Michiel van Groesen

Michiel van Groesen is Professor of Maritime History at the Institute for History, Leiden University, where he leads research and teaching in maritime and colonial history. He is affiliated with the Colonial and Global History and Constructing Heritage research groups. His work bridges academic scholarship and public heritage through collaborations with institutions such as Het Scheepvaartmuseum and the Maritime Museum Rotterdam.

His research focuses on the culture of imperial expansion, particularly in the early modern Dutch Republic and the Atlantic world. Key areas include print culture, cartography, colonialism, slavery, and the politics of global interactions. He explores how information, especially news and visual media, shaped European perceptions of overseas territories and justified colonial enterprises.

His recent publications reveal a consistent interest in how printed materials—such as travel accounts, maps, newspapers, and engravings—constructed knowledge and credibility in transoceanic contexts. Themes across his work include the manipulation of narratives for religious audiences, the media-driven emergence of a 'public' Atlantic, and the environmental and cultural legacies of Dutch shipping and colonial ventures.

• NWO-Vidi Research Fellow (2014–2019)
• Queen Wilhelmina Visiting Professor, Columbia University (2013)
• Visiting Fellow, Princeton University (2019)
• NWO-Veni Research Fellow (2008–2012)
• Honorary Research Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London (2011)

He has supervised multiple PhD candidates and is involved in research projects such as 'Collecting Global Heritage' and 'Networking Heritage at Leiden University.' He teaches in MA and Research MA programs in History, Colonial and Global History, and Maritime History, contributing to the training of next-generation historians. His current book project, An Ocean of Rumours: News and Information in the Atlantic World, is under contract with Cambridge University Press.