Photo: Robin Alysha Clemens
Ismee Tames appointed professor of War Cultures at UU
Published on 25 November 2025
Ismee Tames, senior researcher at NIOD, has been appointed professor of War Cultures at the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University, effective November 1, 2025. In her new role, she will investigate how war experiences and practices leave their mark on societies, even long after the end of a conflict. Tames focuses on the question of how the logic of war—thinking in terms of enemy and security—continues to influence institutions, policy, and everyday actions.
What are war cultures?
According to Tames, war cultures are ways of thinking, speaking, and acting that are shaped by war. “In a war, everything is under extreme pressure. Everything revolves around the conviction that you can only be safe once the enemy has been defeated. It's us or them, friend or foe, life or death,” says Tames. She investigates how ideas and customs from wartime become permanent features of a society, and what other ways of thinking, speaking, and acting are possible in times of crisis.
War cultures in society
An important focus of Tames' chair is the institutionalization of war cultures. According to Tames, war cultures do not automatically disappear when peace is signed. She investigates how the idea that we must eliminate ‘enemies’ becomes an integral part of politics and society. For example, after the world wars, all kinds of wartime measures were not or hardly reversed.
In her research on stateless refugees, for example, Tames sees how mistrust and control, which arose during the world wars, have since become embedded in passport systems, border controls, and international agreements. These structures unconsciously bring the logic of war into peacetime.
Tames also investigates alternative ways of thinking and acting in times of fear and crisis. Historical examples show that people can also choose solidarity, cooperation, and care—what she calls “regenerative cultures.” Her chair therefore has both a scientific and a social mission: to recognize the logic of war and to create space for other ways of thinking and acting.
Read here also the news item written by Utrecht University about the appointment of Ismee Tames.