Carolien Stolte appointed visiting professor at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome
Associate Professor Carolien Stolte has been appointed visiting professor at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR). Stolte will continue her research into global peace movements there during the coming semester.
In her research, Stolte focuses on how different peace movements deal with decolonisation. Stolte: 'Peace movements are often associated with American and European groups and conscientious objection during the World Wars. In reality, there were a multitude of traditions of peace thinking around the world, which regularly led to friction in international collaborations. After all, an Indian follower of Gandhi does not necessarily have the same ideas as a Roman pacifist. Especially when it came to the theme of decolonisation, emotions could run high.’
Collaboration
In Rome, Stolte will focus on the question of how Catholic networks collaborated with the decolonising world. ‘The best way to answer that question is, of course, with the help of the Roman archives. I am therefore delighted to have them at my disposal. In addition, I am joining an existing research project at Sapienza University on the history of peace and peace thinking in Italy since Mussolini, and I am organising a conference at the KNIR with my colleague Daniele Paolini, involving Italian researchers working on the same topics. We hope this will create new collaborations.’
Stolte is looking forward to her stay at the KNIR. ‘Rome is, of course, strongly associated with ancient history, archaeology and art history. That makes it even more wonderful that there is also room for this kind of research.’