Internship report Fryske Akademy Homer Wagenaar
Modern History and International Relations H.s.w.wagenaar@outlook.com
+31610665950
Supervisor at the Fryske: Marijn Molema Supervisor at the RUG: Dirk Jan Wolffram
Placement period: May 1, 2017 – August 31, 2017 Short introduction to the Fryske Akademy
The Fryske Akademy is a research centre in the historical city of Leeuwarden, Fryslân. It is part of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie der Wetenschappen (KNAW). It devotes itself mostly to the arts and humanities: it has several in-house historians, linguists, and research sections that devote themselves to large projects such as HISGIS, an ICT project where historical maps are digitalized as a geographic database. Several PhDs are employed here. Research on the Frisian language and culture forms an important part of the identity of the organization. If you are Dutch, expect employees to talk to you in Frisian, although they are willing to switch language if you ask them.
My tasks
As an intern of Marijn Molema, who covers the nineteenth and twentieth century, and specializes in regional economic development, I had two main tasks: help Marijn with a commission by the SER Noord-Nederland to write an essay on its recent history, and to write a PhD proposal on the history of regional development, specifically devoted to regions with demographic decline. Only the latter project was required for my studies, and only for the latter did I obtain ECTS credits. However, this was how I planned it myself. I only needed 10 ECTS to finish my studies.
For the SER NN, I did most of the gathering of primary materials from archives, and organized and participated in most of the interviews. On the basis of the primary material, I wrote part of the final essay. During the project, I assisted in the development of the general argumentation line and structure.
For the PhD project I did the work myself. However, as Marijn both has an extensive knowledge and maintains a personal network associated with the topic, he helped me shape the project more effectively and efficiently through discussion and feedback sessions.
Reflections
The SER project in particular was inspiring. As our historical period was mostly 1992-2017, I had to gather the primary material myself. Through the interviews and the links that led from these conversations, I was able to access two organizational archives that are normally inaccessible to outsiders, the national SER and the regional SNN. These turned out to be great sources of information for the essay. Unfortunately, I also discovered through calling the various regional organizations such as trade unions and employer organizations that only a few organizations actually maintain an archive properly. Worse, the Noordelijke Ontwikkelmaatschappij (NOM) was forced to acknowledge that they had just a few years ago destroyed theirs. There is a long road to go for historians.
organization in the essay we discussed during meetings. Finding a way to keep commissioners supportive and the project of high academic quality was something I did not have much experience in.
The PhD proposal was not that exceptional an exercise, as I had already written PhD proposals before. I did obtain excellent feedback from both supervisors, in which it became apparent that structure, making every single sentence relevant, and exuding confidence are three things I still need to work on with future PhD proposals.
Evaluation of the placement period
