In de ban van het verhaal Over het belang van wat we niet weten in de geschiedschrijving
On September 11, 2025, Prof. Hinke Piersma, senior researcher and director of Research at NIOD, delivered her inaugural lecture as professor of History of War, Conflict, and Memory at the University of Amsterdam.
In her speech, entitled 'In de ban van het verhaal. Over het belang van wat we niet weten in de geschiedschrijving', Piersma discussed how stories about war and persecution often harden into fixed truths. She emphasized how important it is to continue to question these stories and that historical research into Zionism must be given a place in the public debate, precisely because there is always an element of “not knowing”. ‘It would be good if historians were also more aware of this in public,’ said Piersma.
The full text of her inaugural lecture has been published and can be read here: In the spell of the story. On the importance of what we do not know in historiography (the text is in Dutch). You can watch it again on the UvA website.
Photo: Mark Rammers