Digital exhibition – Friesland

Our group project was mostly concerned with the differing ways that regional identities come about, uphold and define themselves. To pursue this topic on purely theoretical grounds would have been an ambitious undertaking for four history students so we chose to use a case study, which would help us understand our topic of choice further. To that end, we decided to choose Friesland, largely because it was nearby, but also because we knew surprisingly little about it.

Our initial plan was to shoot a short documentary where we could more graphically illustrate what exactly Friesland and the Frisians are, and where we could most effectively utilise interviews as a source of information. This naturally proved highly unwieldly, so we ended up organising a digital exhibition instead. However, we still managed to conduct interviews with the historical society of Leeuwarden and the director of the Fryske Akademy. The perspective these interviews gave us was quite indispensable to our final product, as talking organically to people who were much more experienced than us ensured we were not disrespectful in our portrayal, alongside being pleasant conversations.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the project for us was finding out so much about a part of the Netherlands that we rarely thought about before.

Digital playground – The Shift Project

Group: Hamzh, Luana, Isabelle, Anna and Cas

The Shift project started as an idea to create the “urban dictionary for the 21st century” and a goal to showcase the shift from the analogue to the digital age. We especially focused on how this transformed every aspect of society, touching on activism, hidden labour, media consumption, communication, and cultural norms. We wanted to move beyond conventional academic ways of creating projects and instead developed a contemporary display of the theoretical knowledge we gained – one that could still be accessed in an interactive and fun way. Although we initially wanted to turn our project into a book, inspired by “Wreck This Journal”, we ended up switching forms to a website. We identified a common theme among our research topics: “evolution.” This was then embedded in our “digital playground”: a website that allowed users to explore different topics in a playful, interactive way. Our final product was a fun, engaging, and slightly chaotic yet organised digital space, reminiscent of the personalised and interactive early 2010s MySpace pages. Overall, the informal nature of our process resulted in a great experience and project.

Magazine – Globalization

Group: William, Wiebe, Julia, Rustam and Coco

For our Honours Research Seminar project, we made a magazine centered around the theme globalization. We started of with the premise that we wanted a central theme through which we could all explore our own interested. We discovered that we all found themes relating to different time periods/topics quite interesting, which we could all somehow relate to the topic globalisation. Under the supervision of Dr. René Koekkoek, we decided that we wanted to make a magazine which both explored more popular historical topics, as well as more in-depth articles. A magazine was perfect for this, as it thus allowed it to explore our own interests, as well as giving us a broad scala of ways in which we could write them. We ended up with a magazine that had in-depth articles about the economic, political and societal side of globalisation, as well as more ‘popular’ articles, such as the way that globalisation and dumplings are linked. To add to this, the magazine also features several interviews, which enabled us to interact with experts within the field of globalisation and our own individual interests. Overall, our magazine showcased our individual interests, but the process also shows our collective efforts, as we had to make a magazine which was overall coherent. Doing a magazine for a research project is a perfect way if you want something that enables you to explore your own interests, as well as learn collectively throughout the process.

Podcast – The Essence of Amalia

Group: Sarah, Avery, Dirkje, Shian and Maaike

Have you ever wondered what the 17th century smelled like? Or why scent is often overlooked in museums and historical research? Perfume, an essential part of identity and status in the past, offers a unique lens through which we can explore history. This was the starting point of our honours research seminar.

We are four art history students and one international relations student, so it was important to combine these separate fields into our discussion. And after many discussions, we landed on perfume in the 17th century. We studied literature in the first block and used our research to deduce what kind of perfume Amalia could have worn. Then the second block, we actually produced it! We translated all our findings into a podcast, The Essence of Amalia. If you want to learn more about our project, you can listen to the podcast on Spotify.

Documentary – The Legacy of Srebrenica

Group: Nils, Mees, Jan, Florent and Pim

Our group’s project focused on creating a documentary about the Srebrenica Genocide. Between July 11 and 16, 1995, near the end of the Bosnian Civil War, more than 8,000 Bosniaks were systematically slaughtered in the area surrounding the town of Srebrenica. This atrocity was perpetrated by the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. Srebrenica had been designated a U.N.-controlled safe zone in eastern Bosnia and was sheltering Bosniak refugees fleeing the ethnic violence of the civil war. A Dutch battalion of U.N. peacekeepers (Dutchbat) was stationed there to deter an attack by the Bosnian Serbs. However, the Dutchbat mandate proved insufficient, and the peacekeepers were easily overrun when Bosnian Serb forces launched their assault. Thousands of Bosniak men were separated from women and children, transported to killing sites, and executed in what has since been recognized as genocide.

In the Netherlands, the media has often emphasized the role of Dutchbat, framing the events as a “Dutch national trauma.” In contrast, our documentary sought to shift the focus to the Bosniak victims and the long-term impact of this tragedy on their community. A significant portion of our documentary explores the genocide’s effects on the survivors and the lasting trauma it inflicted. In addition to highlighting the human impact, our documentary also delved into the broader implications of the genocide. We analyzed how it influenced U.N. decision-making in subsequent peace missions, contributed to the establishment of the International Criminal Court, and shaped academic research on genocide studies.

To bring depth and authenticity to our documentary, we conducted interviews with three experts who offered invaluable insights into the events and their aftermath. Finding the right language to convey these issues respectfully and accurately was a challenge, but we believe we succeeded in presenting the story thoughtfully. One of the most challenging aspects of the project was editing the footage.  Thankfully, our teammate Pim stepped up and made significant contributions to the editing process, ensuring the project came together smoothly. In the end, we are proud of what we accomplished and look back on this project as a very meaningful and educational experience.