about history of banks, stock trade and financial crises)

Research master: Core course, e.g. on environmental humanites & emotion studies

See for detailed list of courses the study guide

• Dr. C.L. Thijssen-Schoute Stichting | Den Haag | Bestuurder | 2014-02-01 - present
• DBNL (Digital Library for Dutch Literature) | Den Haag | Adviseur | 2016-01-01 - present
• Nationale Onderzoeksraad Erfgoed | Amersfoort | Adviseur | 2016-01-01 - present
• Curatorium Prof.dr. T. van Kalmthout | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2016-04-01 - present
• Curatorium commissie prof. dr. M. Parry | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2016-04-01 - present
• Curatorium prof. dr. F.J. Dijksterhuis | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2016-06-01 - present
• ACCES: Center for Emotion & Sensory Studies | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2017-07-01 - 3999-12-31
• Huizinga Instituut - National Research School for Cultural H | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2017-07-01 - present
• European Board Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage | Amsterdam | Bestuurder | 2019-05-01 - present
• Vrije Universiteit | Amsterdam | | 2019-09-01 - present
• Board of Advisors Odotheka - European Research Project | Ljubljana | Adviseur | 2022-05-03 - present
• Board of Editors of the American Historical Review | Chicago | Bestuurder | 2023-07-01 - present

Ancillary activities are updated daily

Board Member European Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage

Board Member Dutch National Research Council for Cultural Heritage

Board Member Royal Netherlands Historical Society(KNHG)

Board Member Huizinga Institute, Graduate School for Cultural History

Board Member National Council for Dutch Language and Cultureof the Nederlandse Taalunie, 

Member of the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen.

Member Board dr. C.L. Thijssen-Schoute-Stichting

Member Board Spiegel der Letterenjournal

Director ACCESS- Amsterdam Center for Cross-disciplinary Emotion and Sensory Studies

President board NWO committee Museum Scholarships