I studied social and economic history at the University of Utrecht . After my studies I worked at the Lau Mazirel Foundation , the Trimbos Institute and the Research Institute for History and Culture of Utrecht University. I graduated in 2001 at the University of Amsterdam with a thesis on psychiatry, cultural criticism and the movement for mental health in the Netherlands in the period 1924-1970. Since January 2008 I have been director of the Royal Netherlands Historical Society ( KNHG ), the largest organization of professional historians in the Netherlands . The KNHG works closely with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Huygens Institute for Netherlands History (Huygens ING). I am also managing editor of BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review, the leading academic journal for the history of the Netherlands, Belgium and their global presence. The journal publishes research and review articles which explore broad and important issues in the history of the Low Countries, and seeks to do so in a wider comparative context. It accommodates all historical subdisciplines and covers every period of history since the Middle Ages. BMGN – LCHR accepts contributions in Dutch and English. Since 2012 the journal is published in Open Access on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.