dr. B. (Barbara) Henkes

Barbara Henkes studied History and Criminology at the University of Groningen (MA, ‘doctorat’ in 1980). After finishing her studies she worked for the University Weekly of the University of Groningen and became a free-lance publicist/researcher during the 1980s. In these years Henkes published a book and produced an exhibition on Dutch maidservants in the first half of the 20^th Century (Nijmegen 1985) and she was a visiting lecturer at the University in Olden­burg (1986-’87). In 1990 she became junior researcher at the Cen­tre for Modern History at the University of Amsterdam. This resulted in a PhD. (cum laude) for her thesis on German maidservants in the Netherlands 1920-1950 that was published in Dutch (1995) and German (1998). Henkes continued her research as a post-doc at the University of Groningen with an Oral History project on the academic community in confrontation with national-socialism. In 1998 she started a Dutch-Flemish collaboration on the history of folklore-studies in the Netherlands and Flanders, working as a fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam. Since 2000 she returned to the University of Groningen to work as an assistant professor in Modern History at the History Department. She combines this position with free-lance activities in- and outside the academy.

Henkes held a visiting scholarships at the Zentrum für Niederlande-studien an der University of Münster (2007). From 2007-2009 she was involved in the assessment of a national Oral-History projects about the Second World War. She has been member of various editorial boards, such as the Dutch Yearbook of Womens History (Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis) (1995 - 2001), the series Migratie- en Etni­sche Studies (1995 - 2001), the Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (2004 – 2008) and the editorial board for humanities of the Amsterdam University Press (2007-2010).