معرفی
Dr. Elwin Hofman serves as Assistant Professor of Cultural History at Utrecht University's Faculty of Humanities within the Department of History and Art History. He holds a prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship for his project 'InterPsy,' which investigates the cultural history of criminal interrogation and the circulation of psychological knowledge across Western Europe. His academic profile spans cultural and social history from the eighteenth century to contemporary periods with specialized expertise in crime, emotions, sexuality, selfhood, and psychology.
Hofman's research interests focus on the transformation of self-conceptions through criminal justice systems, examining how legal processes shaped individual and collective identities. His work explores the emotional dimensions of historical experiences, particularly how psychological knowledge became integrated into interrogation practices from the late eighteenth century onward. He investigates these themes through Belgian criminal trial records and comparative European perspectives, revealing connections between legal procedures and broader cultural transformations.
His scholarly output demonstrates consistent engagement with interdisciplinary approaches, bridging historical methodology with insights from queer theory, emotion studies, and body history. Hofman's publications reveal a trajectory from early modern criminal justice to contemporary memory practices, with particular attention to marginalized voices and experiences. His work on confession practices, interrogation techniques, and emotional regulation in historical contexts has established him as a significant voice in European cultural history.
- Flanders Prize recipient
- Humanities Prize of the Leuven Academic Foundation awardee
- Editor of 'Jaarboek De Achttiende Eeuw'
- Editorial board member for 'The Low Countries' and 'Ons Erfdeel'
As a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow, Hofman leads the 'InterPsy' project funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe program, investigating psychological knowledge transfer in criminal interrogations across Germany, France, and the Netherlands (1880-1940). He teaches courses on the history of sexuality, emotions, and cultural theory while maintaining active public engagement through his bimonthly column in 'De Lage Landen' and editorial work on popular history volumes about Belgian homosexuality and sex work history.
