Gijsbert Oonk, Research Director at the History Department of the Erasmus School of History Culture and Communication (ESHCC), has been awarded a Robert Schuman Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence. This is an award for distinguished scholars made by invitation only. The fellowship will run from October 2022 to January 2023.
Gijsbert Oonk will be based at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) where he will work with colleagues on citizenship and sport and national identity together with Prof. dr. Maarten Vink and his staff in Florence.
Gijsbert Oonk: “As human beings, we easily use ‘we’ when we are successful, and ‘they’ when we want to create distance. In my inaugural address called ‘Who are we cheering for?’, I ask the question: who is the ‘who’ and who is the ‘we’? In the everyday language of journalists in the newspaper and of politicians in front of the camera, those ‘we’s’ and ‘they’s’ are used all the time, often without thinking about it. Yet these words constantly influence our thinking about inclusion and exclusion. As a researcher, I want to demonstrate in an academic way how this works.”
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS)
The RSCAS was established in 1992 to complement the four disciplinary departments that make up the EUI. It is involved in both basic and policy research, collaborating with other centres of excellence in Europe, providing opportunities for young scholars and promoting dialogue with the world of practice. The Centre takes its name from Robert Schuman, one of founding fathers of the European Communities.
Football Lives
Among other things, Gijsbert Oonk is Academic Advisor of Football Lives: a collection of 100+ life stories encompassing the place of football in 150 years of European history. These lives relate to more than thirty countries across Europe, with links to the Americas, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific.
They include all kinds of people with different backgrounds, from different homelands and identities, and with different connections to football. There are famous players and famous coaches, but also football people you may never have heard of. There are referees, journalists, administrators – even a humble football fan. Twenty-two of these life stories are of women.
Gijsbert Oonk recently received a European Grant for the project ‘Football Makes History: Schools and football club museums unlocking local heritage education’.
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