Biography as specialism

The biography is a genre that has become more and more popular during the last decades. A lot of biographies appeared, but at the same time the need for quality standards concerning biographical research increased. Recent Dutch academic studies devoted to the genre were until now still lacking, and foreign studies into the nature of biography were largely unknown. At the same time an increasing number of biographies were defended as PhD-theses – in the Netherlands but also in foreign countries. The Biography Institute (Biografie Instituut) of the University of Groningen provides for an academic environment for biographers and stimulates research into the theory of biography. The institute conducts investigation at several levels: access to sources, research into narrative forms and into the socio-cultural context of biographies. The Biography Institute stresses the importance of biography as a historical genre, and is concerned especially with biographical research in the fields of Media Studies, Cultural History and Political Theory.