The research field

The Chair Group: a unique institution in Dutch academia

Since its establishment in 1971, the Chair Group Contemporary History has been a unique feature of the History Department at the University of Groningen and within Dutch academia. Contemporary history distinguishes itself from other historiographical fields through the early adoption of global and transnational perspectives.

Today the Chair Group covers world history since 1945 and embraces distinct methodologies that enables the study of the recent past, such as oral history, film analysis, documentary filmmaking, and a range of digital methods.

Our current research

The Chair Group now covers a wide range of research fields. Currently, its members are conducting research on the following topics:

• Local and regional European history since 1940
• Warfare, peace-keeping and post-war reconstruction since the end of the cold war from the Balkans to Afghanistan
• The impact of decolonisation on the world order
• The history of discriminatory ideas, practices and structures including race and racialised social systems in Europe and the Americas
• History of capitalism, technology and labour after 1945
• Intellectual history
• Contested memories in Europe and the Middle East
• The history of media since the 1970s
• The environmental history of Africa and the Americas
• Religion and politics in South and Southeast Asia
• lanetary and posthumanist historiographical perspectives