Frits van Oostrom (born 15 May 1953 in Utrecht,

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

) is University Professor for the

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

at Utrecht University. In 1999 he was a visiting Professor at Harvard for the

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

Chair. From September 2004 to June 2005, he was a fellow of the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The instit ...

(NIAS). He was awarded the Spinozapremie in 1995. In May 2005 he became president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) for a three-year period. He had been member of the same institution since 1994. In the later years Van Oostrom was given the task to assemble a '' Dutch Canon'', meaning: what everyone should know of the

and its

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

References

External links

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Press release on Oostrom's election as President of KNAW
1953 births Living people Utrecht University faculty Leiden University faculty Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Dutch medievalists Spinoza Prize winners {{Netherlands-academic-bio-stub