Professors from the Faculty of Arts members of the Royal Dutch Society of Arts and Sciences

Two professors from the Faculty of Arts have been appointed members of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen. They are Prof. Dr. Martijn Eickhoff (Special Professor of Archaeology and Heritage) and Prof. Dr. Merel Keijzer (Professor of English Linguistics and English as a Second Language).

Prof. Dr. Merel Keijzer

Keijzer is researching how learning a new language contributes to healthy aging, based on the idea that the relationship between language and health is much more important than is often assumed. Last year, she received a Vici grant for research focused on dementia. The total of €1.5 million will enable her and her team to conduct research over the next five years on the role of language in dementia care for migrants. Vici is one of the largest individual scientific grants in the Netherlands and is intended for advanced researchers.

Prof. Dr. Martijn Eickhoff

Martijn Eickhoff specializes in the history, cultural dimensions, and aftermath of war, mass violence, and regime change in Europe and Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a particular emphasis on their spatial, material, and transnational aspects. His research remit is "Archaeology and Heritage of War and Mass Violence." He is also director of the NIOD (Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

The KHMW

The Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen was founded in 1752, making it the oldest learned society in the Netherlands. The KHMW aims to promote science and bridge the gap between science and society. New members are nominated by current members and appointed after careful selection.

A total of four professors from the University of Groningen were appointed members of the learned society, which was founded in the 18th century.