معرفی
Dr. Devin J. Vartija is an Assistant Professor of History specializing in Political History at Utrecht University's Department of History and Art History within the Faculty of Humanities. He is affiliated with the Research Institute for History and Art History and focuses on International and Political History.
His educational background includes a PhD with distinction from Utrecht University (2018), a research master's degree cum laude in history from Utrecht University (2012), and a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the interdisciplinary Arts and Science program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Prior to his current position, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Vartija is an intellectual historian whose work centers on the complex interplay between race and equality in Enlightenment Europe. His research examines how concepts of common humanity and racial classification developed during this period, challenging simplistic views of the Enlightenment as either purely emancipatory or pernicious. He argues that the Enlightenment's significance lies in its self-reflexivity, demonstrating that our concepts for understanding the world are not fixed but historically contingent. His current projects include examining how debates on inclusion and exclusion became central to Enlightenment historiography and exploring the emotional dimensions of equality and inequality between the late Enlightenment and early French Revolution.
His publications span from 2014 to 2025, with significant growth in output after 2020. His work shows a consistent focus on Enlightenment thought, particularly examining race, equality, and the intellectual frameworks of the period through diverse lenses including encyclopedias, political theory, and social history. His scholarly output demonstrates increasing engagement with interdisciplinary approaches, connecting intellectual history with emotional history, economic history, and critical race studies.
Vartija has served as the former managing editor of the International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity published by Brill and is a board member of the Dutch-Belgian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. His research has received media attention, being featured in NRC Handelsblad and receiving interviews from De Volkskrant and NPO Radio 1.
His first book, The Color of Equality: Race and Common Humanity in Enlightenment Thought (2021, University of Pennsylvania Press), represents a systematic interrogation of strands of equality and inequality that run through Enlightenment thought. This work has established him as a significant voice in intellectual history, particularly in reconsidering the Enlightenment's complex legacy regarding race and equality.
