Judith Pollmann

Judith Pollmann is Professor of the History of the Early Modern Netherlands at Leiden University, where she has held various academic positions since 2005. Previously, she taught at Oxford University from 1995-2005 as a lecturer in Early Modern History and Fellow and Tutor of Somerville College.

She received her doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1998 for a study of the religious development of Arnoldus Buchelius (1565-1641), after studying history at the University of Amsterdam and Renaissance Studies at the Warburg Institute in London.

Pollmann's research focuses on how people and societies in the past negotiated change. Her work spans early modern identity formation, the history of the early modern Netherlands and Dutch Revolt, Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe, social history of religious violence, and the history of early modern memory and public opinion. Much of her research is based on chronicles, diaries, and other personal records, with newer work focusing on perceptions of time, change, novelty and innovation across longer time-spans.

Her honors include membership in the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen, and the Koninklijke Maatschappij voor Letterkunde. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK) and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, and received the Keetje Hodshon Prize for best historical dissertation.

Pollmann has successfully supervised 8 doctoral students and is currently supervising another 6. She has examined more than 50 doctoral dissertations across the Netherlands, UK, and Belgium. She has secured significant research funding, directing the NWO VICI project "Tales of the Revolt" (2008-2013), working on an NWO team project about civic identities, and leading the interdisciplinary digital humanities project "Chronicling novelty" since 2018.

She serves as honorary curator of the history section at the Rijksmuseum, is a member of the editorial Board of Past and Present, and serves on the Wissenschaftliche Beirat of the Leibniz Institute for European History. She actively engages with the public through talks, media appearances, and advisory work, including serving as main adviser for a major exhibition on the Eighty Years War at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2018.