Machteld Venken

Machteld Venken is a Full Professor and Chief Scientist 1 in Transnational Contemporary History (19th-20th century) at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) of the University of Luxembourg. She leads the research group 'Contemporary History of Luxembourg' and supervises multiple PhD and MA candidates in transnational history, migration, and borderland studies.

• Education: PhD (2008, KU Leuven), Habilitation (2018, University of Vienna)
• Prior Affiliations: Imre Kertesz Kolleg (Jena), Vrije Universiteit Brussels, University of Vienna, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, College of Europe, German Historical Institute Warsaw, University of Warsaw

Her research focuses on transnational European history, particularly borderlands, migration, and child welfare. She explores how shifting borders affect social policies, educational systems, and family dynamics across the 20th century. Her work combines archival analysis with digital methodologies.

Recent publications examine border temporalities, cross-border veteran welfare, and mixed economies of child care in European borderlands. Her funded projects include SocioBord, a comparative study of social politics in European borderlands from 1870s-1990s.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Polish Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education
  • Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
  • Imre Kertesz Kolleg
  • Innoviris (Belgium)
  • Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
• Teaching:
  • MA course: 'History of Cross-Border Cooperation'
  • PhD Strand Colloquium: 'Transnational History and Digital Methods'

Venken's outreach includes media appearances and podcast interviews, notably discussing her monograph 'Peripheries to the Centre: Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe' and border temporalities at the 2022 UniGR-Center for Border Studies conference.