Prof. Yme Kuiper appointed Professor by Special Appointment in Historic Country Houses and Estates

Prof. Yme Kuiper has been appointed Professor by Special Appointment in Historic Country Houses and Estates. He will take up this appointment at the Faculty of Arts on 1 September 2012. The new chair has been established by the Stichting Van der Wyck-de Kempenaer. The chair has a strong interdisciplinary focus, encompassing the history of the people who lived in the country houses and on the estates, as well as the architecture and interiors of the houses and the landscape of the gardens, parks and estates that belonged to them .

Unique chair

With the founding of this new chair, in the Year of the Historic Country House 2012, the University of Groningen becomes the only university in the Netherlands to have an academic teaching and research group in the field of country houses and estates. Within the organization of the University, the new professor will join the staff of the Centre for Landscape Studies of the Department of Art and Architectural History. In order to provide support to the new professor, a Lecturer in Historic Country Houses and Estates (0.2 FTE) will be appointed with effect from 1 September 2012, also with substantial financial support from the Stichting Van der Wyck-de Kempenaer.

Professor Yme Kuiper

Prof. Y.B. Kuiper (1949) will combine his new position with his current position of Professor by Special Appointment in Historical Anthropology and the Anthropology of Religion (endowed chair: Groningen University Fund), at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen. During the course of his academic career, Professor Kuiper has built up extensive expertise in the field of the interdisciplinary historiography of the Dutch and European aristocracy. He also has many national and international contacts in the field of historical-anthropological research as well as heritage policy, and he is the author of an impressive series of publications in the field of the new chair.

Stichting Van der Wyck-de Kempenaer

The Stichting Van der Wyck-de Kempenaer is the foundation that manages the estate of Dr H.W.M. van der Wyck, a pioneering researcher of the houses, interiors, residents, gardens and parks of country houses in the Netherlands. The foundation’s collection and archive are housed at the Fraeylemaborg in Slochteren. This material, and the ‘borg’ (stately home) itself, will play an important role in the new professor’s teaching and research.

Centre for Landscape Studies

The Centre for Landscape Studies of the University of Groningen was founded in 2010, and is oriented to teaching and research in the field of the history, development and currency of Dutch and European cultural landscapes. The Centre, led by Prof. Theo Spek, is the only university centre in the Netherlands that focuses exclusively on the past, present and future of the cultural landscape.

For more information

• Prof.dr. Y.B. Kuiper, Professor by Special Appointment in Historic Country Houses and Estates, y.b.kuiper rug.nl, 050-363 55 92 / 050-3635568 (secretariat)
• C.O.A. Baron Schimmelpenninck van der Oije, Board Member, Stichting Van der Wyck-de Kempenaer, c.schimmelpenninck1 hetnet.nl , 010-452 81 62 / 06-53205327
• Prof. Th. Spek, Professor of Landscape History / Head, Centre for Landscape Studies, theo.spek rug.nl, 050-363 89 51