Working at Camp Westerbork means paying attention to details. It is the result of the paradox of memories that have made Westerbork the lieu de mémoire it is today, as evidenced by the public survey. The transfer of history should start with the intrinsic motivation of the visitor. Personalization - with the help of, but not only through technology. Narrative elements, at the same time restrained and imaginative, that change with each visitor. Monuments that are about then, but also raise questions about now. A multitude of activities that both remember and commemorate, as well as stimulate and contextualize.

As the bloodiest global war in history, the Second World War has generated numerous narratives and memories among the different nations affected. In recent years these often nationally framed narratives and memories have been subject to major processes of transformation. Now that the war-generation is demographically fading out, ‘living’ memory is definitely shifting to ‘cultural’ memory. At the same time, globalization of tourism, media and expertise increasingly fuels the global circulation and interaction of narratives and ‘travelling memories’. This PhD project analyses the interaction between various global layers and players of WWII memory in late twentieth-century and contemporary Japan. It focuses on three major heritage sites - Nagasaki (atomic bomb), Noborito (ill-famed science institute) and Kure (Yamato battle ship) - each attracting annually hundreds of thousands of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, American and European tourists. The project will scrutinize how, 1. in the construction of these sites various stakeholders have struggled and negotiated to strike a balance between Japanese victimhood and aggression in a national and international context, and how 2. contemporary tourists from various national backgrounds integrate their own national and personal memory culture within the dominant narrative framework of the sites, creating new layers of meaning. As a result, the project aims to not only significantly expand the predominantly national-oriented Japanese historiography on WWII memory and heritage, but also to fundamentally contribute to a better understanding of dark tourism in a global context and redress the predominantly Euro-centrist perspective on global traveling memory at large.

This project analyzes the interplay between the production of popular music, the articulation of modernity, and the emergence of new audiences, lifestyles and related processes of social differentiation in 20th century (pen)insular Southeast Asia. Empirically, we focus on pioneering creative artists who straddle conventional categories of ethnicity, religion, gender, generation and class, and their audiences. Mobilizing cultural resources and networks, and exploring technological and entrepreneurial possibilities, these artists are at the forefront of popular cultures production and redefinition. By calling into question the conventional and articulating what is modern, they co-produce new audiences and contribute to new processes of social differentiation. In this project, covering the 1920s-1950s and 1970s-2000s, we focus on decisive historical junctures where technological innovation, human agency, the consumption of new musical styles and the rise of new audiences came together within particular Southeast Asian urban localities. The cultural transformations and contestations taking place in these localities are intertwined with expressions of modernity. The project aims to capture these processes in three subprojects: (1) The Jazz Age (1920-1950s), (2) New Cassette Traditions (1970s-1980s), and (3) Pop, Politics and Piety in the Digital Era (1990s-2000). More broadly, these projects encompass two major political transitions-from the late colonial state to recent nation-states (subproject 1); from the heyday of authoritarian rule to emergent democracies (subprojects 2 and 3). The main applicant will write a synthesising volume at the projects conclusion. Theoretically, we engage the debate on modernitys articulation in non-Western contexts within a comparative, historical framework. Our innovation lies in situating this debate in relation to the making of popular music and the rise of new audiences and concomitant lifestyles.

‘Intermarried’ couples and their families are, and have been, perceived as threats to homogeneous societies and social order in periods of occupation, war and genocide. Using ‘Jewish’/‘non-Jewish’ ‘intermarriage’ in Western Europe during World War Two as a case study, this project explores the agency of ‘mixed’ couples and their search for safety. It investigates whether and how wider family networks supported their coping and survival strategies. In doing so, INTERMARRIAGE AND FAMILY challenges existing perspectives on the role of kin support and family networks in times of crisis and contributes to fields of study stretching beyond Holocaust historiography.

After the start in which Pressing Matter also learned to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the project has intensified, it formalised its structure and deepened its understanding of the four perspectives. This cohesion promotes teamwork and also supports overseas researchers to feel at home. Results: a) Pressing Matter has partnered in citizen science, as with, for example, Imagine IC, which is exploring the meaning of collections for diasporic citizens in the Netherlands; b) art practice-based research projects are in full swing; c) Pressing Matter has attracted a lot of academic, public and policy interest; d) provenance research is progressing.