dr. K.E. (Karen) Hollewand

Karen Hollewand is an Assistant Professor in Cultural Heritage, Identity and Early Modern History at the University of Groningen. She concentrates on the history of sexuality, science, gender and the body from the seventeenth century to the present.

After obtaining a BA and RMA in History from the University of Utrecht, she studied the banishment of the radical humanist Hadriaan Beverland (1650-1716) during a DPhil at the University of Oxford (2012-2016). Her thesis ( The Banishment of Beverland. Sex, Sin, and Scholarship in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic ) en translation of Beverland's most infamous work (De Peccato Originali), in collaboration with Floris Verhaart, were published in 2019 and 2023. She worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the universities of Leiden, Utrecht and Groningen.

Her current research focuses on (1) the (early modern) history of sexuality, in particular sexual science, knowledge and education in the Netherlands and (2) on the history of science, gender, and dead bodies, for example in relation to the medical collections of the University of Groningen (which contain obstetric instruments and human remains).

Click on one of the links below to learn more about her work:

• The woman's body in a man's world, with Rina Knoeff, article Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen

• Two podcasts on Women and Health (law, history, medicine), Aletta Talks, Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health

• Een kleine cultuurgeschiedenis van menstruatie, NPO Radio 1 OVT 

• Seksualiteit en seksuele voorlichting in Nederland NPO Radio 1 VROEG!

• Article on sex and science in the Dutch Republic

• Artikel over de geschiedenis van de clitoris