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Prof. dr. W.R.E. (Wyger) Velema

Philosophy of History and the History of Historiography (special chair of the Amsterdam University Fund)
Faculty of Humanities
Photographer: Jeroen Oerlemans

Visiting address
  • Kloveniersburgwal 48
Postal address
  • Postbus 1610
    1000 BP Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile

    Short curriculum vitae

    Wyger Velema (The Hague, 1955) is currently Senior Lecturer ( UHD ) in Early Modern History in the Department of History of the University of Amsterdam.

    He studied history in Amsterdam ( kandidaats ) and Groningen ( doctoraal ) and obtained his PhD degree at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under the supervision of Prof. J.G.A. Pocock. Since 1987, he has been employed by the University of Amsterdam in various functions (NWO-researcher, Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Lecturer in Early Modern History). He has been Arthur O. Lovejoy Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University, Visiting Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciencesand Visiting Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte in Göttingen.

    He is specialized in early modern history, with an emphasis on the eighteenth century, the history of political thought and conceptual history. His first book, Enlightenment and Conservatism in the Dutch Republic (1993), was on the political thought of Elie Luzac, one of the key figures of the Dutch Enlightenment. He has since published widely on the history of political thought and on the history of concepts. A number of his essays on these topics have recently been published by Brill Academic Publishers: Republicans. Essays on Eighteenth-Century Dutch Political Thought (2007).

    Wyger Velema has been and is involved in a large number of collective research projects. During the 1990s he was one of the initiators of a project on the history of Dutch concepts that has so far led to the publication of six volumes with Amsterdam University Press. Between 1996 and 1998 he was a participant in the European Science Foundation network "Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage" (see: Martin van Gelderen and Quentin Skinner, ed. Republicanism. A Shared European Heritage . 2 vols. Cambridge, 2002). More recently, he has obtained a grant for the formation of an international scholarly network on "Dutch Conceptual History in Comparative and International Perspective" (2004). In 2006 he received, together with Prof. N.C.F. van Sas, a major research grant for the project "The First Dutch Democracy: The Political World of the Batavian Republic, 1795-1801", which will run from 2007 until 2011 and will result inthree PhD-dissertations and a synthetic monograph.

    Apart from having organized several international conferences himself, Wyger Velema has given numerous papers at academic conferences in the Netherlands, Europe and the Americas. He is a member of the governing board of the History of Political and Social Concepts Group and of the editorial board of the journal Contributions to the History of Concepts . In 2006, he was one of the founding editors of the new Brill series Brill's Studies in the History of Political Thought .

    Key publications

    Enlightenment and Conservatism in the Dutch Republic. The Political Thought of Elie Luzac (1721-1796) . (Speculum Historiale. Studies in the theory of history, the philosophy of history and the history of ideas, volume 13). Assen and Maastricht, 1993.

    Ed., with E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier. Vrijheid. Een geschiedenis van de vijftiende tot de twintigste eeuw . (History of Dutch Concepts, volume 2). Amsterdam, 1999.

    Republicans. Essays on Eighteenth-Century Dutch Political Thought . (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, volume 155). Leiden and Boston, 2007.

    Full cv and list of publications

    Project description "The First Dutch Democracy: The Political World of the Batavian Republic, 1795-1801"

  • Publications

    2023

    2020

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2020). Reform, Revolution and the Republican Tradition: The Case of the Batavian Republic. In S. Richter, T. Maissen, & M. Albertone (Eds.), Languages of Reform in the Eighteenth Century: When Europe Lost Its Fear of Change (pp. 363-383). (Routledge Research in Early Modern History). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367855017-17 [details]

    2018

    • Velema, W. (2018). Against Democracy: Dutch Eighteenth-Century Critics of Ancient and Modern Popular Government. In W. Velema, & A. Weststeijn (Eds.), Ancient Models in the Early Modern Republican Imagination (pp. 189-213). (Metaforms. Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity.; Vol. 12). Brill. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004351387_010 [details]
    • Velema, W. (2018). Dead and buried after the elections? Voting and citizenship in the Batavian Revolution. In S. Ferente, L. Kunčević, & M. Pattenden (Eds.), Cultures of Voting in Pre-modern Europe (pp. 141-156). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351255042-10 [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2018). Republicanism Redefined: How the American Revolution Transformed Dutch Political Culture. In M. O'Malley , & D. van Renen (Eds.), Beyond 1776: Globalizing the Cultures of the American Revolution (pp. 48-73). University of Virginia Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv6zdbcp.6 [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2018). Volkssoevereiniteit: de lange geschiedenis van een ingewikkeld politiek begrip: [Review of: R. Bourke, Q. Skinner (2016) Popular Sovereignty in Historical Perspective]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 131(1), 164-166. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2018.1.BOEK [details]
    • Velema, W., & Weststeijn, A. (2018). Introduction: Classical Republicanism and Ancient Republican Models. In W. Velema, & A. Weststeijn (Eds.), Ancient Models in the Early Modern Republican Imagination (pp. 1-19). (Metaforms. Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity; Vol. 12). Brill. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004351387_002 [details]

    2016

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2016). Achttiende-eeuwse concepties van Europa: [Bespreking van: A. Lilti, C. Spector (2014) Penser l’Europe au XVIIIe siècle: Commerce, civilisation, empire]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 129(4), 654-655. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2016.4.BOEK [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2016). Een smakelijke revolutionaire hutspot: [Bespreking van: J. Polasky (2015) Revolutions without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 129(3), 473-474. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2016.3.RECE [details]

    2015

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2015). 'Republic' and 'Democracy' in Dutch Late Eighteenth-Century Revolutionary Discourse. In J. Oddens, M. Rutjes, & E. Jacobs (Eds.), The Political Culture of the Sister Republics, 1794-1806: France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy (pp. 49-56, 256-260). Amsterdam University Press. [details]

    2014

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2014). Introduction: The Enlightenment and the past. Old controversies and new perspectives. De achttiende eeuw, 46(2), 7-26. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2014). Oude waarheden: over de terugkeer van de klassieke oudheid in de verlichtingshistoriografie. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 127(2), 229-246. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2014.2.VELE [details]

    2012

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). Conversations with the Classics. Ancient Political Virtue and Two Modern Revolutions. Early American Studies, 10(2), 415-438. https://doi.org/10.1353/eam.2012.0011 [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). De Politieke Gezichten van Cicero: de Reputatie van een ‘wysgerig staatsman’ in Verlichting en Revolutie. Congresreeks Werkgroep 18e Eeuw, 1, 87-101. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). Introduction: Antiquity and Modernity in the Eighteenth Century: The Case of the Dutch Republic. Congresreeks Werkgroep 18e Eeuw, 1, 17-29. [details]

    2009

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2009). Jonathan Israel and Dutch patriotism. De achttiende eeuw, 41(2), 150-158. [details]

    2006

    • Tilmans, K., & Velema, W. (2006). Applying Begriffsgeschichte to Dutch history. Some remarks on the practice and the future of a project. Contributions to the History of Concepts, 2(1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1163/187465606783406144 [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2006). 'Lodewijk Napoleon en het einde van de republikeinse politiek'. De Negentiende Eeuw, 30, 147-159. [details]

    2020

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2020). Drukpers en politieke cultuur in de lange Verlichting: Een voorzichtige synthese: [Review of: T. Munck (2019) Conflict and Enlightenment : Print and Political Culture in Europe, 1635-1795]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 133(2), 393-395. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2020.2.020.VELE [details]

    2018

    2015

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2015). Tegen de democratie: Johan Luzacs De Socrate Cive (1795) in context. In F. Grijzenhout, & P. Raedts (Eds.), Deze lange eeuw: metamorfosen van het vaderland 1780-1950: opstellen voor Niek van Sas (pp. 33-49, 252-254). Prometheus/Bert Bakker. [details]

    2013

    • Grijzenhout, F., van Sas, N., & Velema, W. (2013). Het Bataafse experiment: politiek en cultuur rond 1800. Nijmegen: Vantilt. [details]
    • Grijzenhout, F., van Sas, N., & Velema, W. (2013). Inleiding. In F. Grijzenhout, N. van Sas, & W. Velema (Eds.), Het Bataafse experiment: politiek en cultuur rond 1800 (pp. 7-25, 309-310). Vantilt. [details]
    • Velema, W. (2013). Republikeinse democratie. De politieke wereld van de Bataafse Revolutie, 1795-1798. In F. Grijzenhout, N. van Sas, & W. Velema (Eds.), Het Bataafse experiment: politiek en cultuur rond 1800 (pp. 26-63, 310-313). Vantilt. [details]

    2012

    • Raat, A. J. P., Velema, W. R. E., & Baar-de Weerd, C. (2012). De Oudheid in de Achttiende Eeuw = Classical Antiquity in the Eighteenth Century. (Congresreeks Werkgroep 18e Eeuw; No. 1). Utrecht: Werkgroep 18e Eeuw. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). Classical Antiquity Contested: The Dutch Eighteenth Century and Ancient Politics. In S. IA. Karp, & G. A. Kosmolinskai͡a (Eds.), Vek Prosveshchenii͡a. - 4: Antichnoe Nasledie v Evropeǐskoi Kul'ture XVIII Veka = L'Héritage de l'Antiquité dans la culture européenne du XVIIIe siècle (pp. 213-226). Nauka. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). Van democraat tot republikein: de historisering van Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol. Groniek : Historisch Tijdschrift, 193, 321-332. [details]

    2011

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2011). Generous republican sentiments: the political thought of Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol = Generosi sentimenti repubblicani: il pensiero politico di Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol. In A. Weststeijn (Ed.), A marble revolutionary: the Dutch patriot Joan Derk van der Capellen and his monument (pp. 39-65). Palombi. [details]

    2010

    • Velema, W. (2010). Louis Napoléon et la mort de la République. In A. Jourdan (Ed.), Louis Bonaparte: roi de Hollande (1806-1810) (pp. 31-43, 439-441). (La bibliothèque Napoléon. Série biographie). Nouveau Monde. [details]

    2009

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2009). Rethinking the Batavian revolution. Studies in Dutch Language and Culture, 3, 11-24. [details]

    2007

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2007). 'História conceitual: perspectivas holandesas'. In J. Feres Júnior, & M. Jasmin (Eds.), História dos Conceitos: diálogos transatlânticos (pp. 79-88). Rio de Janeiro. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2007). Republicans. Essays on Eighteenth-Century Dutch Political Thought. (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History). Leiden-Boston: Brill. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2007). The Dutch, the French and Napoleon: historiographical reflections on a troubled relationship. In A. de Francesco (Ed.), Da Brumaio ai cento giorni: cultura di governo e dissenso politico nell'Europa di Bonaparte (pp. 39-51). (Storiografica; No. 11). Guerini. [details]

    2006

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2006). 'Verlichte vergezichten. Voltaire als historicus'. In J. P. van der Sterre (Ed.), Voltaire en de Republiek. Teksten van Voltaire over Holland en Hollanders (pp. 465-476). Amsterdam / Antwerpen. [details]

    2015

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2015). Het klassieke Griekenland door achttiende-eeuwse Duitse ogen [Bespreking van: D. Valdez (2014) German Philhellenism: The Pathos of the Historical Imagination from Winckelmann to Goethe]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 128(3), 503-504. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2015.2.RECE [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2015). Licht op het verleden [Bespreking van: S. Bourgault, R. Sparling (2013) A Companion to Enlightenment Historiography]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 128(2), 328-330. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2015.2.RECE [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2015). Meer dan 'O tempora, o mores!' [Bespreking van: T. Jung (2012) Zeichen des Verfalls: Semantische Studien zur Entstehung der Kulturkritik im 18. und fruehen 19. Jahrhundert]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 128(1), 155-156. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2015.1.RECE [details]

    2014

    2013

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2013). De lange schaduw van de Stoa [Bespreking van: C. Brooke (2012) Philosophic pride: stoicism and political thought from Lipsius to Rousseau]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 126(4), 591-592. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2013.4.B11 [details]

    2012

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). Hora ruit, tempus fluit [Bespreking van: A. Lianeri (2011) The western time of ancient history: historiographical encounters with the Greek and Roman pasts]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 125(4), 575-576. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2012). Reizend republikanisme [Bespreking van: R. Hammersley (2010) The English republican tradition and eighteenth-century France: between the ancients and the moderns]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 125(1), 135-136. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2012.1.B15 [details]

    2011

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2011). Rome over de oceaan [Bespreking van: E. Shalev (2009) Rome reborn on western shores: historical imagination and the creation of the American republic]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 124(1), 130-131. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2011). [Review of: J. Stern (2010) Orangism in the Dutch Republic in word and image, 1650-75]. Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 126(3), 101-102. http://www.persistent-identifier.nl?identifier=URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-108367 [details]

    2010

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2010). Omstreden Oudheid: De Nederlandse achttiende eeuw en de klassieke politiek. (Oratiereeks; No. 352). Vossiuspers UvA. [details]

    2009

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2009). Patriotenbewegung. In F. Jaeger (Ed.), Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. - 9 (pp. 925-928). Metzler. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2009). Republikeinse rariteiten [Bespreking van: A. Holenstein, et al. (2008) The republican alternative: the Netherlands and Switzerland compared]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 122(4), 574-575. [details]
    • Velema, W. R. E. (2009). [Bespreking van: P. Buijs (2007) De eeuw van het geluk : Nederlandse opvattingen over geluk ten tijde van de Verlichting, 1658-1835]. Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 124(3), 475-477. https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.7022 [details]

    2007

    • Velema, W. R. E. (2007). [Review of: R. van Vliet (2005) Elie Luzac (1721-1796). Boekverkoper van de Verlichting]. Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 122, 439-441. [details]

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