Femke Valkhoff MA

PhD candidate

E-mail: [email protected]

Area(s) of interest: Dutch History, Early Modern History, Gender, Intellectual History & History of Ideas, Urban History

Cohort/Start PhD: 2024-2025

How do Cities Make Women? Empowerment, Self-Development, and Learned Identities in the Early Modern Dutch City

Utrecht University
Promotor: Arnoud Visser, Daily supervisors: Richard Calis, Nina Geerdink
Project start date and expected end date: September 2024 – September 2028

The project How do Cities Make Women? Empowerment, Self-Development, and Learned Identities in the Early Modern Dutch City focuses on the opportunities for early modern women to develop themselves in literature, art, and science within the urban infrastructure of three Dutch cities (Utrecht, Middelburg, and Deventer). By tracing the interconnected stages of self-development, namely ‘formation’, ‘expression’, and ‘recognition’, this research investigates how urban spaces, public and private networks, and educational institutions facilitated or hindered women’s intellectual and creative ambitions. How did cities shape women’s learned identities and enable them to navigate societal constraints while contributing to cultural, intellectual, and artistic life?