Thomas von der Dunk (born 2 July 1961, in

Soestdijk Soestdijk () is a neighbourhood of Soest and a hamlet in the municipality of Baarn. Both are part of the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. The village gives its name to Paleis Soestdijk, which from 1937 to 2004 was the residence of Princess and ...

) is a Dutch

cultural historian Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

, writer, and columnist who has written for ''

de Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...

'' and ''

HP/De Tijd ''HP/De Tijd'' is a Dutch language monthly opinion magazine published by the Audax Groep. Its editorial offices are in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Alongside ''De Groene Amsterdammer'', ''Vrij Nederland'' and ''Elsevier'', it is one of the most influe ...

''. Von der Dunk was raised in

Bilthoven Bilthoven is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of De Bilt. It has a railway station with connections to Utrecht, Amersfoort and Baarn. It is home to the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health an ...

, and from 1979 to 1988 studied art history at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

. He was a doctoral candidate in the history department at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

(1989–1993), and received his Ph.D. in 1994, having written a dissertation on the political and ideological characteristics of the cult of monuments in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

between the fourteenth and the eighteenth century. He worked at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

from 1994 to 1999, and from 1999 to 2002 again in Leiden. Since 2002 he has been working as a freelance writer and

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

. From 2010 to 2011 he wrote a regular column for ''

'', but was fired in March 2011, and is now an online columnist for ''

'' and a columnist for the regional paper ''

De Gelderlander ''De Gelderlander'' (founded 1848) is a Dutch daily newspaper focused on Gelderland and immediate surroundings. It is published in Nijmegen by the Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belg ...

''. In April 2011, Von der Dunk was to give the annual Willem Arondéus lecture, organized by the

States-Provincial The provincial council (, PS), also known as the States Provincial, is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has ...

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

. The ruling

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary ...

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a conservative-liberal Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingstoke (Palgrave) p.49 political party in ...

government coalition, supported by the

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( nl, Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nine ...

, cancelled the lecture, asserting that his lecture was too partisan. However, the Christian Democratic Appeal and People's Party for Freedom and Democracy later decided to let Von der Dunk give his lecture anyway.

References

External links

Von der Dunk's 2011 Arondéus lecture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunk, Thomas von der 1961 births Living people Cultural historians Dutch art historians Dutch columnists 20th-century Dutch historians Dutch people of German-Jewish descent Leiden University alumni Academic staff of Leiden University People from De Bilt People from Soest, Netherlands University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of Utrecht University 21st-century Dutch historians